ON THE MOVE
Planners
Healy promoted at counties association
Elish Healy has been promoted to meetings coordinator from meetings assistant at the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Counties (NACo), which has 2,000 U.S. counties as its members. NACo’s meetings division is responsible for four major conventions every year, as well as a host of smaller meetings. Healy is a graduate of Washington, D.C.-based American University, where she majored in theater and film production.
Suppliers
Richard A. Brooks has been appointed director of sales and marketing at the 291-room Umstead Hotel & Spa, which opens next January in Cary, N.C. Alison Jenkins was named corporate sales manager for the property.
Joshua Brown has been named director of sales and marketing at the 199-room Chattanoogan in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Kathleen Ceseretti, CMP, has been hired as director of national accounts at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn.
Stewart Davis is the new director of sales at the 440-room French Lick Springs Resort & Casino, which opens in December in French Lick, Ind.
At the 1,500-room Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Ann Marie Gillen was appointed sales manager, Midwest; Leslie Menichini was promoted to director of sales and marketing; Kirstie Seyfert was named director of convention services, and Dwayne Speller was hired as catering director.
Richard Lofria has been appointed director of sales and marketing at the 201-room Millennium Bostonian.
Carmen F. Moses has been appointed national sales manager at the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Edwina San has been hired as international incentives manager at the Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau in Australia.
Ed Svitakhas been appointed director of sales and marketing at the 1,057-room Marriott Chicago Midway Airport, which opened in March.
“It was the first year I bought event cancellation
insurance. It cost $2,000, and I got $1.3 million back.”
Rick Tedrick, CAE, CMP, CPA, is
managing director of finance at the Fairfax, Va.-based National
Rifle Association. Besides taking care of all the money matters
that go along with the NRA’s meetings, he judges beauty pageants,
goes hunting and does a little bodybuilding on the side.
Why do you assist with
site selection? When the cities and hotels see the
finance guy coming on site visits, it makes them realize the
financial area is a priority for us when determining where to hold
our annual meeting. It also gives our planner an out. I can be the
bad guy.
The NRA recently moved
its 2007 meeting from Columbus to St. Louis. How hard was
that? It wasn’t so difficult, as we had not signed
any contracts. The cities considered for 2007 were visited by our
team within the past year, so we were familiar with them. All we
needed to do was obtain new bids.
Do you get protesters at
meetings? We do. The past couple of years, it has
been minimal. We work with them and make sure they have space. The
city where we had the most protesters since I’ve been here was
Denver. Eight days before our annual meeting, Columbine happened.
We still had to have our meeting, but we canceled everything we
could. It was the first year I bought event cancellation insurance.
It cost $2,000, and I got $1.3 million back.
Do you own a
gun? I do, for hunting. I grew up in a rural setting,
and it’s common for high schools in western Maryland to get off
from school for the first day of deer-hunting season. --JONATHAN
VATNER