Executive Profile
Name: Angela Rauen
Title: Senior Sales Manager
Organization: DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau
Location: Oak Brook, Illinois
Birthplace: Chicago
Education: College of DuPage: Certificate in Event/Meeting Planning
Career History:
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Catering Sales Manager, Holiday Inn of Willowbrook (2011–2013)
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Sports Sales Manager, DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau (2013–2015)
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Corporate Sales Manager, Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Naperville (2015–2016)
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Senior Catering and Events Manager, Le Meridien Chicago Oak Brook Center (2016–2018)
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Owner/CEO, Poppy Productions (2012–present)
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Hotel Sales Task Force, Wischermann Partners (2018–2020)
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Senior Sales Manager, DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau (2020–present)
Angela Rauen has spent her entire life in DuPage County, Illinois — something, she says, that makes her job as a senior sales manager for the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau a lot easier.
“I’m from Downers Grove, Illinois, so I’ve lived and worked in DuPage my whole life, which gave me a leg up on how to sell DuPage,” she said. “That was always a plus.”
Rauen started her career in the restaurant industry, working as a server and later as a manager at TGI Fridays when she was just 18. She then went to work at the Jimmy Buffett-inspired restaurant Cheeseburger in Paradise as the opening manager, training all new managers and opening locations around the country. It was there that she got her first taste of meeting planning, organizing various corporate and staff functions. Rauen enjoyed it so much that she decided to go to college and focus on hospitality, enrolling at the College of DuPage when she was 28.
“When I was in their hospitality program, we learned about hotels, meeting planning, restaurants, conventions,” she said. “But it was when we were learning about convention and visitors bureaus that it hit home. I realized I wanted to work there and sell a whole community instead of just one hotel. I thought it was something I’d like to do because I’m a go-getter, and I like to be busy at all times.”
While she was in college, she started working as a catering sales manager at the local Holiday Inn. She heard the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau was hiring and jumped at the chance to apply. She was hired in 2013 as the CVB’s sports sales manager. After two years, she returned to the hotel industry, working at Embassy Suites and Le Meridien. At the same time, she launched her own private event planning company, Poppy Productions, where she plans weddings, parties and other events.
“We do whatever you ask, from small in-home parties to large galas and everything in between,” she said. “Weddings are what we’re known for. I do them because I love weddings, and I love love.”
Rauen returned to the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau in February of 2020, just before the pandemic brought a halt to the hospitality industry, but she was able to stay on through the ups and downs that followed. As the senior sales manager, one of the things she loves most about her job is that it offers a lot of variety.
“One day we’re at a golf outing supporting the sports commission, the next day we’re making welcome bags for an event coming up, and the day after that we’re taking a client on a site tour to see all of DuPage County,” she said. “It’s something different every day, which, for me, is the best way to wake up and know that your day is not always going to be the same.”
Rauen also appreciates that her job affords her a good work-life balance that allows her time to be with family; to travel (her grandfather bought a family home in Michigan 55 years ago, and it’s her “happy place”); to garden; and to take road trips in her RV.
“My parents are big advocates for how productive and in tune with my job and my life I have been,” she said. “They love that I do Poppy Productions, and they always come help me at events. I wouldn’t have been able to get here without the people around me, whether it’s a coworker, one of my directors, my parents, my partner — I wouldn’t be able to do what I do today if it weren’t for all of them.”
Tips from Angela Rauen
- Always listen carefully to your client.
- Make sure your client feels like they are your only client.
- Look in your backyard for resources before looking elsewhere.
