Headshot of Errico ’12 for Cory Martin Events.
Brittany Errico ‘12 once crane-lifted a Rolls Royce over a Beverly Hills mansion. For work. And that’s not even the craziest thing the Business Administration and Marketing alumna has done for her job at Cory Martin Events.
From celebrity birthday parties to fashion show events, sky-high budgets and high-profile clientele are par for the course for Errico. Check out her Q&A below!
Q: What is your position title and what are your responsibilities?
A: I’m an Event Producer and Designer; we’re a smaller company so we all wear a lot of hats, I also manage things around the office. My job can be stressful, but it’s really wonderful. Event planning is something I’ve always wanted to do so the stress is out-weighed by the feeling that I’m really living out my dream.
One of my responsibilities that I didn’t necessarily expect is managing people. I manage the timeline of the event from planning phase to day-of, as well as all the vendors involved. As much as it’s a creative role, it’s also a very heavily organizational role.
Q: What is the process of taking an event from idea to reality like?
A: So when we get a new client, they might come to me with a basic idea and I will work with them to shape it into an event concept.
Truly the first thing I’ll do with a new client, though, is a venue walk through. Some days I’ll spend the morning on a Malibu beach with a client instead of at the office. Once we’ve settled on a location, I’ll photograph the venue and put together a presentation and moodboards that show how I’ll transform it for the event. This includes everything from color themes, flowers, furniture, music and food. This beginning phase is one of my favorite parts of my job, I get to really dive into my creative side and it always reminds me why I love what I do.
Once all is approved, I begin the process of placing all the rental orders, scheduling all the vendors, working with these vendors to ensure the event design is consistent, sourcing any specialty items, and then come day-of I’m on-site managing the event and ensuring all goes as planned.
Q: What’s the craziest experience you’ve had so far through your job?
A: One of our clients is one of the largest luxury car dealers in the country, and for one of his events we crane-lifted a Rolls Royce in over this mansion because he wanted it to be displayed in this particular backyard. And, when we were in this process of having this $500k car hanging from a crane over this person’s house, I’m just sort of thinking, “How did I get here?”
Our budgets never fail to amaze me. It’s really a gift, as an event designer because it allows you to be as creative as you want. One of the first events I took on when I started was a 14 year old’s birthday party and the budget was $60,000. I was floored.
We do a lot of celebrity events, from Ryan Seacrest to Leann Rimes, but once that shock factor of working with celebrities wears off it’s really just like working with any client. Although, recently I was the lead event producer on a Donna Karen fashion show that did bring in a lot of celebrities and it was just pretty crazy knowing that they were experiencing an event that I had spent months producing. It was one of those surreal moments.
SEE MORE: Check out more examples of Errico’s work.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: I love that I’m learning and creating every day, and that I still feel so passionate about what I do. I still get excited about going to work. When my employees and I start brainstorming over a new concept it’s just exhilarating. My job requires a lot of hard work and long hours but at the end of the day it’s really rewarding and that makes everything worth it.
Q: How did you find out about this position?
A: I actually moved to Los Angeles with a different job. I moved two weeks after graduation for a sales and marketing position, more of a desk job, and it just wasn’t for me. So I took a big risk and left my job for an unpaid internship with Cory Martin Events.
I spent two months interning there unpaid, which is really hard in LA. I was hoping they would offer me a full-time position, so I was putting in 14-hour days and just working all the time. Fortunately, they did offer me the position. I’ve been working full-time for Cory Martin Events for about two years.
Q: How did the College help you prepare for this job?
A: While many of my fellow event producers may joke with me for saying this, I really gained a lot of experience from being in a sorority at the College. I was in charge of recruitment and the philanthropy chair, so I was always planning events. The year I planned recruitment we actually held it in the nearby hotel ballrooms so it was not your average experience, but turned out to be a great learning process for me.
I was involved in a few other groups on campus as well. On top of the responsibilities in my sorority, I was also the Vice President of SIFE in the business school while balancing a full course load, so I learned to effectively manage my time. That really comes in handy now.
I’m also constantly surprised by how often I find myself using what I learned in my business classes. I wasn’t positive that I wanted to major in business at first, but my Dad gave me great advice in that it would serve me well no matter what direction I went and he was absolutely right. I use lessons from my business statistics classes when using excel for every budget I make, and my knowledge of accounting is very helpful when tackling accounts receivable.
Also, I took a business communications class that I still think of constantly when communicating with clients via email. Business was really a great major for event planning as it is an industry that is more independent and producers need to understand how to run their own business to be successful in this field.
EXPLORE: Learn more about the College’s business administration major.
Q: What advice would you offer to current students interested in event planning?
A: If you’re interested in event planning, you’re in a great city for it. There are so many opportunities to get involved in the Charleston events industry, beyond even internships. You can volunteer at local events or even put in a few hours a week with a catering company to get a better feel for the events industry and understand the event from the foundation – this experience would go a long way in the hiring process.
