Our Interns Never Give Up

As we head into fall, we're reminded of one of just one of the things that makes summer so great here at The Hub: our interns.
In fact, our interns make working here great year-round, because we ensure that there's space on our team for interns year-round. Why? Well, because of interns like Rachael Pignotti, who joined us at the beginning of the summer and will be with us part-time during the fall.

Meet Rachel, one of our talented interns.

Rachael's a student at Temple University, from which she'll graduate in December. Her major, International Business and Marketing, put her on our radar, but it was her interest in sustainability in business that made us perfect matches for each other. She's an officer in a student professional organization at Temple called Students for Responsible Business, and she happens to manage green event planning for the group.
"The first thing that attracted me to The Hub is that it's LEED certified," she says, referring to our silver designation from the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
But Rachael quickly learned that Hub Sales Director Stephanie Koch and CEO John New wouldn't let her work with just the aspects of business that she was familiar with. They set her to work on a critical side of business she hadn't yet been familiar with: web sites and Internet outreach for our clients. "This is such a great place to grow," she says. "I've learned so much over the past months, and these are things I was always going to have to learn anyway."
Rachael also works in an area of The Hub that's more germane to her position at SRB: marketing promotions. "I’m learning how The Hub likes to brand themselves, and I combine that with my ideas, and it’s been turning out really well," she says.
Part of that success is Rachael's dogged pursuit of sustainability in the meetings and events industry. "We're adamant about green here at The Hub, and making it a part of our company, but I'd love to see more companies be more aware of choosing places that are sustainable, like The Hub. Sooner or later, the marketing of that is going to be beneficial, if not critical," she says.
While Rachael identifies with all five of our Core Values, the one that's closest to her heart is Never Give Up. "I'm incredibly stubborn," she says, "Mostly to myself. I've had some opportunities to opt out of projects that I'm unfamiliar with, and I think it's important to just keep on working."
We agree, Rachael. We'll miss you when you graduate, but we're so happy we got to meet you.
For more information on interning at The Hub, click here.

EcoMonday: A Valentine's for the Earth

Valentine's Day is lovely. But there's one quick thing you can do today and all the rest of the times you feel like sending someone flowers. Ask if your florist carries fair-trade, organic flowers.
The Rain Forest Alliance has an amazing set of facts about cut flowers and ferns that makes for good reference. You can find it here.

And if you're looking for a good place to buy cut flowers that are responsibly sourced, guess what? You don't need to look any farther than 1-800-FLOWERS, which responded within 72 hours to a push from Change.org to not only publish their flower sources, but to offer a selection of fair-trade sourced cut flowers and ferns for Mother's Day.

Yes, you know, Mother's Day. The holiday that celebrates the other love of your life.

EcoMonday: Think Globally, Act Locally

Good morning! And thanks for visiting. We're excited to introduce our twice-weekly blog, in which we endeavor to let you know what's on our minds, in the hopes that it'll help you to be the most productive you can possibly be. And yes, OK, we'd like for you to get to know The Hub, as well.
Mondays at The Hub's blog are dedicated to something super close to our hearts: The environment. We take stewardship of our environment just as seriously as we take your productivity and the planning of your meetings.
This week, we'll explore local sourcing and how it helps us to maintain our standards.

The Hub purchases locally as much as we can. To quote from our environmental sourcing edict, we buy from sources within 500 miles of our offices.



We do this for a number of different reasons. First, we want to support our neighbors and the companies that boost our local economy. We're a local business too, although we cater to many national companies. Buying locally means that our local employment rate stays healthy, that there's plenty of choice and diversity in our local economy, and that the money that's made in Philadelphia stays here.

Second, we want to limit our carbon footprint. (This is something we'll explore in-depth in a later post.) Essentially, it means that we want to make sure that as little fossil fuel as possible is spilled over getting our goods to us.

Third, we want to make sure we know our community and support it. It's a bit of a nebulous concept, but think of it this way: We'd like to think that every one of our local vendors knows who we are, and that they can depend on us. We hope they feel the same.

Here's a brief list of some of the companies we work with. They're all local, or have local warehouses or distribution points (denoted by an asterisk).

La Colombe Torrefaction coffee
W.B. Mason Office Supplies*
Chaddsford Winery
Sysco Food Distribution*
STARR Restaurants

Big, warm thanks to our partners. We're proud to work with you!