President's Message Welcome to the San Diego Chapter of HSMAI! The San Diego Chapter has more than 150 members, consisting of sales and marketing professionals in the hospitality industry. This association is ideal for both new sales managers starting out, as well as those that have been around a bit longer, but desire to better hone their skills and remain up to date with current sales and marketing trends. HSMAI provides it members with education, well researched industry-related facts, networking & partnership opportunities and leadership skill development. It is my personal goal for 2009 to target meeting planners for better membership ROI. Our objectives for 2009 are to better define & understand the needs of sales & marketing professionals, as well as to improve upon HSMAI brand relevance, by continually increasing and improving the quality of our programs and educational offerings. 2009 will bring some challenges to the hospitality industry and it is our chapters commitment to provide educational programs that are relevant to these times. “Tough times don’t’ last but tough people do”. We are an award-winning chapter, strong and vibrant, and I am pleased to report, one of the most solvent in the organization. We work closely with San Diego State’s School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, sponsoring 5 student memberships each year. The sponsorship includes membership fees, as well as monthly program fees. By bringing the students into the chapter and giving them access to our programs and services, we believe we are giving them an edge in what is already a very competitive marketplace. This year, in particular, promises to be quite exciting and informative at HSMAI. Not only will we be offering a minimum of six educational programs this year, we have our 9th annual bowling fundraiser coming up in July and our 6th annual Chinese Auction in October. Both of these events benefit our student scholarship fund, as well as several local nonprofit organizations. I am also pleased to announce that we will again be producing our trademark Inside the Hospitality Studio event in November, and closing up the year with our annual Holiday Luncheon in December. I look forward to meeting each of you throughout the year. We welcome any feedback, suggestions or volunteers hours you would like to give to us!  President
Darla Methey, CMP
National Account Manager
Conference Direct
darla_methey@conferencedirect.com |
