Rising Stars: Meet Philip Heil

Today we’d like to introduce you to Philip Heil.

Hi Philip, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
What a big question! I’ll start at the roots: I grew up in Clarksville, TN, about an hour northwest of Nashville. I moved into the city in 2012, where I attended Belmont University and completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees by 2018. During my time at Belmont, I was always very involved with outreach/event-heavy positions in campus organizations; Director of Outreach and Events for Student Government, Membership Coordinator for our Bruin Recruiters team, and social, formal, and semi-formal planner for my fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega, etc. When I began graduate school in 2016, all of my internships focused on similar things, such as planning the St. Jude Rock N Roll Marathon with the Nashville Sports Council, assisting with the 50th CMA’s at the Bridgestone Arena, and working with the Run Club for Tennessee State Parks!

All of this led to my first job out of grad school with the Nashville Smile Bar, where I met many of the people I know in the events industry today – including Claire White (White Ink Calligraphy) – who introduced me to Angie Lopez, Owner of Velour Premier Events. After a year with the Nashville Smile Bar, I started to work on weddings as an event assistant with Velour in 2019 and was brought on as a lead planner. During COVID the following year, Angie and I worked tirelessly to make sure all of our brides stayed calm and that all of our events could be postponed, doing our best to avoid cancellations. This, as you can imagine, required a lot of coordination and precise detail management with vendors, venues, clients, and everyone in between. When we were able to make it out of that, Angie decided to promote me to the role of her Executive Assistant, where I did my best to make our operations smoother, build our vendor relationships even more, and make our clients the happiest they could be with our services!

My time with Velour was something I will be forever grateful for! Angie taught me more than I could have ever imagined about how to run a successful event, what an effective planning process looks like, and most importantly, how to create and build lasting relationships with clients and vendors, many of whom I now am happy to call my friends. As I look forward to my future in Nashville’s event industry, I am excited about my next career move as the Events Manager for Nelson’s Greenbrier Distillery, and am grateful to still be involved with organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, with whom I am currently planning our 2023 Nashville Dinner! Lots of big things in store, and I can’t wait to see what happens!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
First of all, almost no road in this city is smooth! All joking aside, this journey has definitely had its ups and downs, as with any. Battling COVID with Velour was certainly a challenge that no one saw coming, but making it through that and coming out on the other side successfully was something we were incredibly proud of as a team! I know most small businesses struggled and weren’t able to recover from the effects of COVID, and the events industry was hit especially hard. While helping navigate the pandemic with Velour and our clients, I was also in the midst of preparing for our 2020 Nashville HRC Dinner, when we got the news two days before that we needed to shift to a virtual event. All of the months spent preparing auction items, selling tickets, tasting food and wine for the dinner (not the worst part), and preparing to gather in person to raise funds for this fantastic organization seemed lost.

One of the things I am most proud of to this day is how quickly everyone pivoted their efforts to still create a successful, virtual event to raise money for this cause. Everyone, from our team in DC to the award recipients we selected, the performers, our ticket holders, and the ground crew in Nashville. We all managed to work harder than ever to record our speeches from home (for me, it only took 200 takes and a “teleprompter” app on my phone) and deliver a program that still managed to get people excited about the mission of the Human Rights Campaign! Following that up with an in-person dinner this past year in 2022, everyone was anxious, to say the least. I am also proud to report that this past dinner was our most successful one in years, and I have no doubt that our upcoming one will be even better.

All that to say: I really believe that to make it through COVID, the biggest “struggle” anyone has faced to date, and still come out on the other side with a smile on my face and a bright outlook for the future, I’m ready for whatever other roadblocks and challenges come my way!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think when it comes to what I’m known for in my work, it has always been producing exciting and unique events for people! Weddings, galas, music shows, private parties, you name it. What I am most proud of with my career is also what I think sets me apart from others, and that has been my ability to connect with people and build lasting relationships. Being able to “work a room” is one thing, and I have always been a social butterfly so that’s not an issue for me, but connecting with people on a more personal level has always been an asset I have been proud of. So many of the clients and vendors I have worked with over the years remain friends of mine outside of work, and I think that sets me apart from everyone else because we know when we get on-site to execute an event we can trust each other.

There is so much more that goes into a successful event than just showing up and doing the floor plan and timeline layout for you. Knowing that my vendors are also my friends allows us to maintain that professionalism onsite, while also knowing that when (not if, because there’s always something) something goes wrong, we will be able to work with each other to overcome it, and trust each other to problem solve at the moment while maintaining the vision. Having those relationships with my clients has also been crucial because they always know that if they’re panicking, I’m there to calm them down if they want something changed, I’ll make it happen, and if they just need to vent, I’m there to listen. Outside of work, all of my vendor friends and clients know that even though that specific event is over, I am always just a call or text away, and I am just as ready to catch up over happy hour as I am to help plan their next big event!

What makes you happy?
Another big question! This might sound cliche or cheesy, but being around people I care about, who I know care equally about me, is what makes me the happiest. We could be doing anything or nothing, and I would be just as content! Over the last few years, I am happy to say I have made an incredible, close-knit group of friends who support and love each other through everything!

Our successes, our failures, deaths in families, lost jobs, and relationships; we have seen a lot together and we have always banded together through the good, bad, and ugly. These kinds of friendships are what make me the happiest because I know that no matter what comes my way I have a never-ending support system. Knowing that I have made enough of an impact on these people’s lives for them to trust me and love me despite my flaws is also something that makes me feel good. Also, not to ruin the mood, but wine. Wine makes me happy.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/philip_heil

Image Credits
Jordyn Smalling, Tausha Dickinson, Hunter Thomas, Abigail Bridges, and Nashville Wedding Collection