The Dedman College of Hospitality at Florida State University (FSU) is ranked 4th in the United States and 13th worldwide for its Hospitality and Tourism program. FSU alum Christine Hilgert embodies this level of success as a Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) and the Senior Vice President of the meeting planning business unit for Meeting Expectations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Hospitality Management and is celebrating 25 years of employment at her current company.
Her Campus (HC): When were you introduced to hospitality and when did you know you wanted to pursue a career in event management?
Christine Hilgert (CH): I actually wanted to be a marine biologist because I was fascinated with Sea World. I always wanted to work at Sea World. At the time, I was working at a country club in West Palm Beach, Florida as a server and Calvin Klein called and asked to have some private staff work dinner for him. The manager volunteered me, so I got to work this private dinner with Calvin Klein and I was like: “Well, this is kind of cool,” and it was a lot of fun. That manager sat me down and said: “I don’t think you’re meant to be in science. I think you’re meant to be in business and in the hospitality field. So, he told me a little bit about it (hospitality), and I found that Florida State had a program specific to hospitality along with a business degree.
HC: Having managed events across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and North America, what changes or differences are most apparent, and what remains similar between all locations?
CH: The most similar is the basic human desire to get together. People will come from around the world to a city whether it’s Dresden, Germany, or Los Angeles, California; it doesn’t matter where. They come together and they’re so excited to just see one another and exchange ideas in the hallways, during sessions, similar to a college campus.
I think the things that we have seen change are how people eat, or how they want to learn and how we have adjusted to that. Years ago, there were large buffets and lots of drinking and now, people are a little bit more health-conscious, so we reflect that in the menu we select for these different conferences.
HC: Having managed client budgets from $100,000 to $10 million, what do you notice are the biggest expenses in every budget?
CH: For every budget, the top three expenses are food and beverage, production for audiovisuals and we’re the third, the management team. We are in charge of security, sleeping rooms, food, decor, registration and transportation. We are in charge of so much that, we start building that out 12-18 months in advance, so the amount of time and labor we put into it is pretty big.
HC: What advice would you offer to someone who is interested in pursuing a career in hospitality?
CH: Dive in deep. What they teach in college versus when you get out into your career can be somewhat different. So, most people think of hospitality as restaurants and, hotels, and that’s it. But there’s all this other stuff. There are so many layers, and I think in the university system you learn about the high-level ones: food, beverage and hotels. There’s so much depth to it so I would say for students to dive in deep and really look at all the avenues there are in hospitality.
If you’re thinking about pursuing hospitality, check out FSU’s Dedman College.
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