The official free venue-finding service for the University of Cambridge, the Colleges and other unique venues in and around the city, brokered the idea of giving a student the chance to work with an in-house team over the Summer and there was very positive take-up.
Kelly Vickers, Managing Director of Conference Cambridge said: “We have offered a student the opportunity to work in our office for the last few Summers and have seen for ourselves the benefits it brings – both to the student and to the organisation. Not only did our interns get valuable work experience, they also brought a fresh approach to some of the things we do.
“So we decided to offer the concept to our portfolio of venues and we were able to help place a number of people all studying event management in some way or other. The results have been terrific for all concerned.”
Camille Lemaire worked as a Conference & Events Coordinator Intern at Gonville & Caius College before returning to the International University of Monaco to complete the last year of her degree in Communication and Entertainment Management.
“My internship to give me the opportunity to experience different events as well as clarifying what I want to do as a career,” she says. “The thing I enjoyed most was the contact with clients and the organisational aspect of the role – for instance it was a pleasure to see an email inbox empty when my colleague and I could respond to all the queries during the day. It was really satisfying to see our clients pleased! My internship definitely gave me the chance to see what I had learned during my course translated into practice which helped me to understand it better.”
Miriam Hackett joined the Events & Conference Department team at Selwyn College which was a perfect complement to her Events Management course which she is currently studying in Ipswich.
“Doing this internship made me realise that I chose the right course for me at university and that’s the career I want,” says Miriam. “I really enjoyed getting to grips with all the planning that goes into events, as well as meeting all the lovely members of the team who were so supportive.”
Isabelle Raywood spent the Summer at The Cambridge Dining Company as an Event Intern, putting her degree in Events Management from Bournemouth University to practical use.
“The internship gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge of the events industry as I worked at different venues in and around Cambridge”, she says. “It also expanded my skill base and gave me the knowledge and confidence to carry out a range of tasks including being in charge of a team for the first time which was challenging at first. Overall I learned the importance of having good people skills and also the significance of paying attention to minor details - a wedding is often the biggest day of someone’s life and it was my responsibility to ensure everything ran as smoothly as it possibly could.”
Zoe Rogers (pictured), who had just completed her Events & Leisure Management degree at Sheffield Hallam University, worked at Conference Cambridge as an Events Executive for four days each week and as a Sales & Marketing intern for one day at Robinson College.
She says: “One of the things I enjoyed most about my internship was experiencing Cambridge which is a city like no other and I was so lucky to spend the Summer here. My time here certainly gave me a chance to develop my skills further and see events from an organiser’s perspective.”
Kelly concludes: “This was a very rewarding project. Not only was the feedback from the students themselves so positive, the venues were equally enthusiastic about the contribution the interns had made; this could be a real advantage for them when it came to applying for jobs in the future.”
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