Written by: Hannah Gill
About Me
Growing up on a farm in Yorkshire with a genuine passion for travel and a deep enjoyment from meeting diverse cultures across the world, I surprised myself by choosing to study Neuroscience at University College London, but wow what a great mix of life skills I’m finding myself enjoying…
Internship Summer Opportunity
My journey as an Intern at ALTOUR and YES has been truly inspiring and I have learned so much from my experience here working alongside a global team of highly experienced event professionals. I was lucky enough to work across 2 office locations in the UK: London and Yorkshire and have loved every minute of spending time with such a passionate and welcoming team. The company is an international corporate events and travel organization yet somehow also has a special DNA of kindness.
By attending team meetings, I gained a breadth of knowledge from all sectors of the business
- Accounts/Finance
- HR
- Marketing, Social Media & PR
- Sales and Account management
- Sourcing and Creative Proposal writing
- Booking Travel & Logistics
- On site Event Management in Exhibitions, Conferences, Incentive and Team Building
Whilst working within ALTOUR & YES, I acquired unrivalled industry insight into various vertical business sectors
- Pharmaceutical and Healthcare
- Technology, Gaming & Media
- Beauty and Cosmetics
- Travel & Tourism
I was able to witness firsthand how communication and events are incredibly impactful in bringing teams together for a range of purposes including driving growth and assisting business strategy.
Corporate Marketing
Whilst working with a team of creative and insightful individuals in both UK and USA, I learned lots about methods of promoting brand awareness and tools to drive sales. At a time of exciting transformation for the ALTOUR company with integration of global teams under the parent brand, this was an enriching environment with many fascinating projects to be involved in such as rebranding, website restructuring, changes made to social media platforms, Awards & PR.
To enhance the new global website, I wrote a series of case studies based on real time outstanding events held around the world by YES including conferences and incentives in California, Puerto Rico, New York, Nashville and Arizona. This provided me with a wonderful opportunity to develop my creative writing skills and witness some of the innovative concepts displayed in each unique event.
As a part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility, I researched appropriate charities that the UK division could partner with to shape change in the local community and have a positive impact. I also brainstormed an extensive variety of fundraising ideas and ways in which the team could support the charities. Excited to attend these later in the year!
Event Management
One of my most educational experience working with ALTOUR was supporting with their first ever Exhibition booth at the Business Travel Show (BTS) at EXCEL London. I was able to work with the incredible ALTOUR team from offices across the US and EMEA and network with buyers connecting with a global network across all industry sectors. Additionally, I spoke with a diverse group of technology, sustainability, airline and hotel suppliers.
I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Expo itself, there were some very impressive and creative stands which inspired me to offer my creative recommendations for ALTOUR’s attendance in 2025.
A particular success on the ALTOUR stand was the interactive activity in which personalized coffee cups were made onsite with the company branding, people were queuing up to get involved and I loved being a part of this. Who doesn’t love a busy stand at an expo!
There was a strong sense of comradery within our team and a company dinner after the first day of the Business Travel Show at the ‘Big Easy’ in Canary Warf was an amazing way to celebrate our success and feel valued.
Another stand-out time-period within the YES division was working on delivering a globally renowned gaming company’s summer party at the Hurlingham Club, London. I loved being able to see the project through from planning to execution. Working on the build-up to the event was a great way of learning the event process and consequently gained a varied toolkit of skills.
I dealt with various suppliers to negotiate cost to stay ’in budget’ and for example ordered correct quantities of flowers and decorations to fill the space as well as attending team meetings where we worked collaboratively to come up with imaginative concepts to bring this team building summer party to life. I managed detailed Excel cost sheets and worked on Canva to design branded menus and posters for the event hence providing me with experience in working on diverse technological platforms.
When it came to the day of the summer party, teamwork paid off as we beautifully decorated the event space with themed table center peices, bunting, giant props, garden games, hay bales and many flowers under time pressure that events thrive on. Once the event had commenced, I interacted warmly with clients who had traveled from around the world for this special occasion and I worked collaboratively with the excellent on-site teams to ensure smooth logistics and everyone left happy!
Another fabulous event which I had the opportunity to work on was for a large conference of 700 delegates for an IT company at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. We had a great team in our branded uniforms and with a great atmosphere we ran a seamless conference for this dynamic company managing registration and badge collection for vendors, staff and clients delivering a high level of customer service and supporting an expo, conference, breakout sessions, awards, front office key collection and an amazing afterparty.
The variety of events I have been able to work on has been outstanding and really showed me how the team can really pivot according to each client’s goals.
I worked on an inspiring and highly educational pharmaceutical conference in London where dentists & Drs came together from all corners of the world. I also managed to capture marketing content to be able to share the successes of the conference to support our global marketing gang. From working with the Account Director on this project, I was asked to research Drs room rates in Prague for when they need to attend training courses at the lab which I was proud to do as a science student. I approached Prague head of tourism, various Hotel Representatives and DMC’s in my quest to get the very best for our top client.
Another exciting project during my time as an intern was to source and venue find for a luxury cosmetics brand’s influencer event to Lisbon. I sourced a variety of hotels (including boutique not widely known options), negotiated best room rates, researched the most on-trend restaurants in the city and communicated with regional DMCs to put together an incredible program.
I loved the trust the management team had in me and I was offered a fun project to research a golf and spa event in the UK for a brand new ‘client win’, finding the most appropriate venues, communicating with hotels for rates, golf and spa packages and meetings and event space. I also put forward theming options for the evening party and pulled together a proposal to be presented to the client who loved it.
DMC, Hotel Representation and PR Networking
I was incredibly lucky enough to be invited to a wonderful dinner at a fabulous restaurant in Bishopsgate London hosted by a DMC representation company where I could interact with DMCs from Asia, Budapest, Paris and Argentina to learn more about not only venues and activities in exciting and upcoming destinations around the world but also local culture and traditions.
A bespoke hotel representation company hosted a networking event in Manchester where I had the opportunity to assimilate more knowledge of luxury independent hotels around the world while engaging with a global network of suppliers during a cocktail reception with delicious food and drinks and fun activities, there was also speed dating with suppliers where I listened to many presentations. Following the event, I felt that it was important to share what I had learned with the team.
Gratitude
My time working at ALTOUR and YES has been simply unforgettable. I have been trusted with exciting projects, worked in a variety of locations, met some inspirational people from around the world and developed valuable transferable skills. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me on my journey and has been so kind. I look forward to continuing my journey with ALTOUR in the future.
Thank you so much,