Xperience

When my application for work experience at Trinity Event Solutions was accepted, I was unsure of what to expect and what I would be doing for the two weeks that I would be there. I had never experienced working in an office environment before and also away from home, I knew it would be hard and I was very anxious about this experience. However, since day one at Trinity, I felt it was a home from home, everyone was so lovely and helpful, I felt so welcomed and I began to wonder why I was ever nervous in the first place. From previous work experiences, it was all just watching people do their job and making teas, however at Trinity you are able to do the job after a few days of work shadowing, which is what I feel made this experience extremely rewarding and worthwhile.

On the first morning, I was introduced to Zoe - my mentor – and we set a number of key objectives that I wanted to focus on, and I wrote a list of my own objectives that I wanted to get out of this experience, so we could get to work straight away and target these key aims. I think that this was an important way of getting the most out of my time here. I was also shown around the office and briefed about the values of the company, what service they provide and many other rules and regulations such as breaks, work, and phone policy. The rest of my first day and then all of my second day consisted of work shadowing people in different departments of the office and understanding what their role is within the company.

During the first week of my time at Trinity I focused on accounts, as I have a keen interest in maths so I wished to explore on what being an Accountant entails. I particularly enjoyed this as I learnt many new skills and how maths is applied in real life situations. I was given a lot of responsibility within the department which was an amazing experience. I emailed hotels enquiring them to send over the Invoice of a recent event our clients held with them. This was very helpful as I knew how to deal with collecting, filing and sorting files. Also I called hotels to chase them to send over the invoices. This particularly was a very enjoyable experience, as I manage to get a real taster of the work this company does and also to get a personal experience of this really made me feel part of the company.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the Lunch & Learns, this is when venues’ representatives visit the office to talk to us about what they can offer to an event organiser and why we should put them forward to our clients. This was very interesting and you do learn a lot about different hotels and it helped be understand what makes a really good presentation and how you can really sell yourself.

When I arrived a new bonus structure had just been put in place, which was very interesting to see how to motivate a company to meet the end of year targets. Just shows how a small bag of Malteasers goes a long way!

Using the training headset meant I was able to listen in on many telephone calls to clients and venues to see how the company go about their work. I enjoyed that a lot, especially calls to international hotels to learn how they work and also how language barriers can be present and resolved with a little patience. I very much enjoyed venue finding, as researching the venues was really interesting.

In my second week, I was set with a task of researching options and writing two reports for the annual company conference and also the Christmas Party. This involved creative thinking, to make a plan for the event that incorporated the preferred themes. I then had to present them to senior members of the team, which greatly built my confidence within a working environment. This was an outstanding experience as I was very much contributing to the company and I feel this will give me good preparation, knowledge and confidence for any future presentations.

Over my time at Trinity I have learned many skills that will be very helpful and useful in all areas of work, not just the event industry. For example, simple skills like answering the phone and knowing how to deal with clients and suppliers is important to all businesses. I have been using programmes, such as Excel and also learning the importance of punctuality and commitment to work.

Overall the top thing about working in Trinity Event Solutions is the people. Each and every single one of them is amazing, so very helpful, incredibly friendly and hardworking people. Each person is different but yet everybody works together in harmony to create a lovely atmosphere which makes it easy to settle in and feel very welcomed and comfortable in the office. I believe it is this remarkable group of people that makes Trinity what it is. They all enjoy working for this company and so it’s no doubt that the service they provide is of such high quality.

I am eternally grateful and feel very humbled to have been part of such an outstanding team and I would like to thank everybody at Trinity for letting me have this great experience which was wonderful.

Adam's learning
When my application for work experience at Trinity was accepted, I had no idea what to expect and what I was going to be doing. From talking to other people about their experience of work experience in other companies it was just making tea and sitting around bored. This is not the case at Trinity. For two weeks I always had something to do, and I think it is for this reason I’ve had such a good experience.

Usually one of the biggest challenges for people doing their work experience is settling in. However, from the first day I felt very comfortable. On the first morning we sat down and discussed what we wanted to achieve in the following two weeks and we set a number of key objectives that I wanted to particularly focus on. I think this was a really important way of helping me to get the most out of my time here. I was also informed about the history of the company, what sort of product they provide, what the values of the company are, the structure of the company and various other rules and regulations e.g. hours of work, dress, breaks, toilets and food & drink. Knowing all these things helped me to settle in and feel comfortable in the office, which is important if you’re going to be working there for two week. The rest of my first day was consisted of sitting down with each of the groups in the office and given a brief overview of what they did. At the end of every day we had a review on what I learned and what I did.

When I arrived it was a ‘focus week’, which is when the company has training courses and basically as it says focuses on making themselves better at what they do. One of the things I liked about focus weeks is the training courses and I took part in two of these. One of these was a social media training course. During the course we were familiarized with the company blog and learnt what type of things that would be suitable for the blog and how to publish blogs. I felt this was a great experience as blog writing is now a very big part of communicating. I believe this experience will help me in the future. Contract training was another training that was provided, understanding the different languages and jargon used in contract is something that will help in any job, no matter where I am working.

Another thing that I enjoyed most was using the training headset to listen in on some of the telephone calls and just understand what they were talking about. This helped me learn what some of the phrases that they used meant. Everybody was very helpful in answering my questions and if I got lost they would explain things to me and make sure I understood everything. Another thing I enjoyed was researching different conference destinations. One of my tasks was to do a case study on a popular conference destination. I really enjoyed reading about the history of the hotels and how important they are to today’s world. Lunch & Learns are another very enjoyable part of working here, which is when hotels come to the office and come and talk to us about their properties, what they can offer to an event organiser and why we should use them. This is very interesting and you do learn a lot about the different hotels. The great thing about it is that the hotels provide lunch and we have it while listening to them talk about their hotels!

Over my time at Trinity I have learned many skills that will be useful in all areas of work not just the conference and meeting industry. For example simple skills like answering the phone and knowing how an office works is a skill that a lot of people look for and one that a lot of people don’t have. I have also been using things like Excel and Word that are very important in a work environment.

Overall the best thing about working here is the people. Everybody is incredibly friendly and helpful. Each person is different and everybody works together to help create an amazing atmosphere which makes it incredibly easy to settle in and feel comfortable in the office. I believe it is this atmosphere that makes Trinity what it is. People enjoy working here and I believe this is why the service they provide is of such a high quality. I feel grateful to have been part of such a wonderful team and for this I would like to thank everybody at Trinity for letting me have this great experience.

Trinity's experience plan for Adam
Adam Mcloughlin came to Trinity during January 2015 and prior to his arrival we planned a full programme for his two weeks with us. On Adam’s first day, he was introduced to the teams and given a general overview of the business. His objectives were discussed and were outlined as follows:

• To learn how an office runs from day to day
• Gain a better understanding of the events industry
• Develop more confidence in a working environment

His two week programme included: time spent shadowing the various teams, learning what they do and getting involved with some of their day to day tasks; using the training headset to enable him to listen into calls and help the teams search for suitable venues according to the clients brief; attending training courses (Social Media & Blogging and Contracts) that were scheduled in for that period; joining in on hotel presentations; research on a popular conference destination; writing blogs and time out of the office visiting venues. All of the teams were briefed and were aware of Adams arrival, they were able to facilitate his movement around the business from team to training to project and back again. We managed his time through the use of his programme and daily meetings to check that he was happy and clear with what he was doing. He was also able to manage his own time when given a task to carry out independently.

It was important for us to ensure that Adam was given the support he needed to gain a better understanding of the ‘world of work’ and give him the encouragement to feel confident about the education to work transition – whenever that may be for Adam.

We are happy that we gave Adam a really good all round experience. It was a pleasure to have Adam as part of the Trinity Team, he fitted in very well whilst he was here and his confidence grew throughout the 2 weeks.