Event Management Is Back at ACC

After a brief hiatus to revamp and improve, which was unexpectedly elongated by our period of non-gathering during the global health pandemic, ACC’s popular Event Project Management Certificate program is back and better than ever. A new instructor coupled with a new curriculum is being taught in-person at our state-of-the-art Sturm Collaboration Campus at Castle Rock! Designed for working adults, this fast track evening program prepares you to manage events with ease and at a professional level.

From administrative or emerging leaders responsible for meetings and events in their organization, to individuals responsible for upcoming family reunion or fundraising event for a nonprofit organization, this certificate is for everyone! You will learn the basics of event planning from an experienced, certified, and degreed industry professional. During the first semester of this Event Project Management certificate coursework, you will learn all the components of event planning while applying the specific principles of traditional project management. Through application of these principles in an event setting you will master the following concepts all while identifying and managing risk and required changes along the way.

• Identify an event’s purpose;
• Create a scope statement including event objectives, constraints and assumptions;
• Build a master task list with associated timeline;
• Design event components;
• Create a budget;
• Source products, vendors and talent; and
• Produce the event;

During the second semester, these specific project management principles will be expanded in application to specific types of events including galas, fundraisers, sporting events, corporate meetings, conferences and tradeshows, identifying unique components for each along the way. The beauty of our new curriculum is its responsive with new components for virtual events, thanks to the help of our new instructor.

Our newest instructor in the Workforce and Community Programs, Andrea Peterson, will be leading this certificate program. Andrea moved to Castle Rock from Texas in 2013 and began teaching on a part-time basis at Metropolitan State University (MSU) Denver as an affiliate. When a new position opened, she readily joined the faculty team full-time in fall of 2014. In addition to her teaching duties, she was requested to serve her department as the Chair of Curriculum for several years. During this time, she assisted the chair in the process of moving the Department of Hospitality Tourism & Events to the status of School of Hospitality, Events and Tourism (now School of Hospitality) and creating a specific Bachelor of Science Degree in Event & Meeting Management. Andrea’s teaching responsibilities at MSU Denver included redevelopment and teaching of the department’s Event Industry, Event Project Planning, Event Catering Strategies, Corporate Meetings, Special Event Production, Event & Meeting Contracting, Event Support Systems, and Global Meetings courses, along with the required Senior Experience Course, Advanced Planning & Risk Management. Additional responsibilities included advising students in their academic studies and future careers. Andrea left this position in May of 2021 in order to focus on her businesses and to join the team at ACC.

Andrea is also the Owner/Principal of ASAP Meetings & Events (ASAP), a now Colorado-based company that she started in Texas in 2009, strategically assisting corporate and non-profit clients with unforgettable meetings and events. ASAP provides strategy, design, management and execution for a seamless and memorable experience for both clients and attendees.

Prior to starting her own company, Andrea served as Operations & Events Manager of the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) Real Estate Mortgage Capital business. Here she was responsible for the day-to-day business operations of five regional offices. Andrea assisted in building and developing the business infrastructure through managing the build-out and set-up of regional offices and technology infrastructure, training and developing employees and vendors for successful business policies and procedures, and crafting and coordinating client events, all contributing to over $2.3 billion in volume within the first year of launch.

Before her years at RBC, Andrea was the Events Manager in Marketing for the North America Lending division of General Electric’s Commercial Finance Real Estate. In this role, she designed and managed over 200 annual client events across six lending regions and coordinated annual sales training conferences for 600+ GE employees, resulting in a $7 billion per-year national lending platform.

Andrea’s prior business experience also includes serving as Development Manager for a human services non-profit, managing the marketing, fundraising and events efforts and team and in another professional volunteer role with a large non-profit (MOPS-Mothers of Preschoolers, based in Denver) where she worked on annual training conferences for 2500-5000 attendees.

Andrea holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from LeTourneau University and a Master’s Degree in Tourism Administration in Events & Meetings Management through The George Washington University. She also holds the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation, through the Events Industry Council (EIC), initially earned in 2011.

Andrea finds it important to give back to the events industry. In so doing, she served as a founding board member for Association of Women in Events (AWE) and has been a member of EIC’s Knowledge Committee (f/k/a Industry Insights Committee) since 2019. She has been a member of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) since 2004 where she served on the Board of the Houston Area Chapter of MPI.

As the Faculty Advisor for the student chapter of MPI at MSU Denver, she successfully shepherded two groups of students through the University’s process for achieving funding for attendance at MPI’s annual World Education Congress (WEC). As member of Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) since 2013, and faculty advisor for the Rocky Mountain Student Chapter, she recently applied for and was awarded PCMA’s University Engagement Scholarship providing attendance for her and 20 students to attend PCMA’s Convening Leaders annual conference in January of 2021.

Since arriving in Colorado, Andrea has served as a Vice President in two Christian Brothers Automotive (CBA) franchise locations in Castle Rock and Lone Tree which she co-owns with her husband. Her specific focus is on marketing, communications, and community-relations, leading to opportunities to serve as a representative on the CBA’s Colorado Regional Marketing Committee. She was recently elected to a position at the national level with CBA as a member of the national Marketing Exchange Committee.

Based on personal interests, Andrea has been able to serve as a Board member of No More Locked Doors Ministries in Colorado. Introduced to the organization by one of her CBA employees, Andrea chose this non-profit as the beneficiary for an MSU Denver senior experience project her students designed and completed in spring of 2018, raising over $50,000 as an inaugural fundraiser event.