Ebony’s Path to a Dream Job in Events at MECCA

Ebony West grew up expecting she would become a teacher. With teaching running in the family, it was just assumed. That was, until she started looking at what makes her unique and what inspired her. When it came time to decide what to do after school, Ebony chose to follow a path of her own - studying Event Management at William Angliss Institute and going on to land a dream job.

Today, Ebony has recently been promoted to Events Specialist at MECCA after previously working as an Events Coordinator and says with confidence, “My personality is perfectly moulded to be an event person.”

No day is the same for this Angliss graduate: “I don’t think I could work in a role where I’m doing the same thing every single day. I don’t think I would find that passion or excitement.”

“I come from a long line of teachers. We're all very organised people, and I thought that I was always going be a teacher as well. But one day I realised I'm someone who's inspired and I always wanted to feel passionate about my work.  Events are something you can be so easily inspired by.”

While Ebony didn’t become a teacher like her mum, she did take on her mum’s love for lists and being orderly. “We always had a family diary,” she says, but Ebony took it to the next level. “My lists are color-coded with priorities and critical tasks, which could be coded to be done by the end of week, end of day, or even by the hour.”

For Ebony, she knew studying event management at Angliss was the best career start for her, and it was also a great way to build on her skills. “It is the perfect mix between needing to be a creative person, but also, being extremely operational with to-do lists and organisational skills.”

“People think that an overly organised person is someone who really likes to step into routine, and I'm not really like that. I really like a routine, but I don't like for things to be the same. I'm an excitement chaser. I just really like feeling inspired and passionate. I feel like, if you're doing the same thing all the time you lose that. I think that's best thing about being in events.”

Ebony credits William Angliss Institute for giving the vital her hands-on work experience and contacts in the event management industry.

“Angliss is really good at connecting students with professionals, and also connecting people with opportunities,” she says, noting that volunteering to work at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival World’s Longest Lunch through William Angliss opened doors for her career in events.

Initially, Ebony didn’t realise how broad the course would be and the breadth of skills and insights she would learn. “With this course, it branched out to business, marketing, project management, and even finance. It was very well-rounded for something that I had thought felt so niche.”

To anyone figuring out what career to embark on, Ebony offers these words of wisdom: “Don’t be scared by thinking something feels super niche. Lean into the nicheness of different careers. Connect with like-minded people. Go have coffee with people who you think have a really interesting job. Get out there. Get experience. You can read as many books in the world as you'd like, but if you don't have experience, then it's hard to do anything with that.”

Almost three years into her events role at MECCA, Ebony reflects on how she’s used what she learnt in her course. “I felt like there were a lot of moments where I was like, ‘Oh my, I learnt that at Angliss. How awesome that I’m using that in my paid job now. Things like risk assessments, and stakeholder management - we did a whole subject about that,” she says, noting that these lessons equipped her for writing up documentation necessary for events.

Having done an elective in food studies while completing her Bachelor of Event Management, Ebony reflects on why learning at Angliss, a specialist centre for foods, tourism, hospitality and events, better equipped her for her career. “We did lots of different things surrounding food and going to food markets, different kinds of cultural activities surrounding food. It was obviously so much fun, but it was really handy, because now I feel like I understand more of the catering side of events.” She draws on that specific experience when picking out menus for her events.

As she has learned, being on top of the different events in her job requires a lot of multi-tasking and utilised a lot of the skills she’s been taught at Angliss. It’s clearly all worth it when she talks about seeing the events come to life, saying, “Being there and seeing people's reaction to something that we've worked so hard on is the greatest reward.”

Learn more about studying Event Management at William Angliss Institute, email enquiry@angliss.edu.au or call +613 8595 5334 for more information.

Published 20 February 2025