Director of Special Events
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
10901 Old Cutler Road
Miami, FL 33156 USA
305.667.1651 ext. 3344
aschmidt@fairchildgarden.org

Education

University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 1977.  BA. Major: Latin American Studies, minor: Marketing

Institute of San Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, 1976.  Summer program.

Schiller College, Madrid, Spain, 1975

Washington College, Chestertown, MD, 1974

Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia (Rollins College), 1974

Professional Experience

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Coral Gables, FL 1998-present

Director of Special Events, responsible for the management of special events, working closely with all other departments.  Works with volunteers and other community groups for events, coordinating with environmental, cultural and educational outreach groups for garden festivals.  Responsible for all revenue producing facility rentals.

Komodo Design, South Miami, FL 2002-2005

Co-owner of decorative accessories and Indonesian furniture boutique, responsible for buying and bookkeeping.

Local Motion, Inc., Pompano Beach, FL 1997-1998

Coordinator for multimedia production company.  Duties include event planning, coordinating and booking personnel for stage productions and conventions.  Office organizational tasks include developing and implementing a statewide database of personnel, and scheduling, marketing, bookkeeping and payroll duties.

Margapita, Inc., Miami, FL 1979-1997

Owner of two successful high-fashion shoe stores in the highly competitive South Florida retail market, at Mayfair in the grove and The Galleria, Ft. Lauderdale.  Managed sales staff, designed and bought merchandise in New York, Italy and France.  Created and executed promotions, public relations and national advertising campaign in English and Spanish for national and South American markets, including a highly successful direct mail program.  Coordinated special events, promotions, fashion shows, and customer newsletters. Applied for and obtained grants from the Italian Trade commission in NY for developing and executing retail promotions, fashion events, runway shows and special designer presentations.  Established 14,000 name mailing list and semi-annual four-color catalog which resulted in double-digit sales increases.  Oversaw award-winning website.

My Buy Inc., Miami, FL  1977-79

Purchasing officer and office manager for international import-export firm.

Elaine Shops, Miami, FL  1976-1977

Assistant manager for high-fashion accessories boutique.

Skills & Interests

Languages:  Fluent in English, Spanish and Italian.

Computer skills:  PC-word processing, database, Excel.

Interests: Gardening, adventure travel, cooking.