Hotel
The hotel is the Western Front hotel in St. Paul, VA. Room rates vary from $110-135 based on type of room.
The Western Front Hotel – 13025 Fourth Ave – St. Paul, VA
Guests may call to make reservations at 276-738-3040 and state that they are with the VADMO meeting.
Guests may also make reservations at www.westernfronthotel.com with group code VADMO.
Our Sponsors
Program
The program is being finalized and will revolve around local topics germane to design elements in hospitality experiences.
July 25, 2018
- Participants should bring a change of clothes. The Spearhead Trail ride can be wet and muddy….but so much fun!
Registration Form
Refund Policy: VADMO offers a full refund of registration if cancelled by email (info@vadmo.org ) by July 19.
Presenters
George Zimmerman
George Zimmermann brings more than two decades of experience in tourism destination marketing and research to the Longwoods team and its clients.
He was the Vice President responsible for Travel Michigan at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation from October 2001 until April 2014. Under his leadership, Travel Michigan and its advertising agency, McCann Detroit, created and launched the award-winning Pure Michigan branding campaign in 2006, a campaign that Forbes ranked among the top ten tourism promotion campaigns worldwide. Initially a regional campaign, Pure Michigan became Michigan’s first significant national advertising campaign starting in 2009. During his tenure, the annual tourism promotion budget rose from $5.7 million to $30 million.
In 2012, the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) named George one of the “Top 25 Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales and Marketing”. In 2011, the National Council of State Tourism Directors named him State Tourism Director of the Year for his work at Travel Michigan. Prior to joining Travel Michigan, George served as Ohio’s Tourism Director, and he was named State Tourism Director of the Year in 1997. He is the only person to have received this honor twice.
George served on the U.S. Department of Commerce Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of the U.S. Travel Association and the Board and Executive Committee of the National Council of State Tourism Directors. He was elected as Chair of the Council four times.
George has consulted with and/or presented to the state tourism offices in Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, as well as convention bureaus in Asheville, North Carolina; Lake Geneva and Green Bay, Wisconsin; the Poconos, Chester County and York, Pennsylvania. In 2014, he led the effort to create the National Council of State Tourism Directors Alumni Group and was elected the group’s first chair.
Before his work in tourism, George spent more than a decade in all phases of broadcasting, including serving as the Statehouse Bureau Chief for the Ohio Public Radio/Public Television Statehouse Bureau. He was the editor of the situation comedies “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times” in Los Angeles, and he was the technical director for the two pilots of “Austin City Limits” in Texas. He is the author of three travel-related books and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
Martha Spencer
Martha Spencer grew up in a musical family in Whitetop Mountain, Virginia. At an early age, she began flatfoot dancing and singing, and learned to play several instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass, mandolin, and dulcimer.
She plays in several groups – with her family, the Whitetop Mountain Band, with Larry Sigmon in Unique Sound of the Mountains, in duo group the Whitetop Mountaineers and trio group Spencer Branch, and in the Old Time Country Roadshow, as well as writing and recording on her own.
She has toured across the United States and abroad many times. She is also active in passing on the music to youth in the area, working with JAM and the Albert Hash Memorial Stringband. She also has worked with several projects including Mountain Music Magazine, Backroads of America show, and Country Songbird Collective.
https://www.marthaspencermusic.com/
