b'PROFILELeading NACE ForwardMorgan Montgomery shares her plans for her one-year tenure as president of the National Association for Catering &M organ Montgomery, CPCE, CMP,CFE: How did you get involvedtook the reins as president of thein the events business?Events (NACE) National Association for CateringMONTGOMERY: I took a big fancy corporate & Events (NACE) in January. A NACEjob right out of college, and it moved me to a BY SARA PEREZ WEBBER member since 2010, Montgomery credits thenew city where I didnt know anyone else! A organization with giving her the confidencefriend back home had done some banquet to launch the rental business she co-owns serving for a caterer and suggested I look at Paisley & Jade in Richmond, Va.in 2012. getting a part-time job serving events to meet After years of getting increasingly involved,people and get to know my new city. Having Montgomery is now giving back by leadinga background in theater, I instantly fell in love NACE during a particularly challenging year. with events. To me, it was so similar to staging a When I think about my year as NACEproductionyou plan, plan and plan some more, president, I am faced with the hard realitythen the curtain goes up and you manage the that we are still in the survival phase ofchaos, and when the curtain comes down, you the survival-recovery-growth modelasfigure out how to do it better next time!an association and as an industry, saysIn 2008, it was time to make a big life Montgomery. But, at the same time, I know wechange, and I moved to Virginia (where my NACE President Morganwill get to the other side of this. husband is from). When I made that move, I Montgomery (above) is co- Catering, Foodservice & Events recentlypromised myself that I would do whatever it founder of rental companyinterviewed Montgomery to learn about thetook to get my foot in the door in the events Paisley & Jade in Richmond,plans she has for her one-year tenure, andindustry. Given that we were in the middle of a Va., which specializes in vintage and eclectic rentalshow shes working to position the 63-year-oldrecession, it wasnt the easiest goal to achieve, (opposite right). organization for the decades ahead. but I convinced a local off-premise catering 16 CATERING, FOODSERVICE & EVENTS cfe-news.com PHOTOS BY ALEX C TENSER PHOTOGRAPHY'