Alumni Voices

 

Alumni Interview: Matt DeCicco,

Event Manager, Oak View Group: Atlantic City Convention Center

 

Sarah Grady (SG): Hello, and welcome to the Alumni Voices, a segment that we do for our biannual newsletter, LIGHTs On. My name is Sarah Grady. I'm the assistant director for the Lloyd D. Levinson Institute of Gaming Hospitality and Tourism here at Stockton University part of the School of Business. Today I am joined by Matt DeCicco. Wonderful alumnus of our hospitality and tourism management studies program.

Welcome, Matt, happy to have you.

Matt DeCicco (MD): Thank you, Sarah. Thank you for having me.

SG: Sure. Let's get started today with the simple question, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience in the industry?

MD: Yeah, definitely. So, like you said, I'm a Stockton alumnus. I graduated in 2019 with a degree in hospitality. I'm currently an Event Manager at the Atlantic City Convention Center for Oakview Group. My company manages both the Atlantic City Convention Center and Boardwalk Hall. I've been in this role almost three years now. August will be three years, but prior to that I've held other roles in the city as well in event sales and you know meetings and conventions as well.

SG:Could you describe a current challenge that you've experienced in your role?

MD: COVID was the biggest one. We're still coming out of that. But aside from the COVID talk:

Two main things I guess you would see not only with us, but the city as a whole. The first one being cost. Everything in this world is expensive, as I'm sure you and everyone else is aware. So, the cost of doing business definitely has gone up since COVID, as well as labor rates, union rates, being in a union town.

The other main thing, you see, is the perception of Atlantic City. Still, that negative perception out there of the destination as a whole, which prevents and kind of stops some business from coming in. If you've never gotten to experience the city, firsthand in person, before.

SG:And how do you feel that your experience at Stockton has kind of helped you to approach those challenges?

MD: I consider myself a special case. I was the inaugural class to go through the Atlantic City campus once it opened. So, I spent my entire senior year going to class in the city. I also did my internship at the Steel Pier the summer before senior year.

I spent an entire summer on the Boardwalk from any time from like 6 in the morning until 4 am so. I've seen it all here, and have never once had anything happen to me. But outside of like, you know, Stockton helping me with my experience, my professors helped me get into my internship with the Steel Pier, which is kind of where I got in and made my connections in the city.

And then post graduation. My first job outside of college I was an event sales manager for Caesars Entertainment. That connection was made through a couple of my professors who had connections in the past to some casino properties, and I kind of got it in with them, interviewed, and, you know, hit the ground running from there.

My entire professional career from college on has been spent in this city. And I went to Stockton specifically to work in Atlantic City.

So, to me, I live, eat, sleep, breathe anything related to Atlantic City. I love it, so for me that whole perception thing is crazy because I've spent probably five or six years working in Atlantic City on top of coming here for my entire life. So, to me, it's like, why would you not want to come here?

But you know Stockton made me get those connections in the city which, if it wasn't for them, I would not have a job in the city or not be where I am right now.

SG: Excellent, excellent! So that kind of leads to the next question. Do you have any advice for people seeking a career in the industry or seeking a career in Atlantic City's, hospitality and tourism, industry?

MD: Definitely. I lived and breathed this. Any bit of experience you can gain, even if you think it is something minuscule on the scale, do it.

Like most people, I started working at 16 in kitchens and restaurants, and learned back of house, you know, busing, waiting, serving, and then ended up going to a place that did banquets. So, I got to run some banquets and weddings and things like that while I was in school to use that toward my professional work experience, I needed basically, I had no sales experience coming out of college. And my first job outside of college was event sales. Everything I had done in life prior to that - waiting, serving, running events, running parties doing stuff like that - I was able to use to leverage my way into that position with Caesars.

So just because, you think, you don't have the experience to do something, like the whole industry is related. I didn't really traditionally have event management experience in a convention center. But when I came here, I had the precursor, which was event sales. So, even though I’d never run events before, I knew how to sell them, which then helps you think a certain way of like. All right, if I'm selling an event this way, I just have to now do the other part of that, which is running it.

Again, any bit of experience helps. We have people here that started off when they were 16-17 years old in our operations department and are now managers, directors, and above and it's just hands on. Experience is the best thing you could do.

Go to Stockton, learn the backgrounds to precursors your connections, and then use that to get a position in the field, whether it be anywhere, and then leverage that to move your way up cause you can learn how to run a restaurant on paper. You know how to manage conventions and stuff like that on paper, but so much of this industry comes from field experience, and, any bit of that helps when it comes to getting any type of job in the industry. And it's helped me get to where I am today.

You might think, oh, being a cashier, you know, cleaning tables doesn't help. But you're learning the customer service in the back end of things, which you know you could then use down the line to be like, "I used to do every position in this place."

SG: Absolutely! Is there anything else, Matt, that you'd like to share with our listeners? Any observations you've made that you'd like to share.

MD: The city is strong, that's the biggest thing. So many people ... you see, negative articles and reviews ... our convention business is booming. We have a packed fall coming up but are a little bit slower in the summer. As you know, room rates are pretty high in the summer here, so there's not as much travel business in for conventions or corporate business like that. But when September hits, I mean, we don't get a break until Christmas.

The city is booming. There's a ton of construction going on. There's a ton of renovations everywhere. There's people coming in. There's concerts. There's shows. We're busy.

Just keep coming down here and enjoying what the city has to offer, and keep letting us all do our thing down here, and please everybody.

SG: Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much, Matt, for taking this time to speak with us. And to record this interview. It's wonderful advice, and a great outlook for Atlantic City. Thank you.

MD: Thank you, Sarah, for your time. Appreciate it so much, and appreciate everybody listening.