CEO Newsletter
CEO Newsletter
Team,
We hosted an amazing industry event at the Baltimore Convention Center during the first weekend of August, the International Association of Venue Managers Conference (IAVM). Centerplate was in the spotlight over the course of 4 days, providing hospitality to many of our existing clients from around North America, numerous potential clients and even our competitors. The reviews have been nothing short of fantastic! Allow me to paraphrase a quote from Peggy Daidakis, our client at the BCC: “Chris, as you know, your team has knocked it out of the park during IAVM. I continue to get so many compliments about the entire BCC team, but particularly Centerplate. We are so very pleased with the direction that we are going in. We have elevated the culinary, the service and the team spirit. From Journey Home to IAVM to every event, both large and small, there is a ‘can do’ attitude.” Kudos to Michael Barrett, Chef Jerry Infantino and the entire BCC Centerplate team, with a helping hand from Gary Leach, for making this event spectacular!
In conjunction with the IAVM convention we also held our annual client dinner at a local Baltimore restaurant, hosting close to 100 guests including many of our current clients and industry leaders. We were pleased to have Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings–Blake stop by to mingle with our guests and to further accentuate the scope of our partnership in Baltimore.
We’ve also recently been on the world stage with several high profile events. Starting with the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, where Andrew Pollard, Paul McArdle and their teams performed flawlessly and then in Toronto, James Demjan, Cathy King, Michael O’Doherty and his team at the Niagara Convention Centre provided hospitality services for the Pan Am games. At Levi’s Stadium in San Jose, under the leadership of Mike Dubey and his team which now includes our new GM, Dac Carbone, we hosted two sold out Grateful Dead concerts, a sold out soccer match between Manchester United and Barcelona followed by a Cisco Systems catering event for 29,000 – a nice welcoming for Dac. In Sunrise, Florida, Bob Hough and his team served hungry hockey fans at the BB&T Center for the 2015 NHL Draft. Meanwhile, the European football season has kicked off in the UK and our Heritage Portfolio account, Colonnades Restaurant at the Signet Library managed by Jenny Laseen and Glenn D’Costa, has risen to Trip Advisor’s #1 spot for restaurants in Edinburgh and has quickly become known as the best afternoon tea experience.
While we’re on the topic of the UK, I have some excellent news to share from our New Business Development team. In the last few weeks we have signed contracts with Portsmouth FC and Ipswich Town FC. Both of these venues were former clients who have come back to Centerplate UK because of the hard work and outstanding results our UK team has delivered. Simon Pile, in his new role as Director of Business Partnerships, has done a fantastic job in bringing new energy into the selling process and positioning Centerplate as the quality choice in the European marketplace. We have also renewed our contracts with the Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hibernian FC clubs. Special thanks to Pauline Allison, Alistair Anderson, Stephanie Brown, Jason Burns, Laura Castro, Chris Compton, James Demalgaski, Rachel Fox, Pat Gaddess, Marvin Garwood, Aaron Hagen, Steve Lelittka, Simon McMain, Jayne Nightingale, Matthew Nicholson, Gayle Ogilvie, Simon Pile, Ian Pope, Nick Reaney, Paula Street, Jeff Tandberg and Lee Weston for their efforts to help us land and renew these accounts. And of course, the guiding light of our UK team’s resurgence has been the leadership that Adrian Dishington has provided.
There are several new and exciting business opportunities in the pipeline. But more importantly, we have a number of existing accounts in various stages of the renewal process. Please redouble your efforts and help us get your account renewed early whenever possible. I am confident that there are many exciting announcements yet to come.
Thanks everyone, I’ll see you soon…
