Striking the balance between professionalism and friendliness is high on our list of must-haves at All Aces, and Vanessa is a great example of how this mix can be ideal in the workplace. We sat down with her this week to discuss everything from client and staff relationships, to memes.

Vanessa’s Experience

Vanessa has been working with experiential marketing, staffing, events, and operations for over 13 years now, staffing teams of two, to as many as 200, brand ambassadors! She started off working promotional event jobs at the age of 20 after finishing college in Texas and going back home to Connecticut. After working as a brand ambassador, Vanessa said, “I quickly realized it was great money, so much fun, always a different atmosphere, different event, and different brand. I was able to be my bubbly self at work and make money at the same time! I quickly latched on and fell in love with the industry.” Vanessa’s attention to detail, willingness to learn, and professional and outgoing demeanor allowed her to go above and beyond at the events.

Within six months working various promotional jobs, the consistent, excellent feedback she received led her into team lead and field management roles! She was hooked. Soon enough, she began working on the staffing side as well as she realized, “This is the industry I am meant to be in and wanted to devote all my time to learning everything I can about all aspects of the event world on and off-site.” She started traveling all over the country with a few companies to manage large scale activations such as the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami to the Dallas State Fair in Texas to even the Burning Man in California.

Throughout her 13-year career, Vanessa has worked in almost every role: on the ground she has worked as a brand ambassador, team lead, and regional market manager. Continuing her trajectory, she moved to event operations, eventually working as the National Senior Operations Manager on the HQ Senior team. With determination and passion for the work, Vanessa’s story shows us that opportunities are endless, the sky’s the limit!

On joining the All Aces family:
My experience has been nothing short of amazing. The team has been warm and welcoming, always helpful and Lauren is the best boss and CEO to work for. It’s not just a team, everyone is like family.

It has been almost a year since you joined All Aces, how has your experience as a project manager been?
My experience as a project manager at All Aces has been great over the past year, between all the amazing clients I’ve had the chance of meeting and collaborating with, as well as the countless brand ambassadors who I’ve grown strong bonds with. For me, working and being 100% hands-on with all staffing requests from clients and not planning the event from start to finish, such as staffing the team then being on-site for the final execution, has been the biggest learning curve. Despite this, learning the ins and outs of working directly with an agency like All Aces has been an experience I’ll never forget and has made this year fly by. The opportunities are endless here!

What have been your favorite events and why? 
My favorite event within the past year at All Aces has been by far working with Microsoft, the head sponsor of the 2020 Super Bowl in Miami. I was able to be front and center on the ground with my team as a Miami native. It was amazing to see this event come to life and to see how awesome and extremely hardworking my team was throughout the weekend. The opportunity to work with NFL Superstars, local celebrities, countless TV Sports networks, and my team altogether was so memorable and was so much fun!

What do you feel sets All Aces apart from other staffing agencies? 
I feel like the #1 thing that sets All Aces apart from other agencies is the extreme attention to detail and hands-on approach with every single client. Many complaints you hear about larger agencies from the clients is that they don’t know who in the company they can go to with questions, on-site challenges, or BA issues. We take extra time to hand-select the best candidate for every position and the client has a dedicated Project Manager who is assigned to them throughout the entire program to field any questions or concerns. In addition, we truly care about every single person who works for us whether it’s a mascot, a team lead on a short four hour program, or a brand ambassador who worked every week for 3 months, we treat them all with the same amount of respect, dignity and personal attention.

What would be one thing that you would like to tell to brand ambassadors and potential brand ambassadors? 
Clients, agencies, and managers do notice how hard you work — and referrals go a long way in this industry. I have brand ambassadors who I still constantly reach out to that I hired 10+ years ago, because I know how great they are on-site and that they will always do a stellar job no matter what the event is. If you have an outgoing attitude, love events or working with the public, have no problem walking up and striking a conversation with complete strangers, may have been called a social butterfly, have great attention to detail, and can communicate professionally and efficiently, this may be the industry for you! Learn from your peers on-site, take advantage of the training resources before and after each event, and take any and every job you can when you’re starting out to gain as much knowledge as possible. The one thing that is most important is to have fun!

At the end of the day, Vanessa says, “there have been many ups and downs and always will be in such an ever-changing dynamic industry, but it’s where my love and passion is so my heart will always be in the events world!”  Vanessa’s expertise is something that we are thankful to have in our team and her personality always brightens our days. Happy 1 year anniversary of joining the All Aces Family!