Coaching, piloting, cheerleading, motivating … these were skills Cristyne Nicholas perfected as a coxswain on the Rutgers University women's rowing team. She did not actually row; she called out all of the commands to ensure that the rowers were working together in unison. She also steered the boat, keeping it on course. Little could this Rutgers undergrad have imagined how these skills would one day help her lead New York City's tourist industry out of its darkest hours.

On that fateful Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001, Nicholas was downtown at the Tweed Courthouse behind City Hall waiting for then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to sign papers that would transfer active use of the historic civic structure to the Museum of the City of New York.

"We actually felt the [first] plane go in," she said. "We were five blocks away and at first I thought it was a wrecking ball hitting the side of a building. Pete Hamill [the famed New York writer] was there and he motioned to me that we should leave. The president of the museum went to the podium and said nervously, 'We need to conclude this meeting.' Once out on the street, I saw the gaping hole and the flames and immediately knew what was going on."

As Giuliani's chief spokesperson for six years, she knew City Hall inside and out and ran there. Her immediate attention was diverted to a group of schoolchildren sitting in buses outside of City Hall waiting for a photo opportunity with the mayor. "We got busy to get them out of there as fast as possible," she said. "We raided the refrigerators in City Hall and loaded the buses up with water and snacks and sent them on their way."

She went back into City Hall, where she manned the phones as she watched the news coverage. "I felt the second plane hit at the same time I was watching it on TV, which was surreal. You could feel the jolt," she said. "That's when the police told us to evacuate. I ran into Jay DeDapper, a TV news reporter I knew, on the steps of City Hall. We embraced and I said to him, 'I hope we see each other again,' something I thought was doubtful. With that, we were engulfed in a cloud of smoke. I thought we had just been bombed. I headed uptown, covered in debris, thinking, 'Why I am still living?' I actually thought it was a nuclear bomb. I got about 14 blocks away and realized I had no money on me. I thought I should get as much cash as I could. The first ATM machine I went to wasn't working. So I continued to walk. I found a bank and got some money. It was then someone told me the towers had fallen. 'That's what's all over you. The towers,' a woman said to me. I just looked at her in a state of shock. I continued walking uptown in my high heels, as I was dressed for the morning's ceremony. I stopped at the first store I could to buy sneakers. Complete strangers were helping each other out. They were giving each other money."

After walking more than 70 blocks, she made it to the offices of NYC & Company, on Seventh Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets. It was then that Nicholas realized just how special the team she had put into place was. "Everyone was at the ready," she said. As she recalls this story, it is apparent how deeply the events of that day have affected her. Nothing would ever be the same. The skyline of her beloved city was forever altered. So many friends and loved ones were gone.

There was Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain to the Fire Department, who had married her to golf writer Nick Nicholas on Kiawah Island in South Carolina, a close personal friend, who died under the crash of falling debris while administering last rites to a fallen firefighter. His was the first confirmed death of that horrific day. The image of him being carried out of the rubble, his body limp, is still a hard one for her to see. "I feel blessed to have know him," she said.

Show Must Go On
But she didn't have time to wallow in her own sorrow. She had a job to do. She immediately made sure everyone on her staff was accounted for. Next, she touched base with the mayor and they both agreed they had to get the city back on its feet as soon as possible. "He told me that tourism would play a big role in that. We met the next morning with top business leaders, our chairman at the time, Tim Zagat, and Jon Tisch, CEO of Loews Hotel, who is now our current chair, Eric Long of the Waldorf, as well as Joe Spinnato of the Hotel Association of New York City. We decided that the companies that were displaced would be offered hotel space. Rudy wanted to know how quickly we could get Broadway to reopen. He said he was hoping for the next night. We met with the unions, the League of Actors, actors, and theater owners. I was met with quite a backlash. The actors didn't know if they felt ready to perform, plus they thought the theaters were going to be empty. Rudy quoted Winston Churchill that day saying we are fighting for freedom, culture, our ability to live. He reminded us that in the 1940s the people of London endured relentless bombings but continued to lead their lives. We needed to do the same." With a great deal of work on Nicholas' end, the show did go on, and Broadway reopened on Sept. 13.

Broadway wasn't the only show that must go on, Nicholas realized. New York City's meeting and convention business - a $25 billion a year industry - was in serious jeopardy.

Her first plan of attack was to work the phones. "We made personal calls to all those groups meeting in the city in the near future. We did our best to convince them to still meet in New York," she said. "We only lost one to two meetings." Most groups were enthusiastic about showing their support for the city.

"We learned that many conventions set to meet outside of New York were being canceled. We reached out to those people asking them to bring their groups to New York. The American Society of Travel Agents for example was going to Seville, Spain but decided not to leave the country. They made the arrangements to move the convention to New York within a week." Others included Microsoft, which was officially unveiling its new Windows XP operating system in Seattle but did so in Times Square instead.

"We weren't poaching business. It was those groups who were canceling that we tried to get to come here," she said.

Although a bit uneasy, most attendees welcomed the chance to set foot in the city and reclaim New York for travelers.

"It was a sense of civic pride that motivated us. We didn't take no for an answer. We explained that we were ready to welcome their business. The perception many had was that Ground Zero encompassed the entire city. We explained that it is 10 miles away from uptown Manhattan and five miles away from midtown," said Nicholas. "Patriotic tourism started to flourish." Nicholas devised a program called, "Paint the Town Red, White and Blue," offering discounts on shopping, hotels, restaurants, and theater.

Nicholas was able to persuade Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, to bring this very influential gathering to New York. This forum is a great example of how the public and private sectors can join together to foster creative and innovative ideas. Plus, it attracts the top companies from around the world that represented potential meetings business for the city. Schwab flew to New York on one of the last flights of the Concorde, and signed the papers bringing the Forum to New York in February.

"In early October, the Portland, Ore. Chamber of Commerce organized a Flight for Freedom which brought 972 Oregonians to New York and then there was a group of Jamaicans who chartered a plane to come for the day. The list goes on and on," she said. There was a group of Canadians who visited the city as a show of support. The plan was to gather in the Roseland Ballroom but the group had grown to more than 5,000 and spilled out onto the street.

"It was all these groups that saved New York City," said Nicholas. "I have no doubt about it."

Today, New York City's meetings and conventions industry is in excellent shape, she said. "There is a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm building as we are on the verge of expanding the Javits Center. More than 40,000 room nights have been booked into the new expanded center. Meetings and conventions are at an all-time high. I was always optimistic it would come back." (Come 2010, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center's exhibition space will expand from 760,000 to 1.1 million square feet as part of a $1.7 billion project.)

Making this expansion a reality was no easy task. It has taken more than a decade. Many believe this project will be the shot-in-the-arm the West Side of Manhattan so desperately needs. "That part of the city is the great frontier. It is definitely underdeveloped," said Nicholas.

When taking the helm of NYC & Company seven years ago, another one of Nicholas' objectives was to increase membership. Today it has doubled, from 1,000 members to almost 2,000.

She also helped increase income. One of the ways she did this is by creating corporate sponsorships. "We were grossly underfunded for many years. We don't have a hotel occupancy tax. We're not funded by gaming. We have a grant from the city of New York. I knew if we were to grow income, we had to rely on the private sector."

She is proud of the fact that she has achieved respect for New York City's tourism industry from New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike. "In 2000, I wanted to have a press conference to release the 1999 tourism figures but was told that was not a good idea. New Yorkers were frustrated with visitors. They said they don't walk fast enough, they clog up the streets. I realized how important it was that we educate New Yorkers about the value of tourism and that's what I did immediately by changing our media plan to do media inside of New York as well."

Get the Job Done
A Brooklyn native, Nicholas attended New York-area public schools and graduated from Rutgers University in 1987 with a B.A. in political science and a minor in French. Fresh out of Rutgers University, Nicholas landed a job as the scheduler and press secretary to former Rep. Helen Bentley, R-Maryland, one of her greatest mentors. "She trained me not to look at the clock, to just get the job done," said Nicholas.

Lawyer, doctor, teacher, actress, singer …. these are some of the most popular careers that kids hope to aspire to one day. But, press secretary? It was the book, I, Koch, that Nicholas read as a middle-school student that served as her inspiration. She was intrigued by the story of the first woman to hold this position, press secretary Maureen Connelly, who was smart and well respected. "I knew immediately this is what I would like to do," she explained. "I felt like I was the luckiest person in the world when I was named Giuliani's press secretary. I never thought my dreams would come true at 28. I was his press secretary during his campaign and when he became mayor. Two years later, I became the director of communications." Nicholas was appointed president and CEO of NYC & Company in October 1999.

Nicholas knows New York and New York knows Nicholas. As one maneuvers the city streets with her, merchants peek their heads out their doors to greet her, policemen and women wave, and she looks people warmly in the eye. On this October afternoon, 41-year-old Nicholas, dressed in a designer suit topped off with a Hermes scarf, came across the "Naked Cowboy" playing his guitar in Times Square. "He just became a NYC & Company member," she said with a chuckle.

To sum up her accomplishments, she has successfully rebuilt the city's $24 billion tourism industry. A record 44 million visitors are expected this year and more hotel rooms are booked than ever before.

Now that Nicholas has fulfilled all of the goals she had set for herself when joining NYC & Company she has decided it is time for her to move on. The timing seemed right, she said, especially since things are being reorganized. NYC & Company is being merged with NYC Big Events and NYC Marketing, to form a single entity. By forming one organization, New York City can better compete for large events, officials said.

She will continue as president and CEO of NYC & Company until the end of the year. She is not exactly sure what the future holds, but has had many interesting offers. She does know it will include spending time with her husband, seven-month-old daughter Rebecca, and their basset hound, Gabriella. It will also include pounding the pavement ... as a runner, that is.

She is determined to run the 26.2 mile New York City Marathon next year. This will be her third. Her favorite New York City event, she loves the fact that it includes all five boroughs of New York City. Along with the Boston Marathon that Nicholas also competed in, these two marathons are considered the pre-eminent long-distance annual running events in the United States. She'll be at this year's marathon, cheering on her husband.

She was one of the 10,000 people who ran the first NYC Half Marathon this summer that was created with the help of NYC & Company. Presented by Nike, it started in Central Park and finished at Battery Park.

The decision to step down from heading up NYC & Company was not one she took lightly. It came after a great deal of introspection and soul-searching. Gearing up for the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center had a lot to do with it. The concept of terrorists turning commercial jetliners into missiles that smashed into two quintessential symbols of American commerce and trade and killed more than 3,000 innocent people remains a hard one to grasp, even five years later. She called the time leading up to this fifth anniversary, "a season of reflection and renewal."

To say her travel schedule is hectic is an understatement. This fall, in a five-week time span, Paris, Argentina, London, China, and Florida were all on the agenda. "In those five weeks I realized I would see my daughter, my husband, and our basset hound Gabby less than a week all together. I realized something had to give. I'm not looking to work any less, but want to see more of my family by working closer to home."

But there was another - extended - family that weighed heavy in her decision, her staff of 100 at NYC & Company. "I will miss them terribly," she said. "The bonds we have formed are strong ones." Those bonds have been fostered through communication, the most powerful tool for leading any group, she said. "One must have clear goals and objectives that are articulated to everyone, from the COO to the visitor center counselor. Everyone needs to know your agenda, your mission, your goals.

"I send out frequent e-mails. Not so frequent that they lose their impact. Plus, we have monthly luncheons in the conference center. We gather around 80 people and invite a new restaurant that has just become a NYC & Company member to serve as the caterer. It is the perfect opportunity to discuss what is going on. All eight department heads give their updates as to what is happening." She has a senior staff meeting twice a week at 8 a.m. This is for vice presidents and above.

"I'm very hands-on and I realize the importance of leading by example. If you worked a 9 to 5 day, they would do that too. They don't see me come in the morning because I'm already here when they get in. If they see me leave it's because I'm going to an event. There is rarely a week that is less than 60 hours." She is driven by passion and a deep love for the city. "It's the greatest thrill in the world to represent the city of New York. When I first started, I gathered the staff into the conference room and said, 'Anyone who is not excited about working for New York should find another job.' I saw some roll their eyes. Others I helped find employment elsewhere. We did have a fair amount of healthy turnover that first year but today we have the most honorable and dedicated group of individuals anywhere. I can't imagine that this isn't the most exciting place in the world to work."

When she talks about all she has accomplished these past seven years she never once takes all the credit. "It has been a team effort," she quickly points out.

When asked about what success means to her, she said, "To define success is to have made a difference and that could be something as simple as planting a garden. You find it in so many ways. I don't define success in money or publicity. If you have made a difference and you feel like you have made a difference, you have achieved success. I feel like I have made a difference at NYC & Company."

° Andrea Doyle is Convene's senior writer. The Leading by Example series is sponsored by the Canadian Tourism Commission. Visit its Web site at www.CanadaMeetings.com.