Week 3!

This past week I spent my time working in the marketing department of Cal dining. Patrice, the Customer and Personal Relations director is in charge of this department. Along with her this summer are Anna and Vicki who work outside of class as her marketing assistants. Combined, all three are currently in charge of helping to run CalSO, the Cal Student Orientation for incoming freshman, while creating new signs for all of the dining establishments, and helping to plan certain campus wide events..

The first day began with a meeting between Patrice, Ida Shen (the Assistant Director/overall Executive Chef), and Shawn LaPean (the Cal dining Director). This involved planning the food and marketing for two major events, Caltopia (a free for all event held in the Rec Gym that involves two days of free food and free giveaways) and Calpalooza (an outdoor concert held on campus). The rest of the day was spent working on CalSo events, such as greeting the freshman at lunch and dinner.

The rest of the week, apart from Wednesday (when I was able to take part in the annual Organic Certification Audit), was devoted to expanding my knowledge of the department. I had a one-on-one session with Keith Stevenson, the Senior Publications Coordinator in Marketing Communications, where he taught me how to take pictures to be used in different marketing ads. I was able to use this great camera (it was wicked expensive!) to take pictures of Crossroads, the primary dining cafeteria, and then of some sports camps practicing at the turf field nearby. I learned a lot with him as to how to take great pictures that can be used in pamphlets, internet pictures, and banners. His primary lesson was explaining how students who are unaware of a photo being taken and are doing their normal activities are the best for any marketing advertisement.

I spent a lot of this week trying to learn Adobe Illustrator, their primary tool used for making event posters and promos. I have never had any prior experience with a computer program such as this and after trying it out a little bit, I was told it looked as if a kindergartener had been playing with the computer. That statement was completely true unfortunately. I’m now up to a first grade level though with Adobe Illustrator though!

A fair amount of my time was spent working on my theme project which I have decided is going to be… Las Vegas!! Each of the different cooking areas of Crossroads will represent a different hotel and will serve food that is native to the premise of that hotel (i.e. The Orleans will serve Cajun/Creole style food).

The Fourth of July weekend was great here as well!! Spent all three days of the long weekend in San Francisco exploring the area and the great food it has to offer. I was able to go on a chocolate factory tour of TCHO, an amazing local chocolate producer (I recommend ordering some if you’re a chocolate lover like me – http://www.tcho.com/).