Michael Kloss ’99

Tell us a little about yourself!

I recently celebrated 25 years in the events industry, 20 of them at Emory University, where I lead an amazing events and venue management team. My wife (whom I met on a blind date during my freshman year at UCF) and I love traveling, especially back to Orlando for Disney trips with our family. I’ve had so much fun writing and sharing Five Days with the Mouse to Be a Better Event Planner, which combines my passion for helping other event planners grow with my love of studying and emulating the amazing work Disney Imagineers do to create magic in the parks.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I started on a screenwriting path at UCF and then earned my MFA in Writing for Screen and Television at USC. After I created an event planning curriculum for Emory’s Continuing Education program, I knew there was a “book in there somewhere,” but I wasn’t sure what the hook would be. When COVID hit and both the events industry and the theme parks shut down, I began to make more and more connections between those two worlds. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop.

What’s your writing process? What inspires your writing?

For me, it’s an extension of teaching and mentoring others. I can talk a lot when I’m passionate about something, so long-form nonfiction was a great outlet to share everything I wanted to say about a topic and make it available if and when it’s helpful to someone else on their journey. I also appreciate learning in bite-sized chunks, so I made sure that while the book is exhaustive in content, it’s broken into sections that can be read on their own.

What was the biggest thing you learned during your time as a Knight that you apply to your life today?

Make your own opportunities. UCF was a very different place in 1995 when I started. It was growing and looking for people to step up and do new things. I found my place in the Campus Activities Board right away and loved being entrepreneurial and feeling empowered to help build and shape a program I had only just learned about.

Who are some of your favorite authors or books?

I’m always drawn to behind-the-scenes stories of creative people, and I can’t wait to read former Imagineer Joe Rohde’s Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible.

If UCF had a time machine, what moment on campus would you go back to?

I loved my first couple of years the most. In addition to meeting my future wife, I got to run an entire video production department and build one of the first non-linear video editing systems on campus, back before there was much of an internet to teach you how. There were lots of long nights of trial and error and eventual success, and I believe they helped shape the drive I have today.

What are you currently working on right now?

A series of LinkedIn articles that pick up where Five Days with the Mouse to Be a Better Event Planner left off. I call them “Extra Magic Hours,” of course! I’m also working on a presentation about integrating AI into the guest experience at major events.

Anything else you want to share?

Go Knights!