the cvb exec

Jay Burress

A stadium like no other!
Fall 2009

JAY BURRESS in the president & chief executive officer of the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau.

MPG: What attracted you to this industry and who were your early mentors?

Jay:  After college I had the opportunity to travel and backpacked through 14 counties in Europe.  I fell in love with the travel industry as a user of travel.  I believe that international travel, the exposure to different people and different cultures, is a great way to bring people together.

In 1988, I had the opportunity to get into an entry level position with the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau as a project coordinator within the tourism division.  In that position I got a chance to travel and to promote Dallas as an international destination.  It’s been a great ride.

My first boss was Jorge Herrera, the head of the Tourism Division.  Jorge was a great mentor.  Not long after I joined the bureau, Dallas had the opportunity to host the National Tour Association and the International Pow Wow.  My role was the key staff liaison to make sure that those shows were a success.  It was a great challenge for me and led to the way I see things now.  Jorge taught his entire staff to dream big - to make an impact - and that’s what I’ve tried to do since then.

Dave Whitney, the president of the Dallas CVB for most of my career, was also a great mentor.  He taught me about caring for your people.  Dave always took time for the people on his team.  During the last few years I’ve learned from Phillip Jones (the Dallas bureau’s current president) about working with the media and working the political side of things.  His ability to grasp new markets and new industries as quickly as he does is an amazing skill.

Tell us about the DFW Meet Now Promise and how it was developed so quickly.

The DFW Meet Now Promise (www.dfwpromise.com) was a response to a charge from Roger Dow, the USTA president, to come together as an area and provide something that would be very attractive to meeting planners during these difficult times.

The program is an attrition-free program for business that will be coming into this area and it got an almost immediate buy- in from Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington and Irving.  We moved forward with the program that involved technology, a marketing plan, and an advertising plan to get out the word that the North Texas region was hungry for their business.  We’ve had great response and the program is being extended into the first part of 2010.

How will the new Cowboy Stadium impact Arlington and the North Texas area with regards to its use as a special events center?

Cowboy Stadium is like no other.  It is the greatest stadium ever built and it has already delivered so much for Arlington and for North Texas.

The stadium is 3 million square feet and has 300,000 square feet of pure event space.  The impact from the stadium will change Arlington and the area forever - from the Super Bowl in 2011 to the Final Four to the NBA All-Star games to the Cotton Bowl to the Big 12 Championships … that’s the type of mega-events it is attracting.

Arlington is feeling its impact through sales tax and the hotel occupancy tax.  The opening event, the George Strait concert, had hotel impact equivalent to the largest city-wide convention we’ve ever hosted.  The inaugural game, the Cowboys-Giants game, topped even that.  If you go into the stadium’s pro shop, which is the largest in the NFL, it’s like being in the mall on the day after Thanksgiving.  Due to the high demand, they’re running tours of the stadium every 15 minutes.

The stadium’s greatest legacy may be that it becomes the economic engine that brings this whole region together.  All the cities are sharing in the wealth and we are all using it as a tool for bringing in new business.

What makes Arlington unique as a destination for meetings and conventions?

With our world class venues - Cowboy Stadium, the Ballpark in Arlington, Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor - you can do some fabulous meetings and events.  There are very few cities that can provide that level of entertainment and unique venues.

The Arlington Convention Center is right in the heart of it all and the venues are all connected with a free trolley service.  The addition of the International Bowling Campus and the US Bowling Congress with their International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame adds yet another unique venue for events.  You can do the ultimate team building exercise here in Arlington.

Regarding the value of face-to-face meetings, can you recall a meeting you attended that, because of someone you met or a speaker you heard, the course of your life was significantly changed?

The International Pow Wow that I began attending early in my career confirmed my choice of career.  Because of my past travel experiences, I knew it was the perfect spot for me.  It really confirmed to me that I was on the right track because I was doing something I both loved and enjoyed and was being paid to do it.

When Pow Wow was in Dallas in 2000, I had the chance to operate the convention and it really helped my career path to a leadership position with a CVB.  Without Pow Wow, my career might have turned out to be very different.

What’s on the horizon for Arlington?

The exposure Arlington is receiving from the stadium and the success of the Texas Rangers is opening people’s eyes to this part of North Texas and the opportunities that are here for entertainment, for hotels, for different developments that will create even more opportunities to grow our convention market, our amateur sports market and our leisure market.

Those developments are the missing piece of the puzzle that are on the way and in the next couple of years that incredible development will put more focus on the heart of North Texas which is right here in Arlington.  

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