NACE is excited to introduce you to one of our newest members, Justine Fronzaglia! Justine works for Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor as their Event Sales Manager & Wedding Specialist and is now thrilled to get to know all of our NACE members. Before our next meeting we thought it would be nice for us to get to know Justine a bit more! Justine was a part of DECA in high school and was able to attend their International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, CA where she attended workshops & networking events to educate herself on how to advance her business skills & career to the next level. It was this major event that is what sparked Justine’s interest in working in the events industry. She has now been in the events industry for seven years, beginning to dive into the field at Endicott College. She got her first internship freshman year at a catering company for a corporate office in downtown Boston. From there, she has worked or interned for 8 different hospitality companies, everything from a winery to working for the Boston Bruins! Justine then became part of the Hyatt Hotel family, starting her career of 4 years with Hyatt to date at Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor. She began as a Front Desk Agent and quickly transitioned to the Events & Sales Department as a Catering Coordinator. During this position of about two years (& two complete wedding seasons) Justine fell in love with weddings & all other social events. After two years as a Coordinator, Justine left Hyatt for one year to work at Boston Metro Market for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in their Catering Sales Department. She just recently became Event Sales Manager back at Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor! Justine has a selling market for social events, corporate meetings and events plus weddings at Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor. She loves her job and has learned that balancing between the three different markets is a challenge as their expectations & requests are always very different. Justine states, “If you really love your job and location, you can really sell to anyone! I love meeting clients or wedding couples and walking them through their visions of their wedding day and what we can do to make their dream a reality. I have a great team [at Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor], and we all become friends with our couples so it makes it a really fun planning process.” Justine’s wedding couples are what make the job fun! In her down time, Justine visits her parents on weekends at their lake house near the Cape – she loves to be out on their boats. She is also engaged, and spends her free time planning her own wedding. When speaking with her couples Justine can really connect, as she knows exactly what it means to be a bride! Justine is excited to join New England NACE because it will give her a chance to meet and connect with her fellow industry colleagues. She looks forward “to be able to talk about future trends and challenges in today’s industry and to learn about all of the different hospitality companies we have in Boston and how we can all work together.” Justine also told us that “having colleagues or friends who know what you go through on a daily basis, definitely helps” and we at NACE cannot be more thrilled to welcome her into our community. Make sure you look out for Justine at the next NACE meeting, and get to know her even more! We at NACE would love to hear from you. In the comments below, let us know if you have any warm welcomes or questions for one of our newest members, Justine Fronzaglia. Thank you for sharing!
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On Tuesday April 4th New England NACE hosted its annual Wine Dinner Gala at Lombardo’s Vincent Night Club; the fun and swanky dance area apart from its more formal ballrooms. Thanks to J Barry Designs & The Perfect Setting, the room was set with an elegant mix of round tables as well as an exciting use of a high bar table overlooking the stage. Centered on the tables were beautifully unique floral designs surrounded by sparkling linen & hot pink napkins featuring a beautiful menu card customized by Lynn Graham of Lynn Graham Designs & NENACE Director of Hospitality. As guests arrived they were greeted with music, photobooth & lighting by Entertainment Specialists - the mood fun as bidding began for the silent auction. The top two auction items featured were an ad for Boston Magazine & a private Dinner Experience at Catalyst Restaurant for 6 – we had other great auction items including nights on the town and photo shoots along with other generous donations. All in all, NACE is proud to announce that the auction & dinner raised enough money to offer Rescuing Leftover Cuisine with a check for $3,000.00! For those who don’t know, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine lives to “tackle food waste at its root, aiming to eliminate as much food waste as possible and bringing the remaining excess food to where it is needed most.” This issue is close to the heart for many of our NACE members along with many other industry members in our New England community and on top of utilizing the Rescuing Leftover Cusine services as much as possible we as NACE members are thrilled to be able to give back to a company with such amazing values. Once the auction closed, members were seated and able to enjoy four courses of Lombardo’s amazing culinary creations while hearing about which wines paired with each course and why. Gateway Productions displayed presentations & awards with the audience delighting first in fake awards – for example, George Horemiotis of SH Videography & NENACE Membership Co-Chair taking home the win for Best DJ Wannabe. Following, laughs went to cheers for many amazing real awards given out, including NACE New England 2016 Member of the Year Award going to Binita Patel of Binita Patel Photography & NENACE Director of Social Media. Our Wine Dinner capped off with delicious favors from Mama Kiss and tunes from Entertainment Specialists’ World Premiere Band. And the night wouldn’t have been complete without a Happy Birthday song to our favorite EMCEE of the Wine Dinner, birthday boy John Zucco of Entertainment Specialists & Secretary for NENACE. Thank you to Shawn Black of Sean Black Photography & NACE Newsletter Chair for his amazing photography and Eric Boateng of Boateng Films for capturing the fun on video for all to enjoy! If you missed the New England NACE Annual Wine Dinner this year we hope to see you next year for another exciting, engaging and charitable evening! We at NACE would love to hear from you. In the comments below, let us know if you have any questions about or other fun stories from our Annual Wine Dinner. Thank you for sharing!
Sunday our NACE members had a ball on Boston Common’s Softball field playing the fierce competitors from ILEA on a day without a cloud in the sky. Spirits were high as everyone arrived to the field with their friends, family members and puppies. Although NACE may have lost again this year to our rivals (who brought some very athletic looking friends to play), we scored numerous times and had some pretty spectacular moments along the way. MVP of the game was Kristin O`Connor of Capers – VP of Membership, rocking it as 2nd base. Play of the game was made by Jim, the husband of our VP of Communications Ashley Gambee of WeddingWire. Not only did he hop over the outfield fence, he somehow managed to catch the well hit ball! Other phenomenal players included but aren’t limited to Michelle Dieppa of Entertainment Specialists - Program Co-Chair, Bill DiOrio of Sound City Entertainment – Hospitality Co-Chair, Tom Kraig of Felicia’s Perfect Setting, & Michelle Reid of Granite Links - Treasurer. Elizabeth Gemelli, Justice of the Peace, made an outstanding catch as well! So many other NACE members made the game interesting not only to our team and NACE spectators but also to numerous bystanders drawn in from the Boston Common. The man who made the day an even bigger success was our host with the most, DJ John Zucco, EMCEE extraordinaire who gave us play by plays throughout the game alongside with music and a hilariously outstanding comedy routine focused mostly on the opposing team members of course. And we also couldn’t have made it through the day without our awesome food sponsor Perfect Parties who served cotton candy and snow cones out of a larger than life blowup food stand. If you weren’t at the Boston Common yesterday to play or rally on our NACE team members, now you know that next year it will be the place to be, so don’t miss out! And next time you see one of our amazing players, ask them about some other noteworthy plays throughout the game. We at NACE would love to hear from you. In the comments below, let us know if you have any inspiring stores about our amazing NACE softball players. Thank you for sharing!
March 8th marks the day of celebration for International Women’s Day. It is a day to honor and speak out about the importance of equality, and there are many ways to do it – from striking, to wearing red, making phone calls to representatives, or spending money only at women-owned businesses, we come together in solidarity today and most importantly every day. International Women’s Day is about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action – whatever that looks like at any level. At NACE we have countless fierce, fun and fabulous females who inspire us on a daily basis. We pride ourselves on binding together as a NACE community to build each other up, assist each other in times of need, learn and grow from each other, and to have a lot of fun along the way. Ellen DeGeneres has said, “Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are.” Our NACE members are just that – strong and accepting of themselves and each other. Today we want to show our support for International Women’s Day by celebrating all of our amazing female NACE members. Thank you for all that you do, the unity that brings us all together, and also for all of the support from our male members who believe in us as our female members believe in them. As Gloria Steinem has said, “A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men,” and all of our NACE members shine through on a daily basis in recognizing the importance of us all. Let’s take today to celebrate each other. Here are some great photos of just a few of our abundant fantastic female members. We at NACE would love to hear from you. In the comments below, let us know if you have any inspiring stores about our amazing NACE women members. Thank you for sharing!
Dear NENACE members,
It's time for the New England Chapter Awards to recognize your outstanding fellow members for their great work in 2016! We will recognize Catered Event of the Year (on-premise), Catered Event of the Year (off-premise), Wedding of the Year, the Clyde McCarthy Spirit of NACE, and the Member of the Year. The criteria and instructions for submission are found in the attached documents. All submissions are due by March 22, 2017. Please reach out to Lyndsay Picciano, New England NACE Awards Chair, at [email protected] with any questions. We look forward to receiving your submissions. Good luck! Catered Event of the Year (on-premise) (Word doc) Catered Event of the Year (on-premise) (.pdf) Catered Event of the Year (off-premise) (Word doc) Catered Event of the Year (off-premise) (.pdf) Wedding of the Year (Word doc) Wedding of the Year (.pdf) Clyde McCarthy Spirit of NACE (Word doc) Clyde McCarthy Spirit of NACE (.pdf) Member of the Year (Word doc) Member of the Year (.pdf) NACE is extremely excited to introduce to you our new President Maria Panaggio-Phillips! We asked Maria a bit about her journey through the events industry, how she stays organized to get through all of life’s responsibilities and more. Enjoy getting to know her! Maria was born and raised in Argentina and started in photography by taking classes in high school, falling in love being behind the camera. Now, she has been in the events industry for over 15 years and is excited to practice her passion taking photographs all over the world side-by-side with the love of her life, Brian Phillips, with their co-owned photography company Brian Phillips Photography. Starting off helping Brian with the business portion of a growing photography company Maria grew to love photography even more and decided to become more involved. Although Maria rarely shoots alone, she finds it fun to work alongside her husband assisting him. Maria says the best thing about them working together is “that we can be honest with each other and that we have each other’s best interest at hand.” On the flip side, it can also be stressful at times. “When I first started shooting he was an amazing teacher but also a tough critic. Brutally honest so I learned quickly, but that’s a plus.” Maria and Brian have photographed events worldwide including New York bridal runway shows, Fashion week, and numerous editorial assignments including one from Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine and more. We asked Maria which events she likes to shoot the most. “I am a sucker for weddings. I often tear up behind the lens during a first look…or when a bride is walking down the aisle. The most amazing wedding we shot was in a castle in Scotland. Truly a fairytale wedding!” Not only does Maria spend her time behind the lens shooting brilliant images far and wide, she also has a full time job with Tufts Health Plan, co-owns and runs their business Brian Phillips Photography, is the President of NACE, a spectacular mother AND on her kid’s PTO board at school! When we asked her how she does it all she responded, “I have lots of lists and share a calendar with Brian for both our business and personal lives. Did I mention I like organizing? I have a great pin board with all the kids activities, homework, parties, etc. all organized. [Also] did I mention I drink wine?” All joking aside, Maria is a true NACE rockstar. Maria initially joined NACE to network and to grow her business. She has thrived becoming a NACE Board Member and now President. What is her favorite benefit of NACE? The friendships. “I have been able to call on friends during times that we have needed them to help photograph and it was much easier because they were friends. I would do the same for them in a time of need. [At NACE] you really get to know people and can leverage their experiences, fails and success and can apply to your own career/business. You can never network too much.” We asked Maria what was one important message that she wanted to get out to her fellow NACE members and she responded “I want people to come to NACE to learn and grow not just professionally but personally. I am always open to chatting with people and answering any questions about anything. We have an amazing board and I think I speak for them too when I say to please approach us and introduce yourself if we don’t already know you.” At your next NACE meeting, make sure you introduce yourself to Maria, ask her more, and congratulate her on her new role as our President. We at NACE would love to hear from you. In the comments below, let us know if you have any questions for Maria. Thank you for sharing!
It’s January: A time for renewal and change! But let’s not talk about hitting the gym or cutting calories (never!!). Rather, let’s talk about how we can work smarter, not harder, in this New Year to hopefully free up some time to do more of what we want and what makes us happy. Make time for that yoga class, to enjoy a glass of wine and catch up on your favorite shows, or even more importantly – to see family & friends who you might’ve lost touch with throughout the busy season. It’s time to feel more accomplished and less stressed on a daily basis. In speaking with a few of our very own New England NACE members, everyone can agree that one of the keys to daily success is your TO DO LIST! Michelle Reid (Director of Sales & Catering at The Tavern at Quarry Hills & Granite Links Gold Club, NE NACE Past President and 2017-2018 NE NACE Treasurer) communicated, “I always make my list for the next day before I leave work each night. This allows me to leave work knowing what is on my plate the next day, which alleviates stress. It also allows me to hit the ground running each morning without having to waste time planning my work day.” Wonderful! To take Michelle’s advice one step further, Jeri Solomon (Owner of Jeri Solomon Floral Design) shared a tip that she learned from Alan Berg during a training seminar at WeddingWire. Instead of creating what feels like one never-ending TO DO LIST composed of all of your short-term and long-term projects, Jeri separates them into two: the TO DO LIST and the “TO-DAY” list. She says the TO-DAY LIST helps her feel amazing about checking everything off the list each day. She keeps her TO DO LIST for more long-term items. Some examples: To-Day List: To-Do List: Write up & send out contracts Design a plan for more social media interaction Pay bills Redesign the website Respond to all leads Wedding Welcome Packet for booked couples “Like” this blog post J Finalize budgeting & goals for 2017 Sign up for next month’s NACE meeting Become a NACE Board Member Looking at the lists separately, they’re not so bad. But put them together and you’ll only accomplish no more than ½ of your goals every day - definitely not something to keep you motivated or feeling great about your progress. Jeri said “when I put those two lists together I would always feel like “I failed” at the end of the day because not everything was checked off. Now with the two lists side by side, I can keep track of the big projects.” When you create your lists you can keep in mind that things on your TO-DAY list can be smaller tasks that are achievable, ones that work towards your TO DO LIST goals. You can even break down your TO DO LIST items with their own steps and move each individual task over to the TO-DAY list as you are ready. What a great tool to get started with organizing for 2017! These lists will help you to feel less stressed and overwhelmed on a daily basis which will improve not just your work life but your overall health and well-being. So stop looking at Instagram, put down your phone altogether and start making your lists. And don’t forget Michelle’s advice – at the end of each business day take a few minutes you set your list up for the next day and set yourself up for success! You won’t be disappointed. In fact, you’ll get a lot more “me” time while also feeling far more productive each day than you did last year. Enjoy! We at NACE would love to hear from you. In the comments below, let me know how you’d answer, “How do you work smarter, not harder?” Thank you for sharing!
The New England Chapter Won the Chapter Excellence Award at the Experience 2016! Conference for recruiting most members in 2015!
We had a great time playing softball with ILEA this past week. We had delicious food trucks including Stoked Pizza Company and Ice Cream Truck Events.
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Here you will find current info on the New England Chapter, Trends and more!! CONTACT US to submit articles or info you would like us to share.
ABOUT OUR BLOGGER:
Ashley Kirouac has been an Event Sales Manager at Hyatt Regency Cambridge for three years, primarily selling and planning weddings along with other social events. She won Manager of the Year and was one of 100 Hyatt Hyachievers in Event Sales & Planning for 2016. A NACE member for 1 year, Ashley is now a proud Social Media Committee Member for NACE and enjoys blogging by uncovering knowledge and experiences from other NACE members. When not working she enjoys traveling and spending time with her friends and family. Contact Ashley with ideas for upcoming blog posts! Archives
February 2018
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