May 21, 2021
The hiring craze at event and hospitality companies continues, with organizations, CVBs and hotels across the country tapping fresh leadership and expanding their teams. Take a look:
Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau
Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau has appointed 15-year hospitality sales and marketing professional Dee Mittman as its new convention sales manager. Most recently, she served as national sales manager for the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau, spending seven years at the CVB successfully sourcing meetings and events in the sports, corporate,… more
May 20, 2021
Hubb CEO Allie Magyar knows first-hand what it’s like to face gender discrimination and unconscious bias in the technology world. In the early days of the event software company, she remembers being consistently asked to explain how she wouldn’t fail rather than how she would succeed, an over-arching attitude made more apparent by the prevalence of male-led companies able to raise large sums of money while female-led companies struggled to get investors. While she never let the naysayers stop her from turning Hubb into a successful event management platform, she still experiences the… more
May 12, 2021
BCD Meetings & Events Global President Scott Graf sees the currents changing. Because reopening is staggered across the globe, it’s impossible to maneuver the corporate events management company as one large ship. Rather, there are several yachts moving at varying speeds. The United States and United Kingdom have reached the Atlantic Ocean and are poised to push their engines. Continental Europe and Latin America remain closer to home, awaiting their turn to push off from port.
The good news is BCD is not in any danger of recreating the Titanic’s fate. Through meaningful customer… more
May 06, 2021
Detroit’s TCF Center has landed a new general manager. On April 19, Larry Alexander, board chairman of the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority announced that Karen Totaro has been tapped by ASM Global to lead the convention center. In her new role, Totaro will be responsible for the overall management, promotion and operation of the facility, leading its team of professionals, building on key industry partnerships in the community and supporting the overall mission of the TCF Center and the DRCFA.
“Karen Totaro is the right person at the right time to take the TCF Center back to… more
May 04, 2021
The first time Jordan Clark approached Rhanee Palma about working for him, Palma lost a friendship with a fellow applicant over a job opportunity at Caesars Entertainment that she ended up bypassing. Palma didn’t hold a grudge and Clark was undeterred. Years later, the 30-year industry veteran and founder/CEO of FACE2FACE Meetings & Incentives finally got his woman.
Palma, arguably the face of Visit Oakland for nearly five years, most recently as chief sales officer, is now running the sales department for the Las Vegas-based meetings and events company. A veteran of Marriott… more
Apr 30, 2021
One of the driving factors that led Jim Sharpe to become CEO of leading events platform Aventri was that he saw a chance to work within an industry about to undergo a technological revolution. That was in January 2020. “I didn’t appreciate what that meant,” said Sharpe, who had a grand total of six weeks to become acclimated with events before COVID-19 turned the world on its head.
A newbie to the MICE industry, Sharpe was previously responsible for tech-enabled services at companies like Gerson Lehrman Group and Standard Purification. “More than anything, I leveraged my experience as a CEO… more
Apr 15, 2021
As the meetings industry sets its sights on a post-pandemic future, organizations and companies throughout the country are appointing new leaders, creating fresh roles and making promotions in preparation for busier times ahead. Take a look!
Visit Sacramento has appointed its 15-year Chief Marketing Officer, Sonya Bradley, as its chief of diversity, equity and inclusion, a new role created to address the organization’s commitment to taking action and creating lasting change in the Sacramento region’s tourism industry and across the country.
A 25-year veteran of the travel and tourism… more
Apr 12, 2021
Stacey Purcell’s career in hospitality started brewing in Maui, home of the beloved Kona coffee. When not cheerleading, she would accompany her father on his trips to Las Vegas. He’d love to gamble at The Riviera, where he’d go four or five times per year. “Las Vegas was kind of like Maui — there was a little valley and some mountain around it,” Purcell recalled. “The only difference was it was steaming hot.”
Flash forward 30 years and Las Vegas is home to Purcell, who now visits Hawaii. Her dad passed prior to the move, but she has found several father figures in what has amounted to a… more
Apr 06, 2021
As manager of engineering services at Detroit’s TCF Center, Al Vasquez is typically responsible for directing and managing the maintenance of the venue’s buildings, grounds, equipment and utilities. He works to keep the facility compliant with local building codes and Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations while assisting customers with their facilities requirements. But in the spring of last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic was first hitting cities throughout the U.S., his role at the downtown venue took on a whole new level of importance and urgency.
On March 30, 2020,… more
Mar 11, 2021
You have about six minutes to read this article before your attention may wane, according Ben Hindman, CEO and founder of the event marking platform Splash. It’s not personal, but the reality is that digital content needs to be cut into shorter time periods to remain effective.
“I think many formats are still stuck in the past,” said Hindman, who was an event planner at Thrillist before creating Splash, which counts several Fortune 500 companies as clients. “The shorter and more concise you get, the better.”
There’s wiggle room to about 10 minutes for a solid chunk of content, he explained… more
Partner Voices
MGM Resorts is committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse culture, not just among employees and guests but also within its supply chain. The company prioritizes procuring goods and services from businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, people with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals and those facing economic disadvantages. This commitment is integral to MGM Resorts' global procurement strategy.
Through its voluntary supplier diversity program, MGM Resorts actively identifies and connects certified diverse-owned suppliers to opportunities within its supply chain. The company is more