>> I am a Penn State graduate, and I was the class of 1985, and at the time it was at College
of Health, Phys Ed, and Recreation.
My degree was in commercial recreation, which was the emphasis area
to get into resorts, fitness centers.
It was recreation for a profit.
At the time, I had an advisor as I was literally doing my senior year internship who happened
to say, "Hey, you might want to check out this new, upcoming,
new profession called meeting planning," and to be honest, I really didn't understand what
that was, and I went to a resort in Florida and was in the recreation department,
but Shiseido cosmetic firm was doing a big, Corporate Olympics there,
and I got to meet the meeting planners, and at that time, I had that ah-ha moment to know
that was really what I wanted to be doing.
It was dealing with sort of adult coordination, fun programming aspects, and that started me
on my, launched sort of into that career.
I was always a planner.
When you talk too planners, they were, in elementary school,
the ones organizing the little class parties, or your very active in high school.
It's very traditional.
When you talk to other planners, it's by nature.
It comes very easily and natural for me.
Other people, I laugh within they say they get stressed out over things
or they find it very, very difficult to do.
For some reason, it's just something that works well for us.
We tease, we say all of us must have a little ADD
because you're constantly bumping around to different tasks.