How’d you end up in hospitality and what brings you to the meeting and events world today?
Ashlee: Yeah, well I got my start about 15 years ago in hospitality and hotels where I met my current mentor. She pushed me and made me the amazing queen of sales that I am today. I have been in sales for so long and I love tourism. It’s such a fun industry. You still get to help people, which is kind of my passion. You get to people find their perfect wedding venue or making sure that their corporate event goes perfectly and they get to do some new fun things, it’s really, really rewarding.
How about you Katie?
Katie: I started with a CVB, it’s like destination marketing organization. About six years ago I started with discover St. Louis Park now I’ve been at Minneapolis Northwest for about a year. You get to work with a lot of great planners. You get to go out a lot. You get to travel, which is great.
What are some beginner tips for keeping your head right?
Ashlee: Well, I think one of the hardest things to do is to focus on yourself and the health aspect of traveling and all the stress that comes with it. You’re at a show and food is pretty much everywhere. You have late nights, you have dinners and lunches and all this stuff. Prioritizing good choices is always a really big challenge because there is so much food around you all the time. It’s convenient.
Katie: Yes, and open bars.
Ashlee: So I have a trick for this. This is my travel trick at trade shows. You get the first drink, you order it with everybody else and you get your vodka soda with lime. Perfect. I’m drinking with everybody else. Then as the night progresses, you just go straight to the bar and you tell the bartender I need some club soda and a lime. Same glass. Cause they’ll always give you like a soda glass and then everyone knows. Best way to like maintain cause you still are on, you’re still working.But you’re not that person that’s always like, no thanks. No thanks. And then people are like, you’re no fun.
What other things do you have that are really good tricks to keep your mind right?
Katie: One thing that I try to do when I travel is to get outside, get outdoors, and try to explore the area. A lot of times we travel to places that we’ve never been and so we don’t know what’s around us. And so one of the things that I do is I try to look for the local CVB like us, go on their website and try to find things to do around the area. Another thing that I use when I travel is apps. One of the apps that I use is called the outbound, and the hiking project, and there’s also the MTB project. Some of the apps just populate where you’re located and then they’ll tell you some of the trails that are located right around you so you can just get outside.
Ashlee: If those aren’t available, if your schedule is super packed then the best thing you can do is just try to find some water, like a little body of water. It could be a Lake, it could be a river, a stream, it could be a fountain. It’s scientifically proven that the more you’re around water, the more calming it is you can almost breathe deeper when you’re around water. So that’s my favorite thing too.
What other good ideas?
Ashlee: My favorite is organization. Prioritizing. When you’re focused so much on other things or other people or whatever’s going on, then you have to be in it all the time. That’s stressful. That’s putting a lot on yourself.
You have hydrate on your list, tell me about that.
Ashlee: It’s so important. When you’re traveling and just being on flights and being in a hotel room, you don’t have your water bottle with you all the time maybe. It’s important to always bring your water bottle. You’re gonna feel better and then don’t get puffy
I’ve a number of shows going on out of state at convention centers and hotels for seven days at a time and eating restaurant food straight for that long. Do you have any tips on how to avoid that?
Katie: Not really to avoid it because you have to get food somewhere. A lot of times I’ll find the local CVS or target or some store within walking distance and a lot of times I’ll go grab some snacks, but I really try to stick to salad, stick to kind of your healthier options on the menu. I know that in the convention center you can’t really pick what you’re gonna eat. I’ll also try not to eat the dessert or have just a couple of bites, which was really hard for me cause I love dessert.
Listen to the full Meeting Minds episode here.