Jack Auckland is the event services department head at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel. He and his staff are responsible for all room sets, audio-visual needs and technology required for conferences and events. During his 27 years at the Georgia Center, Auckland has shown a sense of personal responsibility for all guests through his commitment to lifelong learning and his dedication to service. That service includes overseeing more than 10,000 events and setting and resetting close to 850,000 conference chairs in Mahler Hall.

Auckland, who was named the Georgia Center’s 2022 Employee of the Year, is known for his attention to detail, his exemplary customer service skills, and his forward-thinking when it comes to event planning. Auckland and his staff are a “relied upon and competent face of the Georgia Center, adding confidence and a feeling of security to the client experience,” one of Auckland’s colleagues said. He often asks clients questions about event details they haven’t even considered and has been called “an event planner’s dream.”

Auckland was instrumental in helping the Georgia Center transition from in-person meetings to virtual ones and recover event revenue in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He developed a plan to use owl cameras, industry-leading smart cameras that create an engaging virtual meeting experience using a 360-degree camera, microphone and speaker.

Auckland later played a pivotal role in helping the Georgia Center adapt its event services model to include more hybrid events. Conferences and events began to return to campus in 2020 and 2021, but some attendees could not travel and not all wanted to be on site. Auckland worked closely with web designers and event managers to give the Georgia Center the virtual paths it needed to meet clients’ needs.

For example, the international Engaged Scholarship Consortium hosted its annual conference at the Georgia Center in September, with 70 remote participants using the technology advocated by Auckland.

“I wish I could take Jack with me all over the state as I have absolutely no worries about the success of our conference or event when he is there,” said Mara Shaw, associate director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. “Everything he gives to support our efforts is always more than 100 percent.”