Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Etches.
Please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started working in the hospitality industry in my country, Malta, at a very young age and immediately fell in love with it. The people I worked with came from all corners of the world and brought with them cultures, traditions, style, and foods and I realized that every day on this career journey would be one of learning and personal growth.
I would be negotiating a hotel contract in the morning, be overseeing a corporate lunch on a catamaran in the afternoon, and end the evening with a gala dinner in a 16th-century building with a fireworks show. There was so much to learn and the pace was frenetic. You were taught everything from table settings to protocol, registrations, building a rooming list and hosting the highest caliber events.
After a few years, I realized that this was a calling and a passion and that I was in it for the long haul. Since then I specialized in International work, traveling to cities worldwide designing and planning events and conferences for corporations and institutions until finally settling in America and founding MESH Int’l.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The learning curve was a relatively long one; one has to develop great expertise in anything from hotels to airlines, food service and audiovisual to décor and dealing with global nuisances and business practices. As such, a lot of time investment went into building my work experience- many weekends, nights, holidays and time away from family and friends as well as months of living out of a luggage and being cramped in economy seats on transatlantic flights. It took many years to cultivate the skills required to plan a high caliber event but eventually with perseverance and dedication it paid off.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
MESH is an event design and logistics company. Our days are varied, from designing a conference stage set or a dinner event, to a trade show booth or outdoor festival. We specialize in International work, whereby the client and perhaps audience come from different countries and we work with brands to promote their messaging in a way that is global and understood by all. Our clients are Embassies, Foreign Governments, National Organizations and Fortune 50 companies with industries ranging from pharmaceutical to aerospace.
We study our event projects for a long time before we decide the look, feel and message we need to project and then work on color palettes, textures, lighting, show script and menus and hone in on the tiniest of details until we achieve our desired result.
In this industry, similar to any other fast-paced environment; one has to be ahead of every trend, technology and has to provide a viable, affordable solution to every situation.
Mesh is unique because it has been able to adapt fast to each of our client’s environments. Whether working with restricted budgets or seemingly impossible logistical situations, we bring years of experience and a team with creativity and know-how that can act quickly.
What were you like growing up?
My memories of growing up are of spending lots of time outside on a Mediterranean sunny island. My family (as it goes) have a different memory, which is of me as a curious child, always having projects and places to go, being studious and always liking beautiful finer things in life, the latter of which my mother found problematic at the time. The memory we can all agree on is that we were constantly surrounded by an extraordinary number of family members and friends, there was always lots of food in the oven and we chatted, disagreed and laughed loudly, sometimes all at the same time.
Contact Info:
- Address: 810 7th St NE, Washington, DC 20002
- Website: www.meshintl.com
- Phone: (202) 415-2882
- Email: claire@meshintl.com
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