September 17, 2019
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
St. John Community Center, 2900 Highway 51, LaPlace, LA 70068
Hosted in conjunction with St. John the Baptist Parish Economic Development
Opening Session
1:00 pm – 1:15pm Welcome
Natalie Robottom
Parish President, St. John the Baptist Parish
Peggy Joseph
Chairperson, River Parishes Tourist Commission
Track 1 – Sales/Marketing
1:15pm – 1:45pm Working With Local Experts: The CVB
Brian Jewel
Executive Editor of The Group Travel Leader
1:45pm – 2:15pm Destination Selling: Sales Techniques & Methods
Willma Harvey
Director of Sales & Business Development @ RPTC
2:15pm – 2:30pm BREAK
2:30pm – 3:00pm Social Media isn’t Sexy, but it Works.
Jesse Lambert
Director of Sales and Marketing @ Houmas House
3:00pm – 3:30pm Packaging and Partnering with Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)
Greg Fisher
Owner and Founder of Tripshock
3:30pm – 4:00pm Packaged Travel Itineraries: What Tour Operators Want
Bob Rouse
VP of Communications @ the National Tour Association
Track 2 – Destination Development
1:15pm – 2:15pm Why a strong tourism organization is important to Destination Development
Shelly Green
Past President/CEO @ Discover Durham
2:15pm – 2:30pm BREAK
2:30pm – 1:453:00pm History sells: Why preserving history makes business sense
William Prince
Director of Development @ LA Trust for Historic Preservation
3:00pm – 3:30pm Preserving the Destination: A Case Study
Alyssa Phares
Marketing Director @ Visit Cape
3:30pm-4:00pm Creating Festivals that deliver memorable experiences
Cleveland Spears
CEO @ Spears Consulting Group
General Session
4:15pm – 5:00pm Tourism Matters
Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser & Buddy Boe, Exec Dir, RPTC
Closing Sessions
5:00pm – 5:30pm Closing Reception 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Taste of Tourism
6:00pm River Parishes Leadership in Tourism Awards
Presented by Doug Bourgeois
Louisiana Office of Tourism
Tuesday Sep 17, 2019
1:00 PM - 6:00 PM CDT
September 17, 2019
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
St. John Community Center
2900 Highway 51
LaPlace, LA 70068
Registration FREE until Sept 13th, $25 after and on site.
Printed courtesy of www.riverregionchamber.org/ – Contact the River Region Chamber of Commerce for more information.
390 Belle Terre Blvd., LaPlace, LA 70068 – (985) 359-9777 –