What makes your city a top meeting/convention destination?
Savannah has long been a very popular leisure destination, hosting a projected seven million visitors in 2007. That's an all-time record. People come to Savannah for its beauty, history, and architectural uniqueness, not to mention its cuisine.

But planners are just discovering that these factors make Savannah just as great as a meeting destination. We have a magnificent convention center and all the big hotel brands in our Historic District.

Savannah is really perfect for groups requiring 500 to 1,000 peak room nights. We're in the meetings game.
What is your perspective on destination leadership?
Destination leadership is about being the keeper of the future. While hoteliers are thinking about tonight's occupancy, we should be thinking about building a great base of business for three years from now.
What is your city's roadmap for the future?
We're going to find a way to transform the success Savannah has experienced in the leisure market to include more meetings business.
How have destination marketing organizations (DMOs) evolved over the past 10 years, and how do you see the role of the bureau changing in the future? There appears to be a much greater understanding now of DMOs' role in the building and maintaining the economic prosperity of the destinations they market. DMOs can also now bring clarity to their mission statements where in the past they struggled to be all things to all people.

Nobody understood what we did; if there was a visitor- or tourism-related matter before, the attitude was,"Give it to the CVB." That's not so anymore.

The entire industry is now changing right before our eyes. Clarification of DMOs' role is part of it, but we still don't know entirely what impact the Internet will have on how we do our jobs. The next few years will be a defining period.
How did you get into this career? How long have you been there, and where were you before?
I held a variety of sales and marketing roles at Westin Hotels & Resorts for almost 15 years. Then, in 1997, I joined the Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau (now Experience Columbus) as vice president of sales and was later promoted to senior vice president. I came to Savannah in January of 2007.
What is it about working in this industry that grabs you?
This may sound funny, but I think back to elementary school and middle school assignments and how I loved to write to local Chambers of Commerce for brochures about their cities. Even then, I had an interest in how cities looked and how they were "sold." I never outgrew it, which makes this the perfect career for me. Additionally, Savannah is one of the most beautiful cities in the country, and now I love to tell everybody why they would want to come here.