By Emily Egan
I wish I had a cooler story about how I got into the hospitality trade. As a kid, my family did a fair amount of driving up and down the East Coast to visit family members. We usually stayed at budget motels but on occasion we’d stay at a nice hotel. I can remember running around the hotel with my siblings – sneaking into large, empty ballrooms with giant chandeliers, checking out the amenities and just taking in the largeness of it all. I thought hotels were magical.
In college, I took a marketing class and loved learning the ‘behind the scenes’ of how brands could market their product for someone to want to buy it. I found my first job (on Craigslist!) after college as an event coordinator at a small but chic restaurant group in New York. I assisted the event planner with planning large private events at the restaurants, promoted our food at festivals and generally was an advocate for the brand. So, I was where I wanted to be – NYC: check; Event planning; check but life has a funny way about changing things for you.
In 2010 brands were just getting into social media and I, being the youngest in the office, was asked to ‘start Twitter for the restaurant.’ I said ‘yes’, momentarily freaked out as I hadn’t learned about social media (for brands) in college and then, for the price of a coffee, met up with a friend to teach me everything about ‘MTs and RTs’ on Twitter (remember those?) Spoiler: I got it and the restaurant was even featured in this 2012 article on Mashable!
From there, I focused on social media for 5 years working for advertising agency and then, I found my job as the Marketing Manager at the Millennium Hilton. The concept of working on property versus in an office environment intrigued me. And honestly, I did enjoy getting to know the bellmen during short breaks in the lobby; I liked running into guests in the elevator and learning about their experience at the hotel.
My favorite aspect of working at the hotel was developing relationships with the other marketing managers from across the country and world. Most of us were one-person teams and wanted to share ideas and resources with other people who had jobs like ours.
Following different hotel Instagram accounts piqued my interest in domestic travel. From road trips in the southwest through American reservations, and visiting the heartland of America—Omaha, Nebraska, I have a new goal to visit 50 states
I love the hospitality industry since it’s such a people-oriented industry. You come together with your coworkers and to create amazing memories and moments for people.