Hi everyone! My name is Emma Cassity, and I am currently going into my senior year at Chapman University, majoring in Communication Studies with a themed inquiry in Leadership Studies. This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at Above the Top Event Rentals & Decor as a personal assistant/event planner. Above the Top Events is a full-service event production and party rental company located in Irvine, serving Southern California and beyond. I have learned so much and am grateful for the experience I have had at this company.

I found this internship on Handshake. Handshake is a great platform for Chapman students to find jobs and internships. I was fortunate enough to have a class last year that showed us how to create Handshake profiles and utilize it to our advantage in finding jobs.

Event planning is a fun industry to work in because every day is different, and it is a very fast-paced, high-energy work environment. During my first week, I attended a Brazilian themed event at the Fete venue in Irvine. I helped set up the event during the day, and then attended at night and saw our work come to fruition. This is something I will always remember! I also attended an event venue walk-through, which is an important part of the job so we know exactly what the client is looking for and so that we can create an accurate quote for the event. This is where attention to detail becomes an important skill to have when it comes to event planning, as you have to write down and remember important details about the venue and what the client needs.

Photoshoot for inventory pictures

Furthermore, as this is an event rental company, Above the Top has a huge rental inventory and warehouse. One of my responsibilities as an intern was to assist with any inventory projects that they were doing. Above the Top has an online inventory system to keep track of items. One assignment that the company as a whole was undergoing was taking new photos of all inventory items and producing them in a way to help our SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I helped the warehouse team with updating inventory item descriptions, editing, and uploading new photos that were taken, and making sure prices were accurate and updated.

Something else I was tasked with as an intern was to update our company’s LinkedIn page and expand on our LinkedIn presence overall. I created a page for our company on LinkedIn because we did not have one before. I also updated our CEO, CFO, and COO’s individual pages as well. This helped our company’s network and will help us in the long run to promote our business and find new clients. A few of my classes at Chapman, such as LEAD333 and MKTG 305 taught me how to use LinkedIn to market myself. I used this to my advantage at my internship to market our company and my coworkers’ pages.

Helping out at the front desk

The Communication courses at Chapman definitely helped me with my role as an event planner intern. With the event planning industry, communication is key. One of the main job requirements is being able to communicate with vendors and clients, and that includes active listening skills.

Furthermore, you must be able to use social media communication skills because many clients inquire about us through our social media pages. This position has also helped me with my own communication skills including my organizational communication and electronic communication such as email.