Meetings and events are all about the people behind them, and the 2014 Hall of Fame showcases those who not only work hard—but those whose wisdom, spirit and willingness to work together is the heartbeat of our industry. Here’s to seven professionals who made an incredible difference this past year.
Lifetime Achievement
TOM KEHOE
President
Kehoe Designs
It would be easy for Tom Kehoe to let his 220 employees do his dirty work, but he actually prefers to be in the trenches.
“We all get our hands dirty here,†he says. “I’m more of a shop guy than an office guy anyway—I help with all of it.â€
The Mt. Prospect native started his career at a local flower shop at age 16. After stopping in to buy his mom a birthday present, Kehoe talked the shop into hiring him as a delivery driver and then relentlessly asked for more responsibility until the owners—a couple whom Kehoe cites as his mentors— finally tasked him with a design test: create something beautiful using only the shop’s garbage. (Perhaps this is where he learned to get his hands dirty.)
Kehoe aced the assignment, started designing and ended up buying the shop after college when one of the owners passed away. In 1996 he sold it and proceeded to open his namesake event-design firm, schooling himself about the events industry by scoping out hotel ballrooms on Saturday nights, “like the dork I was,†he adds.
That weekend overtime has more than paid off. In 2014 Kehoe relocated four buildings worth of planning, design, manufacturing and showroom operations to a new 164,000-square-foot complex on Chicago’s near west side, a move he says has improved efficiency and increased the firm’s ability to take on larger events. In addition to a consistent roster of galas, weddings, corporate events and trade shows, 2015’s work will include the James Beard Awards, the NFL Draft (for which Kehoe is building 32 “fan cavesâ€â€”one customized for each team) and the launch of an on-site, 25,000-square-foot venue called The Geraghty, in homage to Kehoe’s mother, whose birthday set her son’s career in motion.
“She’s the one who taught me how to entertain, how to be a good host,†Kehoe says. “It feels great to have my mom’s [maiden] name on one side of the building and my dad’s on the other.â€
Best Meeting Professional
AMY REEBER, CMP
Account Manager,
Global Event Operations, AbbVie
If you ever need someone to get a helicopter on an hour’s notice, Amy Reeber is up to the challenge. In fact, she’s up for just about anything when it comes to corporate meetings— and she does it all on a global scale. As part of a team of seven global account managers at AbbVie, Reeber plans and manages events and meetings for a team of high-level executives and affiliates all over the world. Whether it’s a basic weather-prompted venue change or the aforementioned helicopter, Reeber’s philosophy is to just “make it work.â€
“I quickly realized when I got into the industry that meetings are living, breathing entities. You have to be adaptable,†she says. “If everything went according to plan, I wouldn’t have a job.â€
Reeber started out in Detroit as an on-site travel director at Carlson (located in Minneapolis, Minnesota), where she “got addicted to travel and the people.†After nearly a decade in on-site planning for the auto industry, she moved to Chicago and accepted a global position at pharmaceutical giant AbbVie in November 2013—in her trademark adaptable fashion—after applying for a domestic role.
“I thought, ‘I’ve been to Las Vegas enough times,’†she says, laughing. “They offered me the global position, and I thought that would be the most challenging.†Reeber, who spends about 80 days a year working abroad (primarily in Europe), was no stranger to jet-setting before AbbVie, with an African safari in the ‘90s and working the Sydney Olympic games in 2000 under her belt. Today, she’s still addicted to traveling— and to the people she meets in her work: “I appreciate that I learn something new every day from the people I work with.â€
Up-and-Coming Meeting Professional
SHAUN RAJAH
Senior Catering Sales Manager,
The Drake Hotel
It’s a long way from Malaysia to Lake Michigan, but for Shaun Rajah it was a journey that was meant to be. Two of his childhood dreams were to be in the hospitality business and to move to the United States—and both have come true in recent years.
After getting his degree in International Hotel and Catering Management at Vatel in France, he started to work at the Crowne Plaza in PR and then as a management trainee at The Regent (both in his hometown of Kuala Lumpur). But in 2005 he finally moved to Chicago “with open arms†to accept a position as assistant manager of The Drake Hotel’s Palm Court Restaurant.
“[Working at] The Drake has always been on my bucket list,†he says. “And I don’t think I’m going to be leaving anytime soon.â€
In Rajah’s 10-year career with the iconic hotel, he’s gone from assistant manager to special events manager of the Palm Court to his current role, which was a promotion in 2013. Along the way Rajah has fostered The Drake’s legacy of family ties and community connections (“We have people who were married here 50 years ago whose children are now getting married here,†he says) while ushering in a new generation of traditions, à la 2011’s Royal Wedding tea, which landed him and the hotel an appearance on the Today show.
“We were the only hotel in America to be on the Today show. It was a very simple event, but it took some power planning,†he recalls.
Rajah is excited about what 2015 will bring to The Drake (including a new executive chef who hails from the Waldorf Astoria) and says he’s grateful he gets to fulfill his childhood dream “to meet people and take care of them.â€
Best Special Event Planner
BARB HARRIS
Senior Program Director
On the Scene
Barb Harris’ move to Chicago was no accident. The Michigan native, who grew up traveling with her family, was working at an event firm in Detroit in the late 2000s when she made up her mind to take the plunge and move to Chicago. She took a position with the destination management company Chicago Travel Consultants. But there was a catch: She didn’t know much about the city.
“I [had to] become a destination expert, and one of the first challenges was that I really wasn’t an expert,â€Â she explains.
Hard work and intense networking, largely through her involvement with the International Special Events Society (ISES), changed that though, and in 2013 Harris was elected president of the Chicago chapter. It’s an organization that is incredibly important to her. So much so that in 2013 it helped Harris find her current role as a senior program director at On the Scene (which she calls her “perfect jobâ€) that sees her both working on events in the Chicago area and traveling with clients.
Harris’ planning knowledge, combined with a collegeera stint in resorts and some décor background from a year at Kehoe Designs, means she has a uniquely holistic vantage point when it comes to events.
“I have all the information everybody needs,†she says. “I like to think I answer people’s questions before they even ask them.â€
Up-and-Coming Special Event Planner
LOREEN HOSPODAR
Senior Event Consultant,
Clementine Custom Events
Loreen Hospodar is used to being a fish out of water. It started at Michigan’s Grand Valley State University when the illustration major wound up living with a group of Health Sciences students.
“They found me fascinating,†she says. “They’d see my still life setup and I’d have to convince them that was my homework!â€
After graduating, Hospodar continued to keep one foot in the art world while also assisting on weddings; she managed an art gallery for two years at the same time she started her bridal bouquet custom portrait business, Reenie Rose, in 2009. After “networking the heck out of myselfâ€Â and assisting on a few of the company’s weddings, Hospodar officially joined the Clementine Custom Events team in 2014 as a senior event consultant. This is the first year she’ll be taking on her own clients on a regular basis, and she’s more than up to the challenge.
“Even though I’m creative, I’m organized,â€Â she says of her planning style. “Once [clients] find out you’re both Type A and Type B, they love it. It sets you apart.†And unlike the college dorm, she fits right in with her Clementine team.
“We’re all nice Midwestern girls,†she says. “We’re honest and we really try to connect with our clients on a personal basis.â€
Best Supplier
ANTHONY GOWDER
Owner,
Anthony Gowder Designs
Anthony Gowder and his wife, Stephanie, have come a long way in the 17 years since they opened their own design firm. For one thing, no longer do they use a Mazda as a delivery vehicle—nor do they assemble flowers and foundations in hotel back alleys before events.
“You always have to start somewhere,†Gowder says, recalling his very first forays into the floral business when living in Philadelphia during the “earthy, crunchy, Kumbaya†era of the 1970s plant craze (think fern bars with oak interiors). His floral career started “humbly†after a visit to the Philadelphia Flower Show while still in college. He soon became a delivery driver before opening his first shop (in Philly’s Main Line neighborhood) in 1980, before the time of supermarket floral departments. “I’d have 80 to 100 varieties of cut flowers [displayed] six days a week at my shop,†he explains. “You’d be lucky to find a bucket of mums or carnations at the grocery store.â€
By 1991, Gowder had sold his four East Coast stores and gave up the floral business. A year later, desperately missing flowers, he returned to the industry. He moved back to his native Chicago and met Stephanie in 1997 and by the following year they were in business together, funded from their own pockets. Nearly two decades later, Anthony Gowder Designs is a go-to, on-trend special event florist that’s in the process of moving to a new location. Gowder says he’s excited about the re-energizing of the economy over the past couple years and what that means for the industry as a whole.
“People are feeling more comfortable about entertaining and celebrating important moments in their lives again,†he says. As for Gowder himself, some things haven’t changed.
“I’ll do a wedding and still get misty-eyed as the bride is walking down the aisle,†he admits. “But that’s how it should be with anything you have a passion for.â€
Up-and-Coming Supplier
SIDDARTH SAWHNEY
Owner,
Modern Event Rental
Siddarth Sawhney may be modest, but the ambition of his company, Modern Event Rental (MER), is anything but.
“I could brag about myself, but I’d be lying,†he says in the same breath as he describes the light-up tables and 12-foot-high mezzanine that MER constructed for a recent event. Everything is designed and manufactured in-house at MER, which makes customization the norm and not the exception.
“We make our own wall tiles, we make our own acrylic furniture. We’ll weld,†he says. “The custom fabrication is the part of [the business] I’m most proud of.â€
Sawhney also runs Precision Lighting and Sound Inc. alongside MER, which opened next to its sister company in Elk Grove Village in 2010; both companies expanded to Atlanta in late 2013 and allow clients to have lighting, furniture and installations all taken care of in one fell swoop.
Next on the docket is upgrading his entire inventory and expanding a line of “Power-Up†products, which include custom-built tables with USB and surge-protected electrical outlets built right in where event guests and conference attendees can give themselves (and their phones) a much-needed breather. Very Modern, indeed.
