Featured in Northeast Meetings & Events

“If you can provide a great service and great product, and be up front with pricing and expectations, a client is going to be very loyal.” —Becky Geisel

Life is unpredictable, which is something that those in the meetings and events industry have to not only understand, but embrace. Bad weather can make it impossible for attendees to arrive to a meeting that’s been planned for months. Changing priorities cause a break-out meeting to be added at the last minute, and mergers can double attendance overnight. “Things are always changing at the last minute. I’m used to that, and I’m expecting changes,” says Schleimer, who’s worked at The Bernards Inn for four and a half years and in hotel catering for 10. “Counts go up and counts go down, and my job is to make sure that the client is very, very happy. I’m the liaison to the rooms department, the kitchen, the operations team, to figure out how we can make sure that happens. … Most of the time there’s nothing that you can’t fix.”

It’s not only clients who can throw curveballs during event production. Chef and co-owner Becky Geisel employs subcontractors to provide furniture, décor, staffing and other services at some of the events her BEX Eatery & Catering Co. in Califon caters. She’s cultivated trusted partnerships, but she can’t always foresee bumps in the road. Once while setting up for a plated dinner, her staff noticed their clothing was slowly becoming spotted, then realized that there was bleach on all of the tables and chairs that had been delivered earlier in the day. With only three hours before the start of the event, the team began washing and drying all of the tables and chairs. “Our clothes got ruined, but thank God it wasn’t the guests’ clothes getting ruined,” Geisel says. “We’ve learned to anticipate things going wrong and to have a plan in action so that we’re prepared to take care of it.”