Confex

Whilst many of you won't know what Confex is, if you work in or around Events you will!


I got a day's work experience on the second day of Confex, held at Earls Court in London. I was really nervous as this was the first volunteer role I had done where we were working for an Event Manager in charge of such a huge event.
Overall I was quite disappointed with the tasks I got given. Because this role had been set up via my Uni, I kind of expected more of a learning experience than just being unpaid labour. Well actually I didn't even feel like that most of the time, I felt like there was actually no need of us volunteers and the event managers kept making up new roles for us so we would have something to do.
This idea was confirmed when we were told at half 12 that we were done and to enjoy the show. Whilst on one had I was very disappointed that I had traveled all that way so early just for some menial task, the fact I got to go round Confex was amazing. This was the first year that Confex actually banned students from attending and held their own conference for them instead but unfortunately my Uni wasn't one of the chosen few who got told about the conference so we missed out on places.
I got a real insight into how open businesses are to student interns, where as before I was under the impression that they were inundated with offers of volunteers for work experience places but from what I experienced talking to some different types of event companies those outside London really struggle to get any students to come work for them. Whilst this isn't much of a help to me, living in Kent, it has actually spurred me on to start contacting more companies about job availability.

I've got a part time job now, so this really limits the time I can commit to volunteer positions. But I am going to keep looking and hopefully if I can save a lot of money from my job I can then allow myself more freedom in terms of working unpaid for more experience.