October 15, 2020

Today, with the unanimous endorsement of our Board of Directors Executive Committee, we are thrilled to announce that we have entered a partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), the official non-partisan organization of US cities with a population of 30,000 or larger. The organization has a membership of over 2,000 chief elected officials (Mayors) across the United States.

We all know that destination organizations must have a solid and strategic alignment with elected officials in their communities to be successful. This relationship has never been more important, especially as we all work together toward recovery after the global pandemic.

I want to thank Karen Williams, President and CEO of Louisville Tourism for introducing the idea of joining USCM to us. Our decision was solidified after our call with her city’s Mayor, Greg Fischer who has recently assumed the President position at the organization.

We have had some initial calls with USCM and our work in the areas of equity, diversity and inclusion, workforce development and restarting the economic engine of tourism clearly aligns with their goals. This partnership will allow us to participate in various conferences and webinars throughout the year and have the opportunity to communicate personally to their members.

Although this was an unplanned, unbudgeted expense for this year, there is probably not a more important partnership that we could have entered into. We are excited about this new partnership that represents the first major step in a strategy to advocate for our industry with key decision-makers and we will keep you updated on our activities moving forward.

For those of you joining us for our Advocacy Summit today, we wish you a wonderful day of education, learning and inspiration.

Best regards and thanks for your support!