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the cvb exec
Keith Toler There’s nothing like Santa Fe!
KEITH TOLER joined the Santa Fe CVB as executive director in May 2007 and recently celebrated the grand opening of the new Santa Fe Convention Center.
MPG I came into this industry from the advertising side. After graduate school, I went to work for an ad agency and I began working on some hospitality accounts including Holiday Inns Worldwide and Homewood Suites. When I was living in Memphis, I started working with the Tennessee tourism accounts which sparked my interest in tourism and destination marketing organizations. I helped launch a tourism program for the city of Portsmouth, Virginia and after 10 years moved to Buck’s County Pennsylvania as the director of their CVB. I was there for five years. Last year I saw that the director’s position at the Santa Fe CVB was open. I’d never lived in the west and thought it was a great opportunity to experience a new culture and a new lifestyle. Tell us about any mentors who helped you along the way? Sybil Stewart, the deputy commissioner of tourism for Tennessee, gave me guidance when I was building the program in Portsmouth. The city is located across the river from Norfolk, VA where Bill Lindley was running their CVB. Bill was a prominent bureau executive, the current president of the Virginia Association of CVB’s and served as my mentor in a lot of ways. Bill was an expert on the meetings side of the business and taught me how to work with meeting planners and how to understand their specific needs. What’s been your initial reaction to Santa Fe? The first word that comes to mind is exotic - the architecture, the Rocky Mountains, the arts community, the multi-cultural population, primarily Native American, Anglo, and Hispanic as well as large Russian and Japanese populations. Nearby is the largest community of Sikhs in America. Honestly, I didn’t understand the adobe architecture until I climbed to the top of our Atalaya Mountain and looked down. The adobe just blends into the landscape without taking anything away from its natural beauty. Santa Fe has had a building ordinance since 1912 and no building in town can be taller than the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis. There is simply nothing like Santa Fe. What are some of the common misconceptions about Santa Fe? People are always surprised to learn that we are at 7,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains and have four seasons. There is a ski resort less than 20 minutes from downtown. Also, people don’t realize that Santa Fe is the third largest arts market in the country, behind San Francisco and New York and that Santa Fe is 400 years old, the oldest capital city in America. You just celebrated the grand opening of Santa Fe’s new LEED certified convention center. Tell us about your center. There are two reasons that it is important that our new convention center is LEED certified – meeting planners are requesting it and this community requires it. Santa Fe was the first U.S. city to sign the Architecture 2030 Challenge. Its goal is to achieve a dramatic reduction in the global-warming-causing greenhouse gas emissions of the building sector by changing the way buildings and developments are planned, designed and constructed. Everything we are doing now has to have some green element associated with it and they are seeking the certification for any public buildings that are being constructed now. When they tore down the Sweeney Center (Santa Fe’s former civic center) which is the site where the new convention center is located, 88% of the demolition materials were recycled and 75% of the new construction waste is also being recycled. That all contributes to that LEED’s certification. When you walk through the new center, every space has natural lighting. Even in the ballroom there is natural light that shines through from the pre-function area. Although the landscaping has not been completed, the rooftop gardens are going to be absolutely beautiful. They will also serve the purpose of keeping heat from coming into the building which helps us reduce the amount of energy that we are consuming for the climate control. The city has recently hired a green consultant who is monitoring all the utility bills for city-owned buildings and he is going to be assisting us on how to operate a green facility. What is the ideal-sized meeting for your new center? The ideal group for the Santa Fe Convention Center is 800 to 1000 people although it can accommodate more. The center offers some great outdoor space and with 300 days of sunshine each year, our 6,600 square foot terrace that overlooks the mountains will be very popular. The largest indoor space is 18,000 square feet. It also has 10 additional breakout rooms and an upscale executive boardroom. The building is outfitted with unusual works of art. The Santa Fe Arts Commission commissioned local artists to develop projects specifically for the convention center. Allan Houser, one of the best known artists from Santa Fe, has provided us with a long term loan of some of his pieces to display throughout the building. The ribbon cutting was September 25 and our first conference moved in on September 28, the Santa Fe International Conference on Creative Tourism sponsored by UNESCO and the city of Santa Fe. What are your thoughts about the relationship between the meetings industry and topic of sustainability? This is an international industry and it’s an international issue. Planners are in a position to teach their delegates about social responsibility and about the environmental responsibility of each individual. I sincerely believe that the meetings industry will be a leader in the green movement. One small example - our web site offers a carbon offset calculator for those visitors who want to calculate their carbon footprint for travel to Santa Fe and they can purchase green tags through Green Energy New Mexico that will fund additional wind energy. Regarding sustainability, it will take everyone contributing to really make a difference. |
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: What attracted you to the hospitality industry? 