Risking it all for the client
Meet Amelia Friedman, Senior Project Manager. If there’s one thing you should know about her, it’s this: She’s willing to do almost anything for her clients. Even risk her life. That might sound a bit dramatic, but it’s certainly how Amelia felt in 2019 when she climbed aboard a scissor lift for the very first time. It was 6 a.m. on the load-in day for a two-day conference
at Conrad New York, and the Eventique team was in full event preparation mode.
“As the production coordinator, my job was to book the vendors, make sure they had the loading dock information, and make sure the schedule was good,” Amelia recalls. “We had to rent a scissor lift from United Rentals — not a big deal, we do it all the time. But I was only six months into the job, and I didn’t know that they wouldn’t bring the lift to the ballroom. They just dropped it off at the loading dock!”
Amelia was the only one on her team without a task on her hands. So she decided it was up to her to drive the scissor lift through the maze of narrow hallways and sharp turns between Conrad’s loading dock and the ballroom. The event’s success depended on it.
“I told myself, ‘I’m going to teach myself how to drive this.’ So I climbed onto the lift and started to turn it on. As I was turning the key and taking a deep breath to start driving it, Liron walked into the loading dock. He’d just gotten on site, and he was like, ‘Let me do that,’” Amelia says. “I literally heaved a big sigh of relief and said,‘Thank God you’re here!’ He drove it, and I guided him through the crazy maze of hallways downstairs and we got it up to the ballroom.”
Amelia’s Lesson
After that, Amelia never assumed a forklift would be dropped off at an event site again! Learning from onsite work like that is one of her favorite parts of the job, along with spending time with her team. They work together so seamlessly that clients often mistake them for family.
It’s the result of years of bonding. Amelia came to Eventique in May 2018 fresh off an internship with the famous, old-school event production company Rafanelli Events. After months of working elegant nonprofit galas and deep-pocket weddings, she was tired
of steaming linens for 8 hours straight and wanted to try something new.
“Eventique offers a different kind of event design,” she says. “It’s hip and cool and all about the best new things out there in technology. That’s why I chose them.”
New York Lifestyle
Eventique turned out to be a fantastic fit. Four years later Amelia is still thrilled to be living and working in New York City. When she’s not going above and beyond for her clients, you can find her relaxing with her roommates, partying at music festivals, or simply walking the NYC streets in search of the best food her money can buy.
“I love walking all over the city. I live in Manhattan, and I’m always down to go for a walk to the complete opposite side and stop along the way to get food. In 2021, I made my Instagram account a food account (@itsmemeals). I’ll travel all over Manhattan just to get a really amazing food picture and eat the meal,” Amelia says.
For Amelia, living in the city and managing events like the WorkWave Beyond Service User Conference 2022 have been lifelong dreams. Her ambitions started when she was only 6 or 7. That year, her mom’s poor scheduling made her miss one too many birthday parties — and she took over the family calendar. Before long her grandma started calling her “the family secretary.”
“In college I was in a sorority and I was vice president of social responsibilities, so I scheduled all of our mixers, parties, and formals, and booking venues and DJs and things like that. It solidified exactly what I wanted to do,” she said.
Then and now, Amelia will do whatever it takes to make her clients happy and keep that dream alive.
