Guest Blog: Melodie Gives Back in Los Angeles!

We are so proud of our communications intern Melodie Tamse, who spent a good chunk of her summer doing service projects in Los Angeles. She just arrived back in the office on Monday and is sharing her experience with us!

"For the past ten days I experienced Los Angeles from a unique perspective. Instead of just doing the traditional touristy activities I set out on an adventure with 17 teenagers and two other counselors and helped the communities of Los Angeles. 

On our first full day in Los Angeles we headed to Hermosa Beach. We biked along the bike path all the way to Manhattan Beach and watched the surfers catch some waves. That night we headed to Hollywood and saw the famous Hollywood sign and placed our feet in the footprints of the most celebrated celebrities such as, the cast of Harry Potter, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and even Donald Duck. After a fun-filled day exploring Los Angeles we prepared for our first service project. 

The next day we worked with the Orange County Rescue Mission, which is a beautiful transitional facility for the homeless. The guests stay on the campus for 18 to 24 months and rebuild their lives. While at the Orange County Rescue Mission we met with one of the guests, Erica. She told us how her kids kept on being taken away from her while she was on the streets and finally she was sent to jail. After her time in jail she realized that she did not want to lose her kids again, so she decided to straighten up and apply for a spot at the Orange County Rescue Mission.  Since her time at the Mission, Erica has become one of the key admissions administrators and talks to perspective guests about how their lives will change for the better after entering the campus.  After listening to Erica’s inspiring story, we started our service project that would last two days. We ran a food drive at three locations, Albertson’s, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s.  After two days of collecting food, we received over 3,000 pounds of food donations for the homeless.

After two successful days of service at the Orange County Rescue Mission we headed out to our next adventure, Venice Beach. At Venice Beach we walked along the boardwalk and took in the sights. There were street artists, street performers, and even celebrities along the path. Some of our trip members met Frankie Muniz while he was filming a short film in the middle of Venice Beach. Also at the Beach, we saw the huge body builders exercising at Muscle Beach. Our day at Venice Beach was very exciting to say the least. 

The next day we started our second service project at The Boys and Girls Club of Harbor City. Before we started interacting with the kids we learned about the background of Harbor City. We learned how difficult the kids living in Harbor City have it. The directors of the club mentioned that they go into lock down whenever they hear helicopters hovering above the city because that means that the police are trying to find criminals that are on the loose. They then explained that they go into lock down at least twice a week. One of our trip members asked, “how do the kids feel when they go into lock down?” and everyone was surprised at Ebony’s response. She said, “It is a normal part of their day, they don’t  worry or get anxious because it happens so frequently.” After our talk with Ebony and Bobi,  we appreciated everyone and everything in our lives a little more. We then spent the rest of our day at The Boys and Girls Club playing basketball, jump rope, and foosball with the kids. 

As a way to celebrate a successful first day at The Boys and Girls club we drove to our next adventure, Temescal Canyon where we hiked to the top of the mountain and took in the idyllic views of the Los Angeles skyline on our left the Pacific Ocean on our right. The next two days at The Boys and Girls Club were filled with more fun as we played different games with the kids and held a Penny Carnival on our last day. At the carnival we all led different booths such as face painting, the cupcake walk, dot drop, and soccer shoot out. The kids’ faces lit up when they won their prizes at each booth. It was great to see the kids and the teenagers enjoy the carnival together. 

After our three fun-filled days at The Boys and Girls Club we celebrated at the Santa Monica Promenade and Pier. While at the Promenade we surprised one of our tip leaders, Teddy for his birthday by performing a flash mob in the middle of the Promenade. He was so surprised, all of our practice and preparation paid off. 

Finally, it was our last day and coincidentally the Fourth of July and what better place to enjoy our last day in Los Angeles than Universal Studios Hollywood. While at Universal Studios we took the studio tour, saw the set of Desperate Housewives, went on Transformers, The Mummy, and Jurassic Park. At night we had our banquet at Buca De Beppo where we reminisced about all of our fun times we had on our trip. Then in typical Los Angeles fashion we ran into another celebrity, Bella Thorne from Disney’s Shake It Up. And like a perfect allegory we watched as the fireworks lit up the Los Angeles skyline for the Fourth of July, just as we brightened up the lives of the homeless at the Orange County Rescue Mission and the kids at The Boys and Girls Club of Harbor City."

 

Meet our Newest Intern! Dakotah Radabaugh

Dakotah Radabaugh is the newest intern to join the team at Paragon Events. If you recognize the last name, you are correct... Dakotah is the youngest son of Managing Director & President, Renee Radabaugh, and brother to Francesca Radabaugh, Paragon's Operations Manager.

This summer, Dakotah began his first job at Paragon Events as an Event Coordinator Assistant. Dakotah graduated in May 2013 from Boca Raton Community High school and will be starting at Florida Atlantic University in the fall, majoring in business. Dakotah’s favorite thing about working at Paragon Events is the mentorship that he receives from all of his coworkers, especially his sister Francesca. Dakotah looks forward to learning more about the event planning industry and the business aspects that it entails.

Kayla Schwenk Receives GOAMPI President's Award

July 15, 2013, Delray Beach, FL: Kayla Schwenk, Assistant Director of Meetings and Events of Paragon Events, Inc. was recently awarded the 2013 President’s Award by the Greater Orlando Area Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (GOAMPI) at the Annual Chapter Celebration.

Once a year, all of the board members of the Greater Orlando Area Chapter get together for the Annual Chapter Celebration. At the celebration, the new board members were inducted and special awards were handed out to outstanding members of the chapter. This year, Kayla Schwenk was recognized as one of those outstanding people and given the annual President’s Award. Schwenk was selected by the 2012-2013 president Jeffrey Perrin, CMP for going “above and beyond” for him and the chapter.

 "Kayla is always there to assist and offer advice. Her knowledge of what is happening and how everything works together is a definite benefit to our success. Her attention to detail is outstanding and she is always in a positive mood," Perrin says. "She is always looking out for our best interests and offering suggestions on how to improve. With the help of her support team at Paragon Events, Kayla picks up the slack on all member initiatives by consistently going above and beyond the scope of her responsibilities." 

Schwenk has been the Chapter Administrator for the past two and half years. Some of her tasks as chapter administrator include overseeing website changes, managing event registration and on-site event logistics, creating board packets, and being the liaison between the board and MPI.

The Greater Orlando Area Chapter of MPI provides meeting and event professionals located in Central Florida the opportunity to network with other professionals in the hospitality and convention services industries by hosting monthly meetings, special events, and fundraisers.

Paragon Events, Inc. is an award-winning event planning firm specializing in meeting planning, corporate brand strategy, high-end society events, etc., association management, destination management, and full-service marketing and advertising.  

 

Guest Blog! Kristen Explores Germany for IMEX 2013

Kristen recently returned from the IMEX Conference in Frankfurt, Germany!

"My time in Germany was well-spent with some amazing people in a beautiful country! The IMEX Conference is quite an experience in itself, with people from all over the world under one roof. You see different cultures, hear different languages, eat different food, and connect with people you would never normally get a chance to meet face to face. Everyone is professional, energetic, friendly and ready to do business! I learned a lot about the different countries, what they have to offer, and how they do business. I expect to send some them some business in the future! I was lucky enough to have the chance to explore on my own as well! I went to Heidelberg and hiked on Philosopher's Way, took a boat tour down the Rhine valley where I enjoyed castles, German food and a wine tasting! I also had the chance to visit the Linderhoff and Neuschwanstein Castle’s of King Ludwig II. The Neuschwanstein Castle was Walt Disney’s inspiration for Cinderella’s castle- so of course this was the highlight of my trip! 

I got the opportunity to go when Paragon Events was asked as a company to attend. I asked Renee if I could be the one to go to represent Paragon. You have to have someone host you (like a supplier hosting a planner) and NH Hotels ( a European company based out of Spain) chose me! We had to get RFP’s ready and do practice interviews and appointments! Paragon will benefit from my experience because I built personal relationships, learned about other destinations that we never would have thought about, got  leads for new business, new ideas for team building, heard about some great renovations at hotels, learned about new hotels, and learned a lot about how the international market works! For example, if you plan a meeting in Germany you get all of the VAT (value added tax) back to you (which can be up to 20% bill). It was incredible."

Enjoy the photos!  

 

Our Summer Internship Program is in Full Swing

Frannie Graduates from FAU!

Paragon Events is proud to announce that our former intern and current full-time team member Frannie Watts has graduated from college with a degree in Communications!

A little about Frannie, in her own words...

"I am a recent graduate of Florida Atlantic University – I graduated with my Bachelor's in Communications and a minor in Hospitality. I started at Paragon Events as an intern and started full time after my graduation. I am an Event Assistant and help the event managers with research, budgets and executing events."

Frannie is a big animal shelter advocate and also holds an interest in planning social events as well as meetings and corporate events. 

Congratulations, Frannie!