Reception Etiquette Workshop featuring Shannon Wilson

On, Wednesday February 25th, in the midst of a Southern blizzard that cancelled school for the following Thursday, the Shucker Leadership Institute held an Etiquette Reception featuring our host Shannon Wilson.

Shannon Wilson is a founder of her own consulting business in the areas of international protocol and business etiquette. She graduated from Furman University and served as the Alumni Director from 1998-2002. Shannon's ability to form relationships helped her to become the third female Student Body President during her time at Furman, and allowed all the Shucker Fellows to connect with her immediately at the Etiquette Reception.

Even though the snow was falling all around the windows of Hartness Pavilion, Shannon managed to captivate our attention, even when the University notified us we would have a snow day the next day!

This was the "part two" to the New Fellows Etiquette Dinner early in November. The Etiquette Dinner was focused on how to present yourself in a positive and professional light at a formal meal. This session taught us the American and Continental dining styles as well as the basic etiquette rules like what to do with a piece of food you want to remove from your mouth. Surprisingly, the answer is NOT to put it in your napkin, but rather to remove it with your fingers and place it on the edge of your plate.

The reception was different in that the eating portion of the event was centered around holding your food and mingling like you would at a business reception. Many questions arose throughout the process like:

• Which hand to hold the food in? 
• Do you carry a drink and get food? 
• Can you actually use your hands at a formal business reception? 
• How do you enter and exit conversations?

Shannon's first piece of advice was how to prepare for a reception. She advised that if you knew it was too much to hold your food and talk, to make arrangements to eat prior to coming. She also recommended leaving your cell phone at home to avoid distractions.

For entering the event or new conversations, Shannon recommended entering, stepping to the right of the room and surveying the environment. She gave us many "tricks" to entering conversations, including waiting by the food, where people were bounded to gather around and even bumping into someone to start a conversation and enter into a group.

As for what to do with your food, she said to have one plate of food or a drink in only one hand, if you feel comfortable enough to both talk and eat. If the buffet served the food with a fork, it is acceptable to use the fork, but if not all food can be considered finger food. Anything with a skewer is also considered acceptable to eat with your fingers. The picture below is the buffet served to us, Shucker sure does treat us well!