How It All Began – My Time as a Special Events Coordinator at The Hudson’s Bay Company

(Photo Credit: Woodbine Centre)

I work in, what I have come to know many years later, one of the most misunderstood industries. My job has been called publicist, spin doctor, communications coordinator, PR Specialist, and now, in this digital age, things are complicated. Relationship building is not what it once was, media outlets are not what they used to be. The camaraderie has even changed; but as we move forward during these interesting times, I’d like to share an episode in my journey to getting to where I am now, as a Communications Consultant.

In 1985, developer Cadillac Fairview opened the Woodbine Centre in Rexdale, across from the racetrack. The Hudson’s Bay Company opened a department store in that mall and launched a Teen Council program. Students from neighbouring high schools were hired, for one year, to work on the retail floor, as well as plan, organize and execute in-store special events, as well as national special events, under the guidance of the store’s Special Events Coordinator. I was fortunate to be one of six students from West Humber C.I. to be hired in the program’s second year. We would be scheduled to work in the store during weekday evenings after school, attend a weekly meeting in-store, and spend part of Saturdays managing events.

(Photo Credit: TripAdvisor)

Partway through the year, the Special Events Coordinator and our High School Council Coordinator resigned from the store and there were national special events projects that needed to be managed. I scheduled a meeting with Dave Brennan, the store manager and one of my fellow high school council members to discuss reassembling the Council to take on these projects and continue to develop our own in-store events. Over the course of our year, we organized and mounted such in-store special events as Breakfast with Santa, Breakfast with the Easter Bunny, Popcorn Saturday, seasonal fashion shows, a national model search competition, accessories fair, promotional movie tickets giveaways with film studios, candy sampling, fragrance spritzing, the Christmas pre-wrap program… the list went on and on.

By the end of the school year, my term on the Council would be concluding. I would be graduating from high school and enrolling in York University, but the High School Council program would continue and need someone to oversee it. I felt confident and experienced to take on the job and arranged a meeting with Dave to remind him of my accomplishments over the past year, and I managed to convince him to hire me as a part-time events coordinator.

I went on to hire students and manage and oversee two High School Council seasons. I had a great time working with these students and being a mentor to them, and overseeing special events that, during this time, included mounting a fashion show in the Woodbine Centre’s Centre Court. I was even invited by Dave to speak to a conference room full of Hudson’s Bay executives, during their State of the Nation tour, about my achievements in running the in-store Special Events department. I also worked closely with the store manager on a few administrative projects and he appointed me to oversee two employee awards programs where I, myself, was nominated by staff and received two customer service awards.

Throughout this experience, Dave was a great mentor to me. He not only allowed me to pursue this opportunity, he taught me a lot about business, retail, customer service and especially management skills that have continued to come in handy in my day-to-day work, whether I was working for someone or pursuing my own projects as a volunteer or entrepreneur.  

Unfortunately, The Bay eventually cancelled the High School program due to budget cuts. Before I moved on to other employment opportunities, I was offered retail work in the store while I continued studying at York. I continued to work part-time and full-time in the retail sector for a variety of different retailers and eventually launched my career in PR. Looking back, I am truly grateful and fortunate to have had this brief opportunity to build up my employment skills and my resume and continued my journey in the communications industry.

I’d like to challenge retail businesses and recommend that they consider initiating such a program again that will allow young people to develop business, retail and communications skills. Internships are mandatory in college programs but giving a student an opportunity like this allows them to learn many personal, social and professional skills that will help them in the long run.

This being my first employment opportunity working in a Communications related role, it would be several years later before I leaped to working full-time in the industry.

To Be Continued…