Rachel Eble

Account Manager, Arrowhead Conferences and Events
Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 32

Rachel Eble is among the few who chose this industry as a career rather than stumbling into it. Attending church youth gatherings in high school, she marveled at their size and complexity. “They just blew me away and I decided this is what I want to do,” she says. After graduating summa cum laude from Kansas State’s Hotel and Restaurant Management BA program, she plunged into catering, sales and convention services roles with Kansas City’s Hyatt and Hilton, before the Peabody Little Rock. Knowing she wanted to be at Arrowhead, the non-profit event management group assisting Christian ministries in planning their events, she waited for the company to grow with persistence and patience—two qualities serving her well in her recent four years as a planner with Arrowhead and contributing to her September 2010 Planner of the Quarter award from the Chicago area DuPage CVB. “It’s an unbelievable feeling, knowing you’re creating solutions that help people,” she says. Eble also loves the variety that comes with helping plan 50 to 60 meetings a year, anything from 10 room nights to 12,000. —K. Manfredi