Greetings and happy Friday,

Wow! What a week and what a year it has been!

Let me begin by thanking everyone who was able to join us in Washington, D.C. last week to support the Spirit of Hospitality Celebration and Destination Showcase. It is our hope that you recognized how these two important programs for DMAI and the Destination & Travel Foundation have been reimagined from top to bottom. Bold changes such as those implemented for Showcase and the Spirit of Hospitality Celebration can only become a reality with the support of the DMAI Board of Directors, Foundation Board of Trustees and our members.

We realize change is not easy, nor should it be. With input from many people, we thought the time to do something different was now. Our team is extremely grateful for the support we have and continue to receive. We are pleased to share that initial feedback for both events is positive. This past week we sent surveys for Spirit of Hospitality Celebration and Destination Showcase. Please take a moment to give us your feedback to help us plan future events.

This past year will go down as the most exciting and gratifying 12 months in my career. Not a day goes by that I don’t value the opportunity to serve you and our industry in my position as DMAI’s President and CEO. Prior to taking on this role and still to this day, I continue to receive the same question repeatedly – “How can I help you?” To some, it’s a simple question; however, to me and the team, it’s indicative of our industry and what we have realized thus far is that those people asking, truly mean it – they do want to help, and for this very reason, we continue to do our best each and every day.

The Association’s Board of Directors, especially the Executive Committee, and the Foundation’s Board of Trustees have committed countless hours in meetings and calls to help us strategically stabilize and set the direction for DMAI. Along with these dedicated and selfless board and committee members, I am fortunate to have a solid team of professionals who have embraced the ideas on the future direction of the organization.

Collectively, we have covered hundreds of thousands of miles, met with over 350 members, and gained valuable feedback from which we have built a strategic and metric-driven business plan for 2017. Our work has just begun. We will continue to examine every product, project, event and system that we currently offer. Strategic change is the catalyst for our momentum. We are 100% focused on helping our members and business partners achieve success by delivering the products and services they need to be the very best in their field. Products such as DestinationNEXT, the Event Impact Calculator (EIC) and various education programs are gaining worldwide attention, and opening many new opportunities for DMAI. We will feature these products and unveil our many new programs and services at the 2017 Annual Convention (July 11-14) in Montreal. We hope you will join us!

Some of you may be aware of recent news regarding challenges we have encountered during this year-long transition. I want to assure you that thanks to the unwavering commitment of our Board of Directors, our business partners, and our members, the future of DMAI is solid and significant growth is the ultimate goal.

We remain focused on our core mission and goals, and have isolated these challenges from our daily operations. On behalf of the DMAI team, I ask that you not be swayed by what you may have read or will read in the days or weeks ahead.

Again, thank you for your continued support of DMAI. It is because of you that we are gaining significant momentum on many fronts each and every day. 

We look forward to seeing many of our CEOs in Nashville for the 2017 CEO Summit March 20-22. And in July, we hope that we will see ALL OF YOU at the Annual Convention in Montreal.

Thanks again and enjoy your weekend!