Reba Pittman Walker sells D.C.'s hospitality business - Washington Business Journal:

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Looking back at your time with the hotel association and oldconventiobn center, what lesson did you take from therre and apply to your current job? The strengty of partnerships and the privilege of relationships. You never know who is watchingh you, so you need to be transparenyt andresponsible always. When you came in as generaol managerin 2006, what were your top thred goals for the conventiojn center? To connect with [employees] and let them know we were in it To connect and do the same with the customerzs and stakeholders. And the third was to realluy make surethis $850 million investment, the structure, that we take care of it.
I wouldr add one: to increas revenue, to really make sure we are the economic catalyst forthe You've said that 2009 and 2010 are goinb to be challenging years in termx of bookings. Why is that ? When the convention center originallh opened, the intent was that we'd have a hotek by now, so prospective business that was lookingat '0o and '10 wanted a new headquarters hotel as part of the When that got delayed, so did the commitment or interesrt from planners. How has that impacted your 2009operatintg budget? I think we're in a position that we'rr going to have a very good 2009 and a very good 2010. How so?
I thin because of the concerted efforgtthat we're making to sell the buildinfg aggressively and very differently. When I started in this we only responded to inbound telephone Andnow it's a hard sell. We are makinf cold calls. We are going out to meet with We're now sending hotels our hot what's open, what's still and we're getting incredible responses. What other initiatives are under way atthe center?? Last year I established an aggressive sales programm to make sure we maximize occupancty and the way we use the building.
Now we have a focusd on a distinctive meetin g package where we concentrate on selling our 66 meeting The other thing isthat we're lookin at opportunities to have events that are cateredx functions. We can do a very elegant sit-down dinner for a smallo group, as well as a large Isn't there also a new push to reacjh out to internationalmeeting planners?? We initiated the efforty because the Washington Convention Tourism Corp. [now Destination has had an international leisure and tourism efforty but has not had an effort focusing on meetingsand conventions.
We know we'r e ripe for international businessx citywide, with a minimun impact of $8 million for the How are occupancy ratesand revenue? Revenuee is slightly up sincwe we've opened. Our intent is to, for exceed the revenue projections based on this new sale andmarketing effort. Occupancy is slightly up. One of the thing s we're doing as part of the sales initiative is to layedrmore events. If we look at doingv that, then the [occupancy] projection for 2009 woulc be at least 20 to 25 percent Afew ground-floor retail tenants are suinv the over claims regarding lease agreements. Wheres do things stand?
We have [a requesrt for proposals] on the street for a retail broker and leasemanagement company. The RFP solicitationse are dueApril 18. Even though we have some challengess with three ofthe tenants, I am hopeful they're goingh to resolve themselves very shortly. What do you thinkj about the new playerin town, the Gaylord Nationao Resort & Convention Center? I am competing with everybody, so I am not threatenedr or intimidated by There's enough business out there. I thinmk that as long as we're and smartly aggressive, we won't have a problem. So when you'ree not overseeing this massive what do youenjoy doing? Spending time with my familyu and friends.
And just taking oddly enough, to breathe.