CEO Newsletter
CEO Newsletter
Team,
It has been an exciting and eventful spring, starting with our gathering at the Centerplate Global Conference in New Orleans which included awards and honors for many of our colleagues. The conference was followed immediately by a couple of major account openings, numerous noteworthy events, and best of all, several key renewals!
Allow me to first both thank and recognize the amazing work done by our local teams in the New Orleans marketplace. At the Superdome and Smoothie King Center, Steve Trotter, Kernell Jupiter, Chef Lenny and team helped to kick off the conference with an amazing welcome reception. The next day Jerry Reed, Chef Raymond and the team at The National WWII Museum absolutely knocked it out of the park with the evening reception. And of course, special kudos to Richard Ginzel, Chef Stephan and the entire hospitality team at the
New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for hosting all of the meetings, breakout sessions and the award ceremony dinner. The food, service, quality and overall hospitality was nothing short of spectacular. On behalf of all the Centerplate leaders, clients and vendor partners from around the globe who attended this event, thank you for helping to prove that we are truly “Better Together.”
For those of you who couldn’t make it, we heard from several of our current clients, industry experts and our very own subject matter specialists on the goals and objectives for this year. During that week, I also had the opportunity to briefly address the board of the New Orleans Convention Center and to hear first hand how our hospitality is Making It Better To Be There for the City and the Center— it was truly a relevant and affirming message for an important week. The meeting concluded with us receiving an extension of our contract, based on the great work of the New Orleans team.
The most important message that I hope everyone heard and takes with them in the coming months is this:
Focus on growing our top line revenues, maintain a strict discipline regarding our service standards and work diligently to meet our financial objectives.
We have realistic and attainable budget projections, and together, we can drive the business forward by delivering quality, consistency, and unmatched service.
And as I mentioned at the beginning, immediately following the conference, everyone kicked into high gear. Our MLB and MiLB venues opened the 2015 season and are now in full swing. With the help of Doug Conner and David Keitel, we successfully opened the brand new home of the Nashville Sounds–First Tennessee Park–in downtown Nashville. We then opened our newest Sophie’s location at Saks in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Centerplate teams at DC United and Sunderland AFC paired up across the Atlantic to capture headlines about a unique promotion, swapping stadium favorites for favourites when the two sister clubs held concurrent home games.
And just for fun, the MTS Centre and Smoothie King Center hosted NHL and NBA playoff games. That’s what I consider a great spring…
We’ve got more great stuff ahead, and I know that we’ll continue to drive great returns through the second half of the year.
Thanks everyone, I’ll see you soon!
