|
People & Places Presented
by Association News (June 2015)
|
Los
Angeles, CA – June 2015 / Newsmaker Alert / Each monthly issue of
Association
News contains information from state and regional associations,
convention bureaus, hotels and hotel chains and other meeting facilities.
CVBs/DMOs
|
John
Oros has been named president of the Greater Birmingham (Alabama) Convention
& Visitors Bureau. Oros will succeed Jim Smither, who has announced
his retirement. Oros currently is executive vice-president of the Memphis
(Tennessee) Convention & Visitors Bureau and will begin his new role
on August 1.
Mike
Bowman has been appointed president of the Valley Forge Tourism &
Convention Board in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, effective June 15. He
currently serves as the organization’s board chair and as president and
CEO of the Valley Forge Casino Resort.
Tom
Loftus has been appointed vice-president of communications at VisitPittsburgh.
Loftus previously served as director of marketing and media relations for
the Allegheny County Bar Association, also located in Pennsylvania.
Harriet
Porter has been promoted to vice-president of convention sales at the
Anaheim/Orange County (California) Visitor & Convention Bureau. She
has worked at the bureau for more than eight years, most recently serving
as the organization’s director of convention sales.
Tricia
Vecchio has been appointed destination sales manager for the Atlanta
Convention & Visitors Bureau. She most recently worked at the InterContinental/Los
Angeles–Century City.
Hospitality
& Suppliers
Nina
Kressler has been named president and CEO of Shaw Centre in Ottawa,
Canada. Since October 2013, Kressler was general manager of Shaw Centre’s
food and facilities operation. Prior to that, she was vice-president of
business development for the Toronto Congress Centre.
Doug
Gehret has been appointed the area vice-president of operations for
Hilton Worldwide properties in Central Florida and South Carolina. Gehret
most recently served as general manager of the Hilton/Orlando in Florida,
a position he held since 2008.
Jeffrey
Klein has been appointed vice-president and managing director of the
Turnberry Isle Resort in Miami. With nearly 20 years of experience in the
hospitality industry, Klein most recently served as vice-president of operations
for the Fontainebleau/Miami Beach.
In
the British Virgin Islands, the Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina has
named James Miller as managing director and Douglas Nelson
as general manager. Miller previously was general manager of the Fox Harb’r
Golf Resort & Spa in Wallace, Nova Scotia. Nelson previously served
as general manager of the Christophe Harbour Development Company on the
Caribbean island of St. Kitts.
Hans
Ritten has been named general manager of the Omni/Chicago Hotel, which
is currently undergoing a multimillion- dollar renovation. He previously
served as general manager of the Silversmith Hotel in downtown Chicago.
The
Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, scheduled to open this month, has appointed
Patrick
Hatton as general manager and Vicki Poplin as director of sales
and marketing. Hatton most recently served as general manager of Commune
Hotels & Resorts. Poplin previously served as regional director of
sales and marketing for the Denihan Hospitality Group.
The
Hotel Van Zandt, scheduled to open this summer in Austin, Texas, has named
Joe
Pagone as general manager and Jess Johnson as director of sales
and marketing. Pagone previously served as general manager of the Hotel
Monaco/Baltimore. With more than 20 years of experience, Johnson most recently
served as director of sales at the Horseshoe Bay Resort in Horseshoe Bay,
part of Texas Hill Country.
The
Hyatt/Union Square–New York has appointed David McManus as general
manager and Angela Pina as director of sales and marketing. McManus
most recently served as the general manager of Hotel Hugo in SoHo. Pina
previously served as area director of sales and marketing for a cluster
of hotels under Hersha Hospitality Management.
Edd
Karlan has been named director of sales and marketing at the Hilton/
West Palm Beach, a 400-room hotel currently under construction next to
Florida’s Palm Beach County Convention Center. Most recently, Karlan led
the sales team at the Hilton/Atlanta.
Jennifer
Wasserman has been named director of sales and marketing at the Highland
Dallas (formerly the Hotel Palomar). She previously served as area sales
leader for Marriott, managing five hotels in the downtown Dallas market.
Josephine
Fontana has been appointed senior group sales manager of the New York
Palace Hotel in New York City. Fontana previously worked at the Plaza Hotel,
also in New York City, where she most recently held the position of group
sales manager.
The
Red
Lion Hotels Corporation has acquired the GuestHouse International
and Settle Inn brands for more than $8 million. The transaction
added 73 hotels to the Red Lion brand portfolio, which now owns 130 hotels
in 30 states.
Effective
June 2, the Philadelphia- based Comcast-Spectacor will re-brand
three business units—Global Spectrum, Ovations Food Services and Paciolan—as
well as its newest endeavor, Digital Services, and launch them together
under a new brand called Spectra. The realignment is thought to
better serve Comcast-Spectacor’s more than 300 clients and more than 500
facilities around the world.
Construction
& Expansion
The
Sheraton
Mesa Hotel at Wrigleyville West has opened in Mesa, Arizona, between
the Chicago Cubs’ spring training park and Riverview Park. The 180-room
hotel offers more than 37,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function
space, including a 12,400-squarefoot ballroom, five additional breakout
rooms and a business center.
The
Hyatt
Regency/Tysons Corner Center has opened in downtown Tysons Corner,
Virginia, with connection to the city’s famous mall and just steps from
the new Silver Line Metrorail stop. The 18-story hotel features 300 guest
rooms and 15,500 square feet of event space, including a 7,000-square-foot
ballroom.
The
Hyatt
Place/Boulder – Pearl Street opened in Boulder, Colorado, within a
new mixed-use development called Depot Square at Boulder Junction. Features
include 150 guest rooms and 4,963 square feet of event space.
The
Westin/Jekyll
Island recently opened in Jekyll Island, Georgia, adjacent to the Jekyll
Island Convention Center. The oceanfront hotel offers 200 guest rooms and
more than 5,600 square feet of event space, but for larger functions—of
up to 6,450—groups can be accommodated at the convention center, which
has some 78,000 square feet of space.
The
AC/
Washington, D.C., at National Harbor has opened in National Harbor,
Maryland with 192 guest rooms and 3,700 square feet of meeting space. It
is only the third AC Hotel by Marriott to open in the United States.
In
Baja, Mexico, the all-inclusive Marquis Los Cabos Resort & Spa
has reopened following a $10 million renovation and redesign. The 235-room
property features new guest-room amenities and a newly refinished exterior.
It also offers meeting space for up to 1,000 attendees and four restaurants.
The
DoubleTree
by Hilton/Grand Rapids Airport (formerly a Hilton) recently opened
in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after a five-month renovation. The hotel offers
226 rooms and more than 7,500 square feet of meeting space.
In
San Diego, a new nightclub called the Omnia has opened in the downtown
Gaslamp Quarter. In addition to its nightly music scene, it also welcomes
events with more than 22,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting
space.
The
Anaheim
Marriott in Anaheim, California, has completed a $15 million renovation,
which included an update of its 1,030 guest rooms. The hotel offers 100,000
square feet of meeting space. The Renaissance/Chicago Downtown has completed
a $27 million renovation of its lobby and all 553 guest rooms and suites.
For group events, the hotel offers 34,867 square feet of space.
The
Hilton
Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu has completed a $21
million renovation of its 17-story Diamond Head Tower. All of the tower’s
380 guest rooms and corridors were transformed and its lobby refreshed.
In total, the hotel offers 3,986 guest rooms and more than 150,000 square
feet of meeting space.
The
College
Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in East Hyattsville, Maryland,
has completed a multiyear renovation, which included updates to its guest
rooms, public spaces and function space. The hotel has 297 guest rooms
and 40,000 square feet of event space, which includes 18 meeting rooms.
And
Finally...
At
the groundbreaking ceremony of the Anaheim Convention Center in
Southern California on April 21, members of the convention center’s customer
advisory board created a time capsule, which will be buried in the new
center and dug up in 2030. The capsule contained items such as trade show
programs, battery chargers, room keys, golf balls and personalized messages.
The venue is currently undergoing its seventh expansion, which is expected
to be complete by the summer of 2017 and will add an additional 200,000
square feet of space.
|
What’s
Ahead at Convention Centers for Meeting and Event Planners?
|
Download “Convention
Trends 2015” (PDF
File)
|
|
This
current issue of Association News can be viewed in digital format
online by clicking
here.
About
Schneider Publishing
Schneider
Publishing is the parent company of Association
News, America’s most-read magazine for association executives,
and SportsTravel,
the sports world’s event magazine. In addition to Meetings
Quest, Schneider Publishing organizes the TEAMS
Conference & Expo, the world’s largest gathering of sports-event
organizers, which will be held November 9–12 in Las Vegas. TEAMS ’16 will
be held September 26–29, 2016, in Atlantic City. The group travel markets
served by Schneider Publishing generate 106 million hotel room nights annually.
For
press information, please contact Ann
Shepphird, or call 310-577-3700.
Association
News, Meetings Quest, SportsTravel and TEAMS are registered
trademarks of Schneider Publishing.
|| |