A Day in the Life of an Events Manager at CoverMyMeds
The COVID-19 pandemic paused in-person events for nearly two years, but our events team — managed by Lauren Choler — is excited about their return. Human interaction makes the world go round, and as the events manager at CoverMyMeds, Lauren’s a connector — running point on the company’s presence at events like trade shows, conferences and so much more.
It took some intense Google searching, five years of job shifts and a pandemic to make Lauren Choler the events expert extraordinaire (technically, events manager) she is today at CoverMyMeds.
Since joining the company in 2016, Lauren has served in several roles, first getting her feet wet as an account coordinator — a position that helped introduce her to the healthcare industry and gain valuable experience as she moved forward with her career and our company.
In her account coordinator role, Lauren dove deep into the ins and outs of our products. Now, as our events manager, she’s helping to market them.
Those wide-ranging skills were on display during the COVID-19 pandemic. With so much change to navigate through, Lauren had to make difficult transitions — from in-person to virtual events — appear seamless while still carrying out and accomplishing business goals.
So, what led you to CoverMyMeds?
After graduating from college, I knew I was moving to Columbus, and while looking for a job, I started Googling “best places to work” and CoverMyMeds kept popping up! I had no background in any medical field, but I applied anyway and got hired as an account coordinator on our Patient Services team.
Let's talk about your time as an account coordinator. How did that experience translate to your current role?
Marketing was my background and that’s what my internships during college were focused on. I always knew I wanted to make my way back into a marketing role. When I started at CoverMyMeds, prior authorizations (PA) were our focus, and it was incredibly helpful to learn our business — who electronically submits PA requests, why they submit them and why they’re needed. It was great to learn this before transitioning into marketing, because now I help market our products to the public.
Tell us about your current role as an events manager. What are your primary responsibilities?
An elevator pitch would be that I’m responsible for planning our company’s appearances at trade shows and aligning those events with our business goals and objectives. It’s a unique position. One of the best things about where my role sits is that we’re considered a “shared service” within marketing.
We get to work with the entire business, whereas some marketing roles are more focused on a specific product or area of the business. On the events team, we have an opportunity to work with marketing managers and key players throughout the company.
One of the most impactful outcomes from events is the face-to-face interactions, whether it’s meeting with clients, prospects or end users.
Lauren CholerEvents Manager
A big part of your job is planning and executing events. How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect that aspect?
We still wanted to reach our target audiences; we just couldn’t do so in-person anymore. So, we went heavily digital — digital ads, microsites, webinars, virtual speaking opportunities, you name it.
With fewer in-person events to focus on, I also shifted my work to support different projects on our team. I helped manage project assignments and timelines, for example, and worked on our company’s holiday gift — the culinary team’s cookbook for CoverMyMeds employees.
Now that in-person events are returning, how has that affected your day-to-day — and how excited are you for a sense of “normalcy”?
We’re so excited! One of the most impactful outcomes from events is the face-to-face interactions, whether it’s meeting with clients, prospects or end users — and you don’t get that as much in a virtual environment. Getting that human, personal element back makes my job so much more enjoyable.
We also see much better results with in-person events. You can only get so much out of a virtual platform, and many people were also starting to face virtual meeting fatigue, so our expectations for results were a little lower compared to live and in-person events.
I’ve been lucky enough — and our business allows for so much autonomy — that I’ve been able to bring my own style to what I’m doing.
Lauren CholerEvents Manager
What makes CoverMyMeds your best place to work & grow?
We have such an awesome team. We work with a lot of smart people who have that “fail fast” mentality where we’re not afraid to try something new and learn from it. I’m also lucky to have a great manager and marketing leaders. They really are invested in your career growth and want to help you succeed.
Since I started at CoverMyMeds, I’ve had five different roles or title changes. Along the way, I’ve picked up different and larger responsibilities — which has added a level of challenge in learning something new each time.
I’ve been lucky enough — and our business allows for so much autonomy — that I’ve been able to bring my own style to what I’m doing. When I started in the events specialist role, I was passionate about proving value on our campaigns and how our events make a difference for our business. Because of that, we’re continuing to invest in them.
Which of our growth mindsets resonates with you the most and why?
“Results matter.” When you see your work make an impact, it gives you a purpose. When I started on the marketing team, I was focused on creating campaign tracking in our customer relationship manager platform. Being able to see which campaigns have the biggest impact is rewarding, and it helps the team better understand how to reach our audiences.
Do you have any advice for someone who's interested in working at CoverMyMeds?
Stay flexible! Our business changes very quickly, and we’ve seen so much change over the last six years. Learning to adapt and embrace challenges is super important.
Want to work at CoverMyMeds? Join the team and explore our open positions.
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