As the owner and director of the popular, The High Tea Party, Alison Dean knows events. Her experience has allowed her to grow as a planner and execute events to a high level of professionalism. As the sole director of the Peppermint Group, The High Tea Party series has been specialising in annual events around major cities in Australia where women get together in a weekend of indulgence and pampering. We caught up with Alison to find out the inside scoop on her events career!
Tell us how you got into the events industry.
I did a communications degree at Uni, then fell into PR as my first job. With PR it goes without saying that you would need to be organising events such as media launches etc. I then worked for a big advertising agency called Clemenger Communications. We were always looking for events that companies would use to market their products to women! Usually we couldn’t find anything it I created it myself.
What’s your favourite part of the job?
EVENT DAY ITSELF! The satisfaction I feel when it all comes together according to all your plans and clients/exhibitors get the results they are after and the guests have a great time attending!
What’s included in your day to day activities?
Liaising with clients / exhibitors, organising all logistics with the hotel, marketing the sale of tickets
What are your biggest challenges and what's the most rewarding?
Biggest challenge is always KEEPING TO BUDGET!
The most rewarding is thinking on your feet to resolve issues / problems that ALWAYS arise on the day regardless of how planned you think you are.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to join the events industry?
It is NOT all glitz and glamour. Events are HARD WORK. You need to be dedicated and enjoy the fast pace, long hours, physical demands! Therefore you really have to love what you do.
“The High Tea Event was absolutely beautiful - everything was organised perfectly, down to the straw on the table! It was so awesome to see how an event ran on the day and what things could go wrong and how the event staff handled that. It was a full on, chaotic, but fun weekend!” - Stephanie
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