CEO Newsletter
CEO Newsletter
Team,
Spring is quickly being pushed out of the way by summer and our team at Jones Beach State Park, led by Pete Schoener, Rick Biglin, Ray Newbold, and Chef John Shewchuck, welcomed it this week with a bang! Their “soft opening” was the two-day Bethpage Air Show for 400,000+, immediately preceded by a visit from the Governor of New York and a separate pop-up special catering reception for military families. In a post-event report back to his state parks colleagues, our client declared the weekend an unequivocal success, citing great service, fast lines, and good food.
This was an extraordinary team effort involving support from across the company. Special thanks to Jerry Reed, Chris Morgan, Marc Spooner, Drew Revella, Adam Curley, Marisa Pearlstine, Shan Gao, Leigh Russo, Jason Bauer, Ismael Lasalle, Pat Monahan, William Miller, Morel Mouflet, Jason Yarborough, Corey Wallerson, Todd Andrews, Michael Porter, and Gene Williams who all worked tirelessly along with hundreds of our team to help us make this a truly “memorable” event.
Staying with the beach theme, our UK team successfully opened Hastings Pier on May 21st—managing not only the opening of a newly built venue, but a live concert for “Madness” hosted by the client, who asked the team to provide all the food and beverage services. Everything there turned out great, with lots of positive feedback. Special thanks to the team in the South of England: Matthew Nicholson, Paula Street, Dan Penfold, Steve Lelittka, Terry Price, Martin Garwood, Mike Davies, Gill Rimmell, Georgina Townsend and Martin Garwood.
Of course, Belmont Stakes is on deck as the next major event for Centerplate. Clearly we were hoping for a Triple Crown, but Team Belmont is ready to host 60,000+ thoroughbred racing fans on June 11th at Belmont Park. Drew Revella is already on record that he’s prepared to deliver Triple Crown results anyway.
Keeping clients happy and posting results is the only way to win in our business, and we’ve been very busy on the renewal front doing just that. In the past month, we’ve signed extensions with the University of Florida, Cobo Center, Zoo New England and Miami Beach Convention Center. We have also reached agreements to extend our contracts with the Niagara Falls Convention Centre, Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, University of Mississippi, Blue Hills Pavilion, Orpheum Theater Boston and the Boston Opera House. It has been a total team effort to extend these relationships and is representative of the great job we do for our clients and guests. Thanks to all involved, let’s keep pushing to get our renewals done early and often.
Looking to the future, many of you have seen that the NFL has awarded Super Bowl 2020 to Miami, making it Miami’s 11th (and our 15th as a company).When Dolphin Stadium is finished with its current $600 Million renovation project, it will lead the way in premium services and amenities (not to mention that it will be partially covered by an incredible roof). Congratulations to the Miami Dolphin’s executive management team for their amazing presentation that helped clinch bringing the Super Bowl back to Miami.
Much like the NFL awarding their big game to deserving venues, we feel the same pressure to make sure that we select the perfect setting for our annual conferences. So, in answer to the question I know you’ve all been asking: next year’s annual conference will be at the Music City Center, in Nashville. Bring your boots!
I feel blessed every day for the people who make up this company, who give so much of themselves for our shared success. Thanks for everything that you do each and every day. Centerplate is great because of the effort, passion and leadership that are a part of your daily actions. They make us all great. The way you treat your employees, guests and clients is emblematic of the success that you will achieve, and I’m grateful to see so many of you pushing every day to achieve greater and greater heights.
I’m looking forward to my next visit. I’ll see you soon …
