Jenn Chu
Registration Executive, SEM&I, Dallas Office
1. What do you do in your job/how has it changed during the past year?
I’m an account executive on SEM&I’s registration team. The registration team’s job is kind of like project management, so we talk to the client and find out their registration needs, how they want registration to function, and decide how to go from there. We work with IT or build a registration website ourselves and we eventually go onsite and print and distribute badges.
For the past year, we haven’t been able to go onsite, so we’ve had to pivot to helping teams with virtual events. Using a virtual platform before wasn’t prevalent, but now we use it to do hybrid events and virtual events. Hybrids are challenging, because we have to look at what the client needs for registration for the virtual platform but also for everyone coming to the in-person event.
2. How are you preparing for the return of in-person events?
Our first in person event was in April in San Antonio. It was a good test run to see how everything went. There was a 30 percent decrease in attendees, but it was good to see how being on-site was going to happen with COVID.
We still have a lot of virtual events in the summer, with just a handful of clients doing in-person events. A lot of clients moved in person to the fall, so that’s when things are really going to ramp up.
I’m a little nervous because we still don’t know everything about COVID but I’m very excited for what were able to implement in San Antonio. COVID changed how we run registration on site because we want to take more safety precautions, but it will be good for the industry to get back to gathering in person.
3. As a member of MCI USA’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee, what made you want to join?
I just felt that there’s always the need for diversity in any workplace, even if it was the most diverse workplace on the planet. There’s always a need for awareness because everyone’s awareness and knowledge of issues is different and everyone’s voice needs to be heard. I wanted to help other people’s narratives get told at MCI.
4. What are you passionate about outside of work?
I really love spending time with my dogs! Both are mutts that I rescued. One I adopted from the ASPCA and the other was one that someone I knew found as a puppy and needed a home. They’re both about ten years old now and very calm most of the time.
I also love working out and staying fit, and I enjoy reading in my spare time.
5. What is the last book (or books) that you would recommend to people?
I love to read. My friends and have a book club and I’m happy to give out some recommendations. I’m working on Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens right now, and it’s very interesting. One that we read earlier that I highly recommend was Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. It’s written about a hostage situation and told from several different points of view. Another one I loved was The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. He also wrote The Devil in the Dark Water, which was also great.
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