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Sam Horsnell - Copthorne Hotel & Resort Bay of Islands

26/11/2013

Being Conference & Events Manager at the Copthorne Hotel & Resort Bay of Islands is a great job. A lot of the work is in building successful relationships to enable you to offer an experience tempting enough to pull conventions out of the main urban centres.


It is a job I came into from another role and found that I loved it. It’s great to work one on one with people at every step of the events process from inception to delivery. It’s really rewarding when you look over the feedback forms at the end and they are all positive.

Time management is a critical skill, as you tend to be working on more than one project at a time, and it’s all about providing a timely, responsive service and building up a level of trust with your clients. Teamwork is also critical to the success as you really have to trust and rely on other team members and contractors to help deliver.

Good qualifications are important too. I did the Conventions and Incentives – Foundations for Success qualification and then went on to complete the National Certificate in Tourism (Conventions and Incentives) Level 4.

The Foundations for Success course went into the details of the things that you usually take for granted and almost do automatically. Undertaking a qualification on the job not only enables you to take a fresh look at all your processes, it also gives a great opportunity to take a critical look at your venue and facilities compared to your competition and see what you need for your business to excel.

SamHorsnell

Embarking on the National Certificate I learnt more about the sales and marketing side of the convention and incentive role, and could eventually lead into hotel operations and management.

The hotel industry is a great one to work in, I love working with a great group of people that feel like an extended family.

For more information, please contact ServiceIQ on 0800 863 693 or email intel@ServiceIQ.org.nz