Babette Hiles, who has led the planning of U. of I. commencement ceremonies for 19 years, doesn't lose sleep worrying about sputtering microphones or collapsing stages.
She has learned to accept the likelihood that something somewhere within an elaborate event won't go as planned, and she is confident that, if that happens, she and her team will be able to correct it.
"You do your best planning and assume that there's going to be an emergency to take care of once the event starts," she said. "The chances are good you're going to have a fire to put out."
Sound like the approach of a pessimist? Hardly.
It's actually an illustration of confidence, something developed through the countless events Hiles has orchestrated on campus, starting nearly 30 years ago at the Illini Union.
And it's not just a confidence of self, but a faith in the institution and the people who keep it running.
"The people I work with - sometimes we think we're like MacGyver," she said. "There's always more than one way to do something and we're good at figuring things out on the fly. That makes me sleep pretty well."
In the end, she still believes - with good planning and good people and a little luck - it's possible to pull off the perfect event.
"Stuff will happen, but you have to keep it in perspective," she said. "You have to be calm and be able to brainstorm, and you have to be able to switch gears. If you've planned well, you can put all of your focus on solving any problems that come up."
For the rare crises of concentration, she keeps a pad and pen on the bedside table to jot down a solution to any nighttime "oh-my-God" moment and goes for a run in the morning to ensure she's plenty tired by bedtime.
Special for whom?
The "special event" is the biggest threat to Hiles' regular sleeping pattern.
She recalls such a time in 2003, when she got a very early-morning call from campus Public Affairs saying a faculty member had received a Nobel Prize.
"Robin Kaler (the associate chancellor for public affairs) called me at home to tell me we had to get something together that day," she said. "You can imagine, I got in to work a little earlier than usual that day."
The day after the event, with a dizzied Hiles and staff ready for down time, the call came again - with instructions to set up a second Nobel Prize ceremony.
"At that point I told the caterers, 'Serve whatever you have, even if it's leftovers. We have to have something.' It was an exhilarating time. It felt good to be a part of it - everyone around here was walking tall and feeling proud to be a part of this place."
VIP treatment
Speakers at commencement or other events range from presidents to poets, and each visitor's stay has been distinctive, Hiles said.
"I should have been keeping a diary," she said.
For campus staff members, some of the more demanding VIP scenarios - physically and mentally - have involved politicians.
A visit from former presidential chief of staff William M. Daley, who was commencement speaker in 2011, involved a lot of outside security and extra hassles for everyone involved.
"It was an amazing experience," she said, "but it was exhausting for everyone."
A 1998 visit from President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore brought similar challenges as campus officials worked with a seemingly uncommunicative triumvirate of the Secret Service, the presidential advance team and the president's publicists.
One of the difficulties of that visit included the last-minute replacement of university lecterns with the honored speakers' custom lectern.
"Those were three teams that didn't play well together," she said. "It was maddening because they kept changing things. One group would tell us one thing and the other would say, 'Ignore what they said, do this.' You'd think they'd be better coordinated. It reinforced my appreciation for being a team player and communicating."
Despite those difficulties, Hiles knows her job is to keep calm, take things in stride and, ultimately, ensure an event runs smoothly.
"I don't like problems that are the result of poor planning from people who should know better, but in the end I'm an ambassador for the chancellor's office," she said.
Event planning 101
Most campus events don't involve nationally or globally known celebrities.
Many are held for alumni, donors, community members and state legislators, including all of the events hosted by the Office of the Chancellor that range from groundbreakings to homey get-togethers to hall-size gatherings.
"Every chancellor has been completely different," she said. "When you get a new chancellor it's almost like you have a new job."
Event protocol can affect image and a positive image can aid university outreach, Hiles said.
That means every gathering calls for a unique event-planning template and the type of ceremony dictates everything, including who is invited.
"You've got to know the purpose of the event before you even take the first step," Hiles said. "It affects everything from food to seating to room décor."
And then there are the gray areas, which again, most often have roots in politics.
For example, legislators are coming and the university would like to impress and/or woo them. What do you serve for dinner?
According to Hiles, not filet mignon. That could be construed as a meal served by a university swimming in money. It's not.
But serving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches might send an altogether different signal.
Who knew state funding could in part subconsciously hinge on plating?
Then there's the almost unrecognizable presentation touches that lend themselves to pageantry and the feeling of "specialness."
Hiles adheres to the commencement day custom that has presenters carrying a black folder as opposed to a white one. She said the white folder looks less weighty in its presentation and that lighter colored ones can present a distracting reflection to the audience.
"It's those weird little details that people may roll their eyes at, but gives an event just the right feel," she said. "There's a method to our madness."
The big one
Hiles said the two annual commencement ceremonies are hands down the best campus events.
Commencement even has its own language. Caps and gowns, for example, are called "custom regalia"; banners with university emblems, gonfalon.
"The biggest change since I've been here are the visuals," she said.
Robes have gone from black to blue and orange, and projection screens give the audience live views of the ceremony. At one time, the event was recorded on audiotape, but now the ceremony is streamed live on the Web. The Web also has made the process for ordering the regalia much easier.
Hiles said for years students had to wait in long lines at the Illini Union just to be measured.
"The line from the second floor would go down the hall, down the stairs and through the front lobby," she said. "It was quite a sight. Now it's just a matter of getting the word out to students (when to order online)."
In addition to the two commencement ceremonies (because Assembly Hall can't hold everyone for one ceremony), the university holds 34 convocations and other congratulatory ceremonies. While Hiles doesn't run the smaller graduation-related celebrations, she does oversee the process.
"We meet formally twice a year with all of those in charge of the unit events to address any problems or needs they have," she said.
Usually, responsibility for the smaller events falls to unit employees with little planning experience.
"A lot of it is helping them become event planners," she said. "They have to do the lion's share of work and we're here to help them. I want to help them make informed decisions to make them look good and, in turn, make the university look good."
Hiles said every part of the team is important to pulling off an event and that communication is a key component to success.
"You just hope people communicate with you and treat you like a member of the team," she said. "I've had a great group of colleagues and mentors from all across campus. I really believe in networking. We share information and help each other avoid alligators in the water - it's the Golden Rule. I value those people."
She said the time will inevitably come, no matter who you are, when you'll need someone's help.
"You have to please the principals and the boss, but the building service worker is the one who can make things run smoothly," she said.
Best laid plans
Most commencements go well considering the number of participants and detail work involved. But things do go wrong.
One year, the Symphonic Band arrived to perform and realized about 15 minutes prior to the start of commencement that the sheet music was missing.
"There was this mad scramble," she said. "We had people with flashlights searching everywhere."
It turned out the music had been delivered in boxes earlier along with the band's equipment, but the boxes had been moved under the stage for safekeeping.
"There was a moment when we were talking about whether the band would have to play from memory," she said.
Another time the color guard's van broke down en route to Assembly Hall and left the program participants without transportation
"They literally had to run all the way from the Armory," she said.
As Hiles said, nothing is perfect - but almost everything is correctible.
She retires at the end of this academic year. "I never dreamed I would be here this long," she said. "It's been an incredible experience."