Kathryn Hocker

Kathryn Hocker
Staffing Coordinator
Location: Greenville
I’m from Laurens, SC and I went to USC in Columbia for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. I earned a BS in Exercise Science in 2013 and a Masters in Sport and Entertainment Management in 2018. I moved back to the Upstate in 2019 and most of my prior event experience (hiring, staffing, event managing) has been focused on college athletic events. I started working with Southern Way in my current role as the Staffing Coordinator of our Upstate location in June of 2021.
My favorite thing about working at Southern Way is the team, in both our Upstate and Columbia locations. From day one, everyone has been so awesome to work with and I have felt very comfortable and appreciated working here.
While I don’t work as many events as most of our staff, I gravitate toward the athletic events. Most of my experience prior to working with Southern Way has been in event management and marketing with college athletics. The opportunity to be a part of the gameday experience with Clemson University athletics was something I was very excited about continuing when I was hired with Southern Way.
My favorite memory from Southern Way is high kicking to Copperhead Road at the company Christmas party. Honestly though, working events is a completely different beast. The long hours and the blood, sweat, and tears that we all put into making our events run smoothly, so that the clients have a wonderful event to look back on, brings us all so close together as a team and our bonds as co-workers are stronger than in most other industries. I would say my true favorite memory is finishing our last game of our first season with Clemson football and taking time to breathe and reflect with our team, knowing that we made it through and put in our all to make the season a success.
I am a people person to my core and, in my position, I have the opportunity to spend a great deal of time interacting with lots of different people. I work with our employees from start to finish with the interview and hiring process, and I’m their main contact for scheduling, payroll, and a long list of other questions or concerns they may have. I really enjoy getting to know our staff, helping them on a day-to-day basis, and watching them progress and grow with the company.
I’m a lot more boring in my old age (31), so my free time revolves mostly around spending time with my black lab/beagle mix, Mac, my kitten, Luna, and my boyfriend, John, at home. When I’m not working, you can usually find me binge-watching The Office, but when I get a wild hair, you can find me hitting the town with Sara, Tori and Cassandra, attempting to learn line dances at the Blind Horse Saloon.
Working at Southern Way has cultured me in the world of catering and cuisine. I had very little (aka no) catering experience and I had never even heard of some of our dishes before working here (panna cotta, for example, but it’s delicious). Southern Way has taught me that a healthy, enjoyable work environment is so important, and I didn’t realize what I was missing before I started here and joined this team.
“I am Beyonce, always.” – Michael Scott