I’m Katherine, an Events Officer at the University of Kent. I joined Kent in March 2023 as an Event Services Coordinator and have since progressed to Event Coordinator and, most recently, Events Officer.
I work with teams across the university, our catering partner Chartwells and lots of fabulous external clients to bring events to life on campus.
No two days are ever the same, which is one of the things I love most about working in events. You can start the day with a plan and suddenly a last-minute event comes in or something changes and your day is flipped upside down!
Here’s a snapshot of a day in my life working in Conference and Events at Kent…
9am – starting the day with a client
After inevitably getting stuck at the Sturry train gates, I arrive on campus and head straight to our Darwin Conference Suite to meet a client.
I’ll welcome them, get them settled and double-check the room setup and catering requirements. I’ll also make sure the AV is working and, if it isn’t, get in touch with the team to sort it.
Once everything is running smoothly, I’ll head back to the office to start the rest of my day.
10am – emails, Teams and last-minute changes
Back at the office, after saying good morning to as many people as I can find in the corridor and kitchen, I’ll check my emails, Teams messages and shared inboxes.
There’s normally something that needs sorting, whether it’s a new dietary requirement for today’s booking, a change to an upcoming event or a new enquiry that’s just landed.
11am – hospitality meeting
I’ll head back over to Darwin for our hospitality meeting with the catering team.
We’ll run through the week ahead, review our bookings in Kinetics and discuss any bespoke menus or special requests from clients.
It’s also a good opportunity to catch up with colleagues and make sure everyone knows what’s coming up.
1pm – tennis time
If I can, I’ll spend my lunch break playing tennis at our indoor tennis and events arena.
It’s the same venue where we’ve hosted major events such as LASE Fest, so it’s quite fun seeing the space transformed from a conference and events venue into somewhere I can play tennis and let off some steam at lunchtime.
2pm – checking in on events
In the afternoon, I might head out to check on one of the day’s events, whether that’s a barbecue, catering pop-up or another client booking.
I’ll make sure the catering team have everything they need, check that the client is happy and sort out anything that might have cropped up.
3pm – enquiries and planning
Back at my desk, I’ll work through new enquiries, raise contracts and deposits and start planning future events.
There’s often another meeting in the afternoon too. Depending on the time of year, that could be a team meeting, planning for Christmas or looking ahead at some of the bigger events coming up.
5pm – home time...sometimes!
If there isn’t a dinner or evening event, I’ll usually head home around 5pm.
One day we could be planning future bookings, the next delivering LASE Fest, then a business summit or a student society ball, all while welcoming conferences, external clients and language schools throughout the year.
It can be busy, unpredictable and sometimes a little chaotic, but that’s what makes working in events so much fun — and seeing an event come together makes it all worthwhile.
Want to give colleagues an insight into your role?
We're looking for colleagues from across Greenwich and Kent to share a snapshot of their working day as part of this series.
Whether you work in professional services, academia or somewhere in between, we'd love to hear from you.
If you'd like to be featured in a future edition, please email InternalCommunications@greenwich.ac.uk and Communications@kent.ac.uk.