Running a village & convention carry similarities for Villa Park mayor

Villa Park Village President Deb Bullwinkel sees similarities in running a town and a convention or corporate meeting. She should know as she does both.

Bullwinkel, a full-time meeting planner for 20 years, says planning and details are key.

"It all comes down to getting the details organized," she said. "If one detail gets lost in the shuffle or falls through the cracks it can impact an entire meeting."

Bullwinkel, who served as a village trustee beginning in 2009, became mayor in 2013. She says that the meeting planner career came about by accident after working as a reporter for about three years.

She was ready for a change, but wanted to be able to use her writing skills, so she applied for a job at a mental-health based organization, which was her first introduction to the nonprofit sector.

Now self-employed, much of what Bullwinkel does is help plan independent meetings and conventions for the Automotive Service Assocation of Illinois and a variety of nonprofits that deal with mental health and developmental disabilities. She has planned smaller 5 to 10 person meetings all the way to conventions with more than 1,000 attendees.

Both large and small events, she says, take planning, such as developing a timeline and budget.

However, no matter how much planning one does, things can go wrong - especially when it comes to unpredictable technology for presentations.

"When nobody's there, it always works. During showtime something always fails," Bullwinkel said.

Though this can be frustrating, technology issues and glitches don't have to derail an event-if the planner has prepared in advance and has a back up plan. "I always have a plan B and plan C," Bullwinkel says. "You need to try and be patient, try to keep cool and roll with the punches."

Being flexible is important, especially when hotels get booked up and convention organizers don't get the dates they originally planned.

She believes a good meeting planner pays attention to detail, performs under pressure and carries a sense of professionalism.

These characteristics are also important in her role as village president. She says she hones in on these traits, whether planning a board meeting or an organization's convention. "Both (jobs) are a lot of work, a lot of stress, but there's also fun attached to both jobs," says Bullwinkel, who was also a candidate in the Democratic primary for the 8th Congressional District.

It is the sense of accomplishment that goes with working so hard to plan an event that makes her job worth it, she adds.

A lot of a meeting planner's job takes negotiation, with the venue owners, suppliers and clients who want the convention to be a success. When negotiating, Bullwinkel said, it is important to be open-minded and come to the table knowing compromises will have to be made.

"You have to have that in mind, you're not going to get everything you want, the hotels not going to get everything they want," Bullwinkel said.

To save some time, Bullwinkel suggests using convention and visitors bureaus for help with finding hotels and other aspects of planning, as they can provide help with picking hotels and other information.

Planning a proper convention or meeting is important, as more businesses and people see the value in a face-to-face meeting.

"In my opinion, when you bring people together in person for a conference meeting it is so much more productive," Bullwinkel said. "There's a human element."

Like any industry, the event planning industry has to keep up with changing times.

After 9/11 and a worsening economy, not as many corporations were willing to loosen funds to travel, especially as webinars and virtual meetings became more popular. "One of the big challenges was how to keep the industry going," Bullwinkel said.

Bullwinkel says she is happy to see the industry has kept up with the challenges, with convention centers being built or refurbished and hotels going through renovation processes.

As the economy improved, there has also been a resurgence in people traveling for work, as corporations feel more comfortable loosening up funds, she says.