Week 3: The Search for Data Continues...

The beginning of my third week at Slalom was a little rocky... I went away with a group of my friends to Flagstaff and the Arizona Snowbowl for the long weekend as a last hooray before parting ways for roughly two or three months until graduation. While our trip up north was filled with fun from skiing, snowboarding, and other shenanigans, once I arrived back home, I completely crashed, and I ended up spending a day to recover from dehydration. Thankfully, I was able to get right back to work after my sick day. However, not everything went as planned going into this week. 

If you read my last blog, you are well aware of my struggle to attain data for my statistical research, and upon my return to Slalom I found that I had not yet received a reply from Ali. I sent her a follow-up email on Wednesday, but I have yet to hear back from her. Upon relaying this information to April, we sat down to discuss where to move from this point. Ultimately, we decided to reach out to Erin and Damaris, our local sales team, about possible event data, as they are often the ones who invite clients to networking events. April also said she would try to reach out to the Chicago branch about my project and hope that she could make some connections. 

While I haven't found the data I am looking for yet, I've still been busy around the office performing tasks similar to those from my previous internship at Slalom. Hopefully soon my search for data will conclude, and then I can begin digging into the analysis of possible correlations between events and sales.

Week 2: The Search for Data

This past week has been a very busy one. Everyone in the office was preparing for the quarterly event that took place on Thursday. While I was invited, I couldn't attend because I had fencing training that evening, but I heard from many of my coworkers that it was a very successful and fun event.

In addition to the craziness surrounding the quarterly, I had to begin my quest to obtain more data for my research. Since the Phoenix branch of Slalom is still relatively small compared to some of the other branches, I had to reach out to some of the larger offices in hopes that they would have the data I needed. On my first attempt, I contacted Lindsay in San Francisco to see if their office had anything they could let me use in my project. Sadly, they were unable to give me the data I needed, and it was explained to me that this is largely due to the fact that Slalom is currently switching over to a completely new sales and marketing system, which will allow for a more efficient way of tracking said sales and marketing data. Thankfully though, Lindsay was able to put me in touch with Ali of the Seattle branch. On my second attempt, I called Ali and asked about data for my project and she said that the Seattle branch was in a similar situation compared to San Francisco. However, she said that she knew someone in the Seattle branch who may have some semblance of the data that I needed in addition to a contact in Chicago who would likely be able to help me out as well. Ali was very helpful and encouraging saying she had a large interest in learning the outcome of my research project. I look forward to hearing from her and hopefully soon I'll have a complete set of data that I can use to analyze for my project.

Now that I have made a break through in my search for data, I have to wait and see how it all pans out.

Week 1: Return to Slalom

Wow, this is my first post... so exciting!

Anyway...

This is my first week interning back at Slalom Phoenix since July last summer. It's been really great to see everyone again. There are quite a few new people who joined the Slalom team since my last internship. It seems like so much has changed but also hasn't at the same time. 

My first day interning was a little hectic. My on-site supervisor, Jim, called in sick, so I couldn't start researching right out of the gate. Instead, April, my supervisor from the previous internship, invited me to join in a meeting with a marketing team about creating a networking event at a spring training game. I quickly began researching spring training schedules, the locations and times of each game, as well as VIP seating and pricing for groups. We should be having our follow up meeting on this within the next day or so. 

I'm looking forward to getting the raw data for my research. I know that the number crunching in the beginning will take a while, but I'm hoping the outcome of my research will be pragmatic. As the first week of my internship comes to an end, I have a feeling this will be a fun and enriching experience. It's great to be back.