In our group we were given the task of organising a three-day conference for a company that will take place in Greece, with 200 delegates from different European countries. There are 6 members in our group and I have found working together as a team both difficult and challenging, yet very beneficial in teaching me to appreciate the issues involved in team work and developing my team working skills. The main thing I have learnt is to deal with the unexpected and find ways to cope and handle certain situations that have arisen throughout the past 10 weeks.
One member of our group is from France and for the last 4 weeks has returned home. We have found it very difficult to keep in contact with her and keep her involved in our progression. Due to this we decided it would be easy to do the work ourselves as a group and try to keep her updated with what was happening. We have tried to do our best to accommodate her in the presentation which again was hard because she’s expected home the day before and of yet have heard nothing from her.
Being able to also communicate with her in person is hard due to the culture difference. She finds it very hard to understand what we mean and what is being explained. I have found this a very beneficial challenge for me, due to the fact that in the future I will undoubtedly in my chosen career route be meeting and working alongside many people from different cultures. Being able to develop my communication skills is very helpful to me and helpful for the future.
Time management has been a big issue in this group project, it took along time to get us organised as a group, I personally found it very hard to be available at the start of the project and to be available when other group members were due to my job being time demanding and other group work for different subjects that I’m involved in taking up my time. This meant I missed a lot and found it difficult to understand what was going on. Due to finding it hard as the project progressed, my time management skills developed and I have been able to balance my job with my university work and my other groups work with this project. This has been very rewarding for me as I feel that it helped us all as a group, other members have also improved greatly their time management skills.
The only other problems we came across were listening to each other and being able to help each other. This was very difficult because everyone in the group is very opinionated and it sometimes made decisions difficult to be made. As the time progressed everyone became more open to suggestions and we all listened to each other and as a group made decisions. I have benefited a great deal from this project, my time management skills have improved, my problem solving skills have developed and I have improved greatly on my communication skills, being able to communicate both inside my own culture and with different cultures. I feel that this group project has been a great challenge that has prepared me more for a management career in the tourism and hospitality industry.
As an organiser of a conference trying to organise a conference for 200 delegates from different countries around the world found the process to be difficult. There are many factors to consider from the tiniest detail to the largest, which are all as important as each other. There are many destinations and facilities in Greece with the capacity to cater for a three-day conference. Making a final decision was dependent on many factors, for example if they had enough rooms both single and double, if they had the facility to hold a conference, if breakfast was included, entertainment facilities available, things that made the facility stand out from the rest of the many in Greece, if the facility would appeal to 200 delegates and finally if the price was negotiable to a reasonable rate.
There were many problems with being able to communicate with different conference facilities, and trying to negotiate a price and package. Many of them wouldn’t communicate on phone due to difference in language and of us being unable to understand each other and communicate our purpose of calling. When a facility had been decided on to hold the conference all communication was dealt with through email. Which was challenging because it made the process long and hard to get moving. Many emails were sent back and fourth just discussing and negotiating coffee prices and whether they would include that in the room price which was time consuming.
