Philadelphia Whiskey Festival
As an intern at Philadelphia magazine we’re not required to attend events. However, when I interviewed and was told I would be given the chance to volunteer at certain events I couldn’t wait! I absolutely love to attend events and contributing to the success of an event is even more appealing to me.
One of the events that came up this semester was “The Philadelphia Whiskey Festival.” An event sponsored by the Liquor Control Board and Philadelphia magazine. It was on November 15th at the Crystal Tea Room in the John Wanamaker building.
Myself along with the two Marketing interns were responsible for check in. At a quick glance, it seemed easy, just scan their ticket and give them a wristband. Not so easy. When you have such a large abundance of people pushing through the door at once, it’s very easy for the line to get backed up, as it did. We had to quickly develop a system that would be more effective than what we were doing. So, we came up with the idea to wristband everyone and then scan their ticket as they got closer to the door. This allowed for the line to move much faster and the event to begin as smoothly as possible.
Once everyone had entered the event we moved upstairs to see what our next “job” would be. There were various items being raffled off for SafeHome, an organization committed to keeping children from being homeless. I went from person to person asking if they would be interested in supporting SafeHome and explaining what the organization did. The tickets were five dollars for one or twenty dollars for five. To my surprise not only were people willing to purchase tickets, they were purchasing the five tickets for twenty dollars option.
The event ended up being very successful and everyone in attendance seemed to have a lot of fun. Although working the event wasn’t directly related to my major I was able to learn a great deal about what planning and running a successful event entails. The experience not only taught me about event planning but also how to solve issues that arise on the spot and fast. It is easy to discuss this in class but much harder when it’s actually crunch time.
All in all, I have loved my experience thus far at Philadelphia magazine. I say thus far, because they have asked me to return and intern for the spring semester and I’m looking forward to it and continuing to build relationships with the people who work at the magazine.
