plenary Destination Marketing Association International CONVENE ON SITE
Destination Passion at DMAI’s Annual Meeting
Spouting Off The fireboat Leschi, which is docked on Puget Sound’s Elliott Bay, welcomed DMAI attendees with a 22,000-gallon-per-minute shower.
A
record 1,300-plus attendees were on hand for Destination Marketing Association Inter-
national’s (DMAI) Annual Convention in Seattle on July 16–18, solidifying an upswing for the association since it struggled through budget cutbacks over the past several years. Representatives from destination marketing organiza- tions (DMOs), venues, suppliers, and other industry professionals assembled at the Washington State Convention Center to celebrate the theme “Local Passion, Global Impact.” In a keynote address sponsored
by Convene, opening general session speaker Jason Ryan Dorsey (read his interview in our July issue at convn. org/jason-dorsey) was passionate. The “Gen Y Guy” spoke to the audience at length about the challenges and opportunities that result from having multiple generations in the workplace — most notably Baby Boomers and Mil- lennials. Dorsey noted that Millennials
28 PCMA CONVENE OCTOBER 2012
are often the bookends of the hospital- ity industry, but that they’re also the lowest paid and least trained, which can significantly affect the destina- tion experiences of tourists and event attendees alike. The meeting’s opening celebration
was a showcase of local food, wine, spir- its, and entertainment — including stilt- walkers and a fire-swallower — from Washington state destinations such as Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Spokane. Guests gathered at Pier 66 on Bell Harbor on a gorgeous evening to enjoy panoramic views of Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains at sunset. On the trade-show floor, more than
100 industry suppliers and companies set up booths in the Business Exchange. The Social Media Internet Café took up one corner of the exhibit floor, giving attendees a place to go online with- out leaving the show. Convene’s own living-room–style booth featured cover images from the magazine’s past, as well
as issue archives from 1986 onward — a particular hit with attendees who rec- ognized themselves in the pages of the magazine from decades ago. Convene’s client dinner, held at the
Edgewater Hotel in Seattle’s famous waterfront district, overlooking Puget Sound, was a resounding success. More than 50 representatives from various destinations joined Convene staff members and PCMA President and CEO Deborah Sexton for a Pacific Northwest–inspired meal catered by the Edgewater’s Six Seven restaurant. Guests were then treated to some sur- prise entertainment from the Mexico Tourism Board’s Eduardo Chaillo, CMP, CMM, and the Guadalajara CVB’s Oscar Morales as they sang a lovely rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” — in Eng- lish and Spanish. At DMAI’s closing general session,
Sally Hogshead presented her “7 Trig- gers to Persuasion and Captivation,” which is a measure of how other people