Party Preparation

Hi again! Today is the last day of the week for me, so I just wanted to give an update on what I'm working on. Yesterday, I was in the warehouse pretty much all day helping Lily prepare for a dinner party that is coming up. I got to see the other part of the business, which is finding all the necessary equipment for the party, such as various dishes, forks, knives, glasses, etc. I cleaned all of them so they are ready to go when needed. I've been working on the website more, just added a bunch of new images to it! I still have some questions I need to ask Elissa before I can continue with anything. Today, I am going to be in the warehouse again so well see what I'm going to be doing. Have a good weekend =)

The Website is lookin' good!

Today was dedicated to working on the Luxury Travel and Vacations website. I added new links to the site that we have never had before and added a lot of new information to it. It is coming together very well! I still need to make some adjustments and add some more information, but hopefully it will be ready to publish soon! I am excited for people to be able to see it! I really enjoy working on the site and being creative with it. Tomorrow, I will be in the warehouse all day helping organize the billions of boxes so I'm not sure if I will get a chance to post, but hopefully I will post soon. =)

Market Research

Today was all about market research. I looked up as many travel agencies as possibly to find out which wholesalers they were advertising on their websites to see if there are any that we don't have at the moment but might want to have in the future. I also looked at these websites to see how they organized their pages, so I could make adjustments to the Luxury Travel and Vacations' website that I am currently updating. The website is looking pretty good! I still have some work ahead of me before I show Elissa, but its coming along nicely. I have some new page ideas that I am going to run by Elissa and see if she thinks we should add them to the site! I really enjoy fixing up the websites because it allows my creative side to come out! I better get back to work... I'll post again after the weekend.

Summer Cleaning

Hi again! So yesterday, Elissa took me with her to meet a potential business relation. It was awesome to see the process you need to go through to form relationships with other businesses. I was able to sit in on the meeting and listen to the interaction between Elissa and the representative. It was a great learning experience! Today has been pretty slow. We have been pretty much cleaning up the office all day: putting papers in the right files, updating perfect production binders, etc. I also have been on the phone for most of the day contacting different businesses to send us updated brochures. There's probably 500 brochures that I need to go through! I can't believe how much work goes into having a business! You never really think of the tedious things like ordering brochures..at least I'm working on my communication skills. Anyways, I'm not really sure what Elissa has in store for me for tomorrow so I will blog once I know!

Last Week's Update

Last week I was pretty busy and didn't get a chance to blog, so here is what I did! I updated The Perfect Benefit website and added to the Kickball Tournament page! Its exciting to think that people are going to view my work. I also created a flyer for a White Water Rafting trip and I was able to see the real issue with having too much "negative space," which I had only learned about in textbooks before this internship. I also helped find items in the warehouse that were needed, which was very hectic because of the recent move to our new location! I went through many travel brochures to pick out the old ones so we can update them for our customers. This week, I am going to call multiple companies to ask for up-to-date travel brochures and I am going with Elissa to speak with a customer! I am very interested to see how she interacts with customers..should be exciting! I'll post again soon about the rest of the week =)

Exploring the Event Planning World!

Hi everyone! I am happy to say that I am the new intern at Perfect Productions. My name is Gia and I am a marketing major at Quinnipiac University. Today is my first day on the job, and I already love it! I just got back from studying abroad in Australia, which was an amazing experience. I saw so many beautiful places and came in contact with a variety of animals! I rode a camel, fed elephants, and touched stingrays, which not many people can say they have experienced! Although I had an amazing time, I am very excited to start interning and get back into a routine. I have to admit that I am not very familiar with the event planning scene, but I am ready to learn all about it! Being in marketing, there are many different aspects of the major, which is why I wanted to intern at a place completely different than my last internship. Hopefully, my plan will steer me in the right direction of what I want to do after graduation, which is in a year! (Scary!) I always loved planning events for my friends and family, and I am a very organized person. So when I saw Perfect Productions was looking for interns, I was SO happy! I already got assigned to the Annual Bachelor and Bachelorette Auction and the "Hope for Heroes Charity Kickball Tournament" which I am very excited about because its an honor to work with such great charities. I better get going to update the website for the events, but I will be blogging again soon so please look out for more posts! =)

17 Days

Today I worked from home. Elissa and Amanda had to go to New Jersey so they were not going to be in the office and since there is no Internet and phones or anyone in the office I worked on my couch doing some follow up calls for date packages. Right now we have more bachelors and bachelorettes than date packages so we need to step up our game and really get out there get some dates. We got a list of tasks that we need to get in order from Elissa today so we have to make priorities at this point to get everything done. I also went out to more restaurants today and its getting more frustrating with manager in meetings or at home depot. I have to keep trying though we don't know unless we ask. I just want everything to be great and I am sure that it will be. We have to get the bachelors and bachelorettes on board to sell some tickets as well. I talked to a printing company today and hope that they will do our printing as a donation to try and keep our costs down since we have a small budget to work with. Starting to feel the stress a little bit more as we get closer to the event.

Well the office is slowly but surely coming together. I went out yesterday to try and find some printers that would possibly be able to print out some tickets and flyers for us. I didn't have much luck. But I was able to go around some more an look for date packages and was able to get a few more, every little bit helps! The event is less than 3 weeks away and there are still a bunch of tasks to get done. It is going to be a a few busy weeks coming up but I am really excited to see it all put together.

Flamingo Pink .....

Well Wednesday I did a lot of work from home considering I walked into the office and it was like walking into what Elissa calls her crayon box. We moved out of our old office and are in the process of moving into the new one. There is lots of new painting going on in the office each room is a different color. Yesterday I stopped by the new office and then headed back home so I would have access to the Internet. I was able to follow up with some more date packages and send out some more information about the event. I also spent the afternoon visiting some of the local restaurants in Middletown to get some date packages. My follow ups and visits paid off I was able to get some date packages. YAY!!!!!!! Jackie went to the Hamden area to check out some date packages and she had some great adventures and got some donations along the way. I am happy with the progress from yesterday but this event is in about 3 weeks and I still feel like there is so much to do. Its crunch time for sure!!!!!

Last week was pretty busy. Tried to follow up with some possible sponsors again and also worked on going over date packages and also narrowing down the list of things that needs to get to done and try to prioritize some of our tasks. By the end of the week we were consumed with a spare of the moment move of the office. This kinda put a hault on everything while we packed up. I never realized how much I depended on the Internet to do my work. Whether it be waiting for return emails or looking up different date info and contact information. Once we get into the new office and get settled it will not be long before the auction is here, I am getting a little anxious about some of our details that we need to still work out. Guess I get to keep the ball rolling on Wednesday when I return to the office.

Friday .... yay!!!!

Today was pretty productive. Got a bunch of great leads from Amanda and James for bachelors and bachelorettes. Hopefully we can get every spot filled for the number of participants we want. I did however manage to get through some of the bios for the bachelors and bachelorettes to post up on the website. I feel good about starting to get more applications back I am starting to feel like everything is slowly and surely coming together. Still have a bunch to do and get done but I am confident that it will all come together and be awesome. I know this post is short and sweet but that's kinda how my Friday was today.

5 Weeks and counting !!!!!

Well I spent most of the day working on getting some more sponsors. Looked through the Hartford Business Journal and sent out about another dozen or so requests for sponsorship or donations. Its very frustrating a lot of these corporations have forms that need to be filled out to ask for sponsorship. It takes a lot of time but if we can get some sponsors out of it then its worth it!!!! Also got some more applications back for bachelors, everyone seems to be interested but is spending a little too much time getting them back into us. Also got on the phone to a few people who thought we were producing a great event but are not able to give at this time. Got the emcee contract sent out to be signed so that's another item checked off the list. Right now we are only about 5 weeks away from the auction so we need to step up selling tickets in advance and we have to start dropping off flyer's and get the word out that we have the best party in town on April 16th 2011 ... so if your reading you better be there !!!!

Another busy week comes to an end ......

Well it has been another busy week at Perfect Productions. We did get back a date package on Friday to put towards the auction and a rejection letter too. Can't win them all I suppose although we would like too. Jackie and I had spent most of Friday getting in touch with many of our local larger corporations looking for sponsorship. Most of them have very strict guidelines bout giving to local charities and sponsorship. Most of the people I was able to contact we not able to give at this time which is kind of frustrating. I am hoping that we can obtain more sponsor ship from our smaller local businesses. I was able to use the constant contact system to send out a mass email blast to about 500 people. The email contained all the info about the auction, the reasons, how to be a sponsor, a bachelor or bachelorette or to buy tickets and attend the event. I am hoping this will put out some more info into the community and awareness about raising money to support the Petit Family Foundation. I am ready to start fresh on Monday, my brain is starting to feel a little fried at this time so the weekend is going to be good recovery time. Hopefully next week we can get in contact with some more people and follow up with some more that we have already contacted. Well off for now stay tuned to see how next week goes !!!!! :-)

Sponsors, Dates and Donations Oh My!!!!!

Today I was in the office just Amanda and I everyone else is gone. I started working on my campaign to get date packages for our bachelors and bachelorettes, and boy I did a lot of that. I was working of a list Jackie and I have compiled went through and sent out emails to everyone to get the word out there. Friday I plan on making follow up calls in case my emails didn't get to the correct person or if the potential donators have any questions. This took most of my day!!! Some places I had to fill out special forms for donation requests and follow up with some missing info I needed to get from The Petit Family Foundation. But on the bright side, we have started to get back some of our applications from our bachelors and bachelorettes!!! That makes me happy!!! It is harder to find bachelors and bachelorettes than I thought. But that does not mean I am giving up. I have been getting super tired though between internship, school and work it is wearing me thin and its a lot harder to manage my time but I am doing my best and trying to stay focused on all my responsibilities. Just can't wait for Spring Break to have 2 days off !!! Then before you know it we are going to be pushing the petal full force to get everything perfect!!!! Can't wait!!!!

Monday Funday!!!

Today Jackie and I went to some really great restaurants in the area looking for possible date packages. It was good to get out there and let people know what's going on, however the rain didn't make either one of us to happy. We had a glitch in one of our flyer's but were able to fix it while we were out and about thanks to the West Hartford Library. We got some really great prospects and a lot of info passed out but still waiting for some solid responses. We will probably venture out again later this week to finish off our list. In the mean time I am going to send out some emails about the event to some people who are a little out of our reach to go visit. Hopefully we will get some positive responses and keep moving from there. I also finally heard back from one of our vendors about some price details we needed. So now Jackie and I can make a decision on what we want to order and get that also checked off our list. This morning I was also able to get our press release sent out ....... another item off the list but this date seems to be creeping up on us!!!

Has it really 10 days since my last post? My, time is flying by! Since I last posted an update, a lot has gone on. Adrienne and I compiled a list of potential date packages. Our ideas range from dinner dates, to mini golf outings, bowling, "day-cations", and even race car driving lessons! We hope to be able to get in contact with these companies within the next week so we can start lining up packages for the auction. All of the companies are from the local area, making it convenient for the winners of the date package to actually go on the date.
Along with the date packages, we've also been sending out application to potential bachelors and bachelorettes. We've been advertising our hunt for bachelors and bachelorettes on Facebook through our personal pages as well as Perfect Production and Fernando Fish's pages. We've also talked to friends and those we feel would be interested in the program and sent out applications to those interested.
Adrienne and I have also finally come up with an idea for the auction paddles! Originally we were thinking about making a bow tie or a pair of nerdy looking glasses to go along with the picture we chose for this year's event but eventually decided to stick with the date theme. For our design, we chose a white heart with a pair of red lips coming off one side with the number of the paddle on the other side. These paddles will be double sided so there's no need to worry about the numbers not being able to be seen during the auction. Adrienne and I decided we are going to make them as we go so we do not end up having to make a bunch of them as the big day approaches.
Also, we finally got the Perfect Benefit's website up and running! Check it out for more information about the auction as well as the upcoming kickball tournement. Happy Surfing!!

Auction Paddles.... Check !!!

Well Jackie and I put our brains together and came up with a great design for our auction paddles. We wanted to do this early because we have to make at least 100 of them. This way when we have some down time we can work on them between projects. Also our efforts with our Vegas themed party were not put to waste. We were able to use the decor we put together for a "Surprise" birthday party held at Zen Bar over the weekend. Jackie and I weren't able to make it because of some previous plans we had but heard the party was a good time had by all. I am still working on getting some more date packages and hopefully will be able to make some calls on Wednesday and get the ball rolling and hopefully get some great date packages. Still a bunch of details to finish up I am hoping to get some more information on food prices as well as some paper goods. Just another busy and productive day at perfect productions. Gotta get going on this I know before we know it the auction is gonna be here and Jackie and I both want everything in place so we can enjoy the event as much as everyone else will!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!!

Well we are certainly getting our share of work lately! There is so much to do getting ready for the Bachelor/Bachelorette auction. We have been working on finding bachelors and bachelorettes and today Jackie and I had to start coming up with date packages to go along with the bachelors and bachelorettes. We came up with a really great list of of things to do and places to go. I am sure that the date packages are gonna go over really well. Starting on Monday Jackie and I are going on a road trip and we are gonna go collect us some donations to make this an awesome event. We are also looking for some great sponsors for our event. We really want to make our donation to the Petit Family Foundation the most important goal. Whenever I get frustrated I have to think that this is a great opportunity to give to an awesome charity and it makes it a little easier to push through all this work. There's a lot to do but I am sure the efforts will be worth it!!!!

We have also been working on a mock Vegas themed party. Coming up with center pieces and decorations that would make any Vegas goer feel right at home. We really personalized it which made it a little more time consuming but worth it! Besides its all about the details right!!!???

My, my time sure does fly! I'm already on my 4th week of my internship with Perfect Productions and it honestly feels like I just started a week ago. So far things are going great! Adrienne and I have just about finished all of the paperwork and the tedious parts of planning so we are about to start recruiting people for donations, sponsorships, and to be auctioned! We've already found a handful of people interested in being auctioned off but we would love to have more.

On Friday, I started going through last year's auction book and looked through the call log to see who they contacted last year about the auction. I was able to compile a decent sized list about possible date package donors. I also started getting more ideas about the type of companies we should look into for date packages. Now that the flyer is just about done as is the save the date, we can really start to promote the event. As of now, tickets are $35 if you buy them in advance and $40 if you buy them at the door. (If anyone is interested, don't forget you can reach me at jaclyn@perfectprod.com.) Hopefully, we will soon have the website for the Perfect Benefit running. When it is finally running, you can access the site and information about the event by visiting http://www.theperfectbenefit.org.

Check back soon for updates!

I must start off by saying I love the opportunities Elissa and Amanda offer me and Adrienne while interning for them. On Friday, they gave us the opportunity to plan a mock party to give us the experience of choosing decorations and planning out the details. Adrienne and I decided on the classic Las Vegas theme and came up with a slew of decorations we could have used if we were actually carrying out the party.

Between Friday and Monday, we spent the days specifying each detail of the "event" and even look through the back storage to see what we could use from the back, to cut back on the budget. We found a bunch of Vegas themed decorations, from cards to red and silver shred, and even little glass boxes which could be used for dice. I was introduced to a wonderful tool, the Cricut. This device is able to cut out various shapes, as long as you have the proper cartridge, making cutting out letters virtually effortless and flawless. After looking at everything we had, Adrienne and I began brainstorming what we could create.

At the end everything, we came up with the idea of creating red and white dice of different sizes and stacking them for the main decoration. We also found these large cards in the back that we thought would look great coming out of the top of the dice towers. To give the dice a little more Vegas feel, we thought it would be a good idea to have a few big poker chips on the tower. For the center pieces, we thought doing little black and red dice with small cards coming out the top, filled with dice, would be a nice continuation for the Vegas theme. Finally, just for decorations around the room, we thought sticking the larger cards out of big red tins we found in the back, covered in red or silver shred would be great.

Amanda and Elissa both loved our ideas and thought we were on the right track when planning decorations. Maybe, if someone comes in for asking for a Vegas themed party, Adrienne and I have given Perfect Productions a great head start on the decorations!