Top executives at major corporations aren’t the only ones facing intense media and public scrutiny. So are today’s CVB execs. From Dallas to Cleveland to Baltimore, top CVB executives have resigned after questionable spending practices became front-page news.

And if that weren’t enough, they’ve faced steady budget declines as hotel tax revenue decreases and occupancy drops. They’ve faced tourism declines in the wake of Sept. 11th. And their best customers — meetings and conventions — are struggling with declining attendance.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Perhaps that’s one reason CVBs have begun to turn to leaders from outside the industry to run their organizations. In June, Mark Liberman, former Vice President, North America, Western Region, for United Airlines, was appointed President and CEO of LA INC., replacing long-time industry veteran, George Kirkland, who passed away. In New Orleans, Stephen Perry, former Chief of Staff for Louisiana Gov. M.J. Foster, was named President of the bureau earlier this year. Last year, Jeff Vasser, Controller of the New Jersey Democratic Committee’s 2001 Victory Fund, was appointed President and CEO for the Atlantic City CVA. In New York City, Cristyne Nicholas, President and CEO of NYC & Co., served as Director of Communications for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani before joining the bureau in 1999. And in Tampa Bay, FL, Paul Catoe, former General Manager for a TV station, has served as President and CEO of the bureau since May 1999.

This month, EXPO assembled a roundtable with three of these CVB executives to find out how they’re running their bureaus. Editor Danica Vasos and Publisher Donna Sanford asked them about the challenges they face and how their backgrounds will help them prepare their CVBs for the future. They reveal their strategies for expanding their revenue bases, garnering support from their communities, and competing against hundreds of other cities to get your business.

EXPO: Given your background and previous work experience, how has it helped you in your current position?

Catoe: One of our CVB’s biggest problems is that we are somewhat invisible in the community. We are well known within the trade show industry, but we aren’t recognized within our own community. I’ve spent so much time in the Tampa community. I’m also very familiar with government and who the political players are. Being an outsider was a tremendous asset.

Vasser: I consider myself an inside outsider. I grew up in Atlantic City, which I’ve found has been very important to the local community. I understand the casino industry, as well as the hotel, business and meetings side. Above all else, the fact that I have connections in the governor’s office has been extremely helpful. For example, I was able to get a permit at the last minute for a firemen’s show so that it could open on time. Also, we were able to implement an incentive plan for our salespeople. It had never been done before because most state agencies don’t have incentive plans for their employees. But with my connections, we were able to get in the door and explain to them why it’s important.

Perry: As the governor’s Chief of Staff, I was familiar with many of the issues that are important to the CVB. I was on the executive committee for the Super Bowl and the Final Four and was active in major cultural and special events in the city. So much of what we do is consensus building, bringing together broad sectors of government and business, at the state and local level, and securing funding for new products, such as museums, riverfront development, infrastructure, etc.

EXPO: Do you think the search committee was purposely looking for an outsider rather than finding someone from within the exhibition community? What are the disadvantages of coming from the outside?

Perry: The CVB did a national search for nine months and interviewed lots of people -— all within the industry. I don’t think they were so much looking for an outsider as much as they were looking for a different set of strategic planning, consensus-building, and business analysis skills. So, then they decided to look outside the industry. I had a very public position as Chief of Staff and led a number of major developments in the community. I knew half of the search committee very well, and a group of them approached me. I was immediately interested because of the challenge of running the lead economic driver in the city. Within one week, we both made the decision to go forward. As far as disadvantages, I haven’t seen many. In the first year, it’s taken a lot of time to get know all of the players -— all of our key clients and the major industry associations. I was concerned about the closed nature of the industry, but everyone has been so warm and open. There really haven’t been many hurdles, but I think that’s because CEO skills are transferable.

Catoe: It’s ironic because I was asked to serve on the search committee, but I didn’t because a friend of mine from Busch Gardens was originally up for the job. After I left the TV station, the committee asked me if I would be interested because they wanted someone who knew the community. I know they interviewed people from inside and outside the industry, but all of the finalists were from outside the industry. One of the most difficult things for me was learning the business. But I had a staff of seasoned veterans, so that really helped.

EXPO: What are your current challenges?

Catoe: One initiative for our administration is to build CVB awareness. We do more in the city for economic development than the chamber of commerce, but they have a bigger presence in our city. They are seen as “in the community,” and we are seen as “outside the community.” There was no marketing of the bureau within our own community, so we launched a campaign that included TV, radio and newspaper and ran for 4-5 weeks. Also, we need to grow our revenue base. Eighty-nine percent of our revenue comes from hotel occupancy taxes. So we’re expanding our board of directors. We had 35 members, mostly from the hospilitality industry. Now, we have 63 members, with more business leaders. We wanted to get businessmen down the street involved in the organization. The expansion of the board allowed us to speak with business leaders and members of the community. We’ve also had to learn to do more with less. We’ve cut back and hunkered down. We had 41 employees, now we have 36. There have been no raises. We made a commitment not to cut advertising, and we have sacrificed in other areas.

Perry: We’re at a very interesting time in this industry. The paradigms are shifting. As a CVB, we had been successful over the last 20-30 years, but we needed to change. It was an opportunity to change structure, processes and relationships to prepare the CVB for the next 20 years. In New Orleans, tourism is the No. 1 industry. Like Paul, we had been below the radar screen in our community. The public relations side was undeveloped. Part of our mission is to get the different groups to work together — hotels, the convention center, cultural groups, etc. We want to become the lead advocate of cultural development. In New Orleans, we’re not a manufactured destination. We are a city of history and art, so that cultural element is critical for us. Also, we are re-engineering our sales and marketing team — how we train, structure and prepare managers.

EXPO: How do you re-engineer a convention sales and marketing department? And how much of that re-engineering do you think is because you are an outsider?

Perry: I think it’s mostly because I’m an outsider. At first, there was a bit of a natural pushback -— this is the way that we’ve always done it. But the reality of the situation is that the marketplace is changing so radically that if you continue to do business the way that you used to, you would decline. And I think that’s true for every CVB in the country. Managing organizational change in a company is sometimes easier when you come from the outside. The market has changed dramatically with the impacts of 9/11 on the convention and leisure side. Also, New Orleans used to be one of only three or four cities with more than 1 million square feet of exhibit space. Now there are more than 20 cities. Our portfolio was not diversified enough. We want to continue to be the No. 1 site for the major associations and conventions, but also we need to diversify into regional meetings, corporate meetings and smaller meetings. In response, we reallocated salespeople to different teams, and we added more personnel. Now, we have one team for large national accounts for citywide conventions to preserve and grow market share in that portion of the business. That team focuses strictly on citywides because they have a different set of issues. And we have another team for mid- and short-term accounts to fill in the gaps that we all face. Our goal is to double the number of short-term meetings in two years, and then double again 2 years after that. For the first 6 months of the year, we are over goal for long- and short-term business.

EXPO: How are you trying to generate revenue beyond hotel taxes?

Catoe: One way is to expand our membership base. We have started a series of small meetings with the new board members to get influential people involved. There’s not a person in this community who doesn’t benefit from a visitor coming to the town. We currently have 600 members. Our goal is grow to 1,200-1,500 members, including bankers, electricity companies, media professionals, etc. For example, 35-40 percent of the revenue for the utility companies comes from people coming to the area — hotels, convention centers, etc. We need to take advantage of the movers and shakers within the community.

Vasser: We are doing some of these things, too. We’re looking at expanding our membership base and offering a menu of services instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. We’re also investing in Internet and e-commerce services. We conducted some focus groups for a branding project and, what really hit home was that the Internet is pervasive for every age group, including seniors. We’re getting ready to launch a new branding campaign, and we’re looking at using our logo on novelties, as well. We are also looking at launching an affinity card program.

Perry: We hope to get revenue from Internet booking. We’re developing our own comprehensive Internet booking engine, which will include hotels, attractions and dining, for convention delegates and leisure travelers. It will help citywides with tracking attrition because we’ll know where attendees are going outside the block. Basically, we’ll provide the same service as hotels.com, but the money stays in the state. We help the hotel preserve ADR and REVPAR, and we keep a higher portion since the hotel taxes stay in state. Then we can take that money and remarket the hotel to get more room nights. We hope to roll the site out this fall, and we will continue to develop it over the next two years.

We’re also looking at ways that we can convert branding campaigns into licensing for novelty sales. For example, a piece of folk art for a branding campaign can be used for T-shirts, mugs, anything we sell locally. We’re going to be extremely aggressive in finding new avenues for revenue streams. What’s fun about coming from the outside is that the industry is modernizing at a more rapid pace than it ever has. It was a business that grew gradually, and many people had been in the business 20-30 years. There was a certain way of doing things, certain relationships. Now the industry is exploding into a multi-billion-dollar business enterprise that requires new sets of strategic orientations, accountability standards, codes of conduct, best practice analysis, training, and internal modernization of business practices. All of this is happening at once.

Danica Vasos is Editor of EXPO. She can reached at 913-344-1303 or e-mail: dvasos@ascendmedia.com.