Arlene Sheff, CMP Senior meeting and event planner
The Boeing Co.
Seal Beach, Calif.

PAST Sheff has spent a total of 32 years in the meetings industry, including stints as an association and government planner, followed by eight years at Bridgestone Tires. She also ran her own company, Meetings Etc., for 10 years before moving to Boeing nine years ago.

CRED Sheff has taught at about 18 MPI Institutes and countless local chapter events, as well as leading several college courses and initiating and teaching her very popular FUNdamentals of Meeting & Event Planning workshop series at The Boeing Co. A live wire in front of a group, she engages people before the event and makes sure that everyone participates.

“It has to be fun for me,” she says, adding that she has found that if she asks the people in the audience to introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them, they are more likely to participate.

SUCCESS STORY Although she now counts it as one of the secrets to her success, public speaking did not come naturally. “Growing up, I would have stayed home from school rather than speak in front of the class,” Sheff recalls. One day, a friend coerced her into teaching an F&B course for Hyatt at a local MPI chapter event, and she never looked back. “I was scared silly,” she recalls, but the positive feedback gave her the confidence to try it again.

Her desire to share her experience contributed to one of her proudest moments when, last year, she received the 2007 Corporate Event Planner/Producer of the Year Event Solutions Spotlight Award. The thrill was even greater because one of her daughters, a catering manager, was in the audience for the ceremony. “I still get a smile on my face, goose bumps, and a tear in my eye when I think about the moment I heard my name called.”

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