April 2025 - Chelsea Skalski

Chelsea Skalski Event Marketing Manager Georgia Dental Association (GDA) Member since April of 2024

MPI Georgia welcomes new member, Chelsea Skalski, Events Manager for the Georgia Dental Association (GDA). Chelsea handles the logistics, planning and execution of all in person or hybrid meetings for the Georgia Dental Association (GDA) and their affiliates. The GDA is a non-profit professional association for all dentists in the state of Georgia. Their affiliates include GDA Insurance Services and the GDA Foundation for Oral Health. This includes contract negotiations, rooming assistance, F&B orders, AV design, all the way up to day-of on-site execution. Chelsea has a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Arts, with a focus on Shakespearean Performance, from Miami University (Ohio), and grew her career into event planning from her work in hotels as a side gig to help pay bills while pursuing her acting career. Event planning has become her new love, though she does still perform when able.

In a way this is her first job in the meetings industry. Before Covid19, she worked in the Hotel Industry, working up the track in front office operations with an end goal of GM one day. So similar industry, but different track. Come March 2020, the property she worked at closed its doors, and she was stuck trying to find a job in an industry that was getting hammered by closures and reductions in travel. She took some time to really assess where she wanted her life to go and decided this was a perfect time for a change. When Chelsea applied for the job with the GDA in September 2020, it was for a simple office admin position. The company no longer had an events manager, again thank you Covid19, and in 2021 they wanted to start doing some in-person events again. Given her resume, she was tasked with helping support the executive admin with the logistics of planning meetings. She found she really liked it and was good at it, while the executive admin hated it. By September 2021, Chelsea negotiated, planned and executed her first board meeting on her own. She was promoted and has been doing all of them ever since. “Having the opportunity to figure out where I fit and grow into this perfect position has been the most stand-out part of this job.”

With this leap into events, Chelsea wanted to get involved in an association of some kind for her profession and MPI’s CMP program was the deciding factor. Working at a professional association, she knows how important it is to have fellowship with people in your industry. Chelsea felt MPI was best suited for what she wanted to do with her career, and where she is now in her journey. She has 1 dog and 2 cats, all rescues, swims regularly with an adult team, and her favorite hobby is snowboarding.

The coolest thing Chelsea is working on now is, hands down, GDA’s Annual Convention & Expo. “We have a great 4-day event every summer for our entire membership, a combination of educational sessions, exhibit hall supplier visits and social events. Many people bring their family for the weekend, and it is so fulfilling to plan this large fun event and then see all the fun people have when there, and the connections and friendships that are made there that last a lifetime.”

Chelsea’s best practice is simple but vital: make lists! “As event planners, we have 9 million tasks and details we need to accomplish for an event to be successful. There is no way our brains can remember everything; write it down and check it off as you go. Have everything in hard copy on-site. There have been more times than I can count that I need to check some piece of a contract, or an AV order, or ensure the right setup is in the room per my BEO and having that easily accessible in a binder right then and there has saved so much time.”

Fun facts about Chelsea:

• What is the best meal you've ever eaten? My husband’s annual Christmas Dinner Bolognese.

• If you had unlimited money to start your own business, what would it be? A dog and cat sanctuary. I love animals and would rescue as many as I could.

• What's your favorite movie/tv show/book? How would you recommend it to someone? I really like most things fantasy, but I am a huge Harry Potter fan, so everything in that universe, books, movies, theme parks, all of it. While yes, it is a fantasy series, there are so many life concepts that are digested in this series, and it is NOT just a kids book. 

• Next Vacation Destination or Dream Vacation and what are you looking forward to? I really want to go to Japan someday. I would go during snowboarding season, take like 10 days and really experience their culture and food.

• Advice you will never forget: No doesn’t mean never; it just means not yet. *In the context of one’s careers and ambitions.*