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the cvb exec
Maura Gast, FCDME A seat at the community table
MAURA ALLEN GAST, FCDME, is the executive director of the Irving Convention & Visitor’s Bureau and chair of Destination Marketing Association International, the world’s largest association of destination marketing organizations.
MPG Very few people get into the CVB business intentionally. Most of us get into it accidentally and that’s how it happened for me. I spent a couple of years as an event planner for Joske’s department stores in Dallas. From there I went to the Dallas Times Herald where I worked primarily in promotions and circulation sales and marketing. In 1991, I joined to the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau as the assistant director of the film commission and have had four positions here at the Irving CVB. I’ve been very fortunate that every time I’ve been ready for another challenge, one has opened up internally. Tell us about your mentors. I inherited my parent’s post-depression era work ethic and mindset. At Joske’s, Joe Isola was a really hard, old school, merchandising VP. He would show up on your floor and ask how many of something you sold yesterday and expect you to know. Mel Lemler, who headed up the event side at Joske’s, was a good, kind person that showed you a human way to do things. Jim Clark, the previous executive director here, gave me the room to either hang myself or succeed but I knew he was always there when I needed help. What are your priorities in your role as chairperson of the Destination Marketing Association International (formerly IACVB)? DMAI released its first future study in 2000 which helped to develop the accreditation program to look at the branding and positioning of the organization and to pursue its performance measures and education model. We updated the study last summer. Destination marketing organizations have four primary roles. Most people are familiar with three of them - informing visitors, marketing and selling to visitors, and servicing visitors. The study showed that we have an opportunity and a responsibility to take back our fourth role as destination developers and reassume a seat at the community table. The first convention & visitors bureau was created in Detroit in 1896. It grew out of a civic agenda to make Detroit bigger, better, and stronger by bringing auto and related conferences to the city. But, their goal was not “room nights” or “butts in seats,” it was about the civic good. We’ve gotten away from that role. Hoteliers were once long-time members of the community. They were involved in civic projects and an active part of the civic fabric. As the industry changed and became more about real estate assets that serve a hospitality function, the demand on my counterparts changed. We lost sight of the bigger picture. The future study didn’t suggest that we should stop selling, servicing, and marketing. We are the keeper of the brand. The majority of us don’t have hotels, attractions, or restaurants with large advertising budgets - they rely on the brand. We’ve become the evangelist and are the only one preaching the destination gospel outside of the immediate area. Searching to define what we do, we pigeon-holed ourselves into this “room nights” thing over which, most of the time, we have no control. We’re brokers. Unless we control a volume of hotel rooms and drive pricing and availability, it is in other people’s hands as to whether or not they will take business opportunities we bring forward. We’ve shifted into this thing for which we are held singularly accountable, and it’s not too smart. The study suggested that if we are, as destination marketing organizations, really attuned to the big picture within our community, we can more directly benefit our industry partners. If I know that there is a economic development priority in my community for nanotechnology, and there is the infrastructure to support it, then I am smart to go out and find conferences on that subject because a) the infrastructure is available and b) it is going to fit in well and drive the appropriate demand. At the end of the day we are all served by hotels driving their own pricing and demand but they should be accountable for it, not me. What’s the latest news on the development of the Irving Convention Center? We started site work and construction in September. We’ve made good progress and we’ll have a construction webcam up on our web site soon. We’ve done as much as we can to keep the project green and we are pursuing a LEEDS certification. One of the cool things we are doing is about 95% of the buildings water is gray water that will power all of the air conditioning and the toilets. We’re tapping into Lake Carolyn for that water, we’ll treat it on site, and then put it back into the lake. That will save money and be environmentally responsible. The building’s design is more vertical than horizontal and won’t have an institutional look. We are scheduled to open in 2010. Look five years into the future. How will technology impact this industry? As our friend Corbin Ball says, “There is no such thing as a virtual beer.” Certainly, there is some business that can be done differently with the aid of technology, but there will always be a need for face-to-face interaction. The economy will cause meetings to change. We have been living in a remarkable state of hubris for the past 10 years. The pendulum swings and we have to correct ourselves. We will come out of these things leaner and meaner. There are still products that have to be rolled out that just can’t be done on a web cam. DFW is well positioned to withstand the current economic challenges. Fortunately, we are not reliant on only one type of industry. Our area has two great airports and two hometown airlines and it is critical that they survive and thrive. These are things that will help the entire area ride these choppy waves better than most. |
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