The Tea - Alexandra Mongrain

Meet new MPI Ottawa Chapter member Alexandra Mongrain!

The Intro: Alexandra Mongrain, who recently joined MPI to make new connections in the event industry, is the Director, Events and Reservations Office at Saint Paul University. Mongrain comes from a hospitality background, starting off as a fine dining server—which served her well and allowed her to travel around the world!

After studying event management at Algonquin College, she was a wedding planner for many years, while working for restaurants at the same time. Mongrain confesses she was attracted to the industry because of “hospitality celebrations – you get to be part of people's lives and special occasions!” In her current role she oversees catering at Saint Paul’s in addition to managing meetings and key events like orientation and graduation. Mongrain shares that Saint Paul rents space/hosts external events, such as meetings, conferences and cocktail receptions with up to 300 people! She adds, what makes Saint Paul special is that as a smaller, bilingual academic institution, “it offers a one-stop shop with hands-on service” (the catering, AV, meeting rooms) – which is ideal for busy event planners!

Early Inspiration / Outside of work: Mongrain’s passion for events and hospitality started with…food! Eight-year-old Alexandra wanted to be a world-famous sandwich maker! Food is also how she loves to unwind after work, cooking and hosting events in her home and trying out new restaurants in Ottawa (which she admits is “an expensive hobby!”). In her spare time, Mongrain also appreciates kayaking and watching movies on the couch with her kiddo!

Top Tips: For new event planners, Mongrain says it is important to be accountable when mistakes happen – this means not just apologizing but proactively changing behaviors and processes. Her other top tip is to ask the client – “what emotions do they want your people to have from this event”, that is the ultimate objective and we can start planning from there to make a memorable event.

Three words: when asked, what words describe you - Mongrain’s answer was: “saucy, extravagant, and organized”. Saucy because she loves cooking (pasta!) and for extravagant she explains: “I like everything in the extremes. You know, if we're going to do it, we're going to do it well, we're going to do it big”.

If you are curious to learn more, be sure to say “hi” to new member Alexandra Mongrain! 

 Article edited by Cynthia Beaudin, Canada Foundation for Innovation