Working over five years in the sport travel industry, I’ve experienced some extraordinary sporting events, venues, and cities around the country. Win or lose (or tie!), I have worked alongside wonderful clients, partners, and peers who challenged me in the best possible ways and trusted me to provide well executed events and travel opportunities.
In 2018, I took the first step in achieving a long-term goal and transitioned to the non-profit sector. Wounded Warrior Project is an organization I have followed for years, commending the programs and resources they provide to our country’s service members and their families who have incurred a physical or mental injury while serving on or after September 11, 2001. I am very excited to be working with the organization as a member of the Travel & Events team.
Highlights
Wounded Warrior Project
WWP offers a range of programs to registered alumni including Combat Stress Recovery, Physical Health & Wellness, Soldier Ride, and Engagement events. As a member of the Travel & Events team, I partner with program teammates to coordinate the logistics components of their event. Focusing on the central region, I facilitate continuous communication across WWP departments to ensure high levels of satisfaction while developing, negotiating, and implementing efficient event and meeting logistics management and policies, including travel and accommodations.
Inaugural College Football Playoff
In 2014, I joined a few seasoned professionals in a new company startup, Sports & Entertainment Travel (SET). We were fortunate to pick up a few big University clients right off the bat, two of which were the University of Oregon Alumni Association and The Ohio State University Alumni Association. 2014 became an even bigger year for SET when Oregon and Ohio State were two of the four teams selected for the inaugural college football playoff and as luck would have it, both teams won their playoff games! While it was a whirlwind week between the playoff and Championship game learning on the fly, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity unfold any other way.
Professional Sporting Events
Over the years, we found out that the University alumni and fans we were traveling to cheer on their football and basketball teams had a lot of interest in attending bucket list professional sporting events as well. We began offering travel packages to events including the Kentucky Derby, the Masters, and US Open Tennis and they were a hit! I fine-tuned the tours every year, catering the trips to the alumni demographic and they became tremendously popular. These were some of my favorites events. Not only could I learn from what highly successful professional sporting events were doing, but I got to have some fun putting together all of the tour components, creating a product that the travelers really enjoyed.
Baltic Marvels Cruise
One of our partners at Sports & Entertainment Travel, Florida State University’s Seminole Booster Club, inquired about options for their next adventure and settled upon cruising the Baltic Sea. I had never even been on a cruise before so when my boss asked me to be the event manager for the trip, I found the task a bit daunting but was up for the challenge nonetheless. Over a two year span, we managed reservations for the cruise which included cabin categories, dining reservations, excursions, airfare, transfers, pre and post extension packages in the port cities, and more for 250 guests, University VIP, and staff. This tour took my logistics skills and attention to detail to another level and the cherry on top was a generous opportunity to attend the trip!