VA-1 Summit To Feature LGBT Tourism Marketing Panel
Richmond's coming out letter to Washington, DC
We've watched Richmond come out as a city over the past several months, but it's been years in the making. It's been an honor to be serve on Richmond Region Tourism's LGBT tourism committee over the past five years and watch the effort organically evolve into today's OutRVA campaign.
The OutRVA team has been able to partner with the some amazing local destinations and garnered attention for this groundbreaking campaign in the New York Times and in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Metro Business Section.
At Big Spoon, we're humbled to manage the digital side of the campaign this year. Through the campaign, the whole OutRVA team is blazing trails here at home. I was thrilled to introduce Governor Terry McAuliffe at Virginia Pride in September. It was the first time a sitting governor spoke at a Pride Festival in Virginia's history - what a special day!
In November, I moderate a panel on LGBT Tourism Marketing at the VA-1 Tourism Summit, formerly the Governor’s Conference on Tourism. Our friend Katherine O'Donnell, Vice President of Community Relations at Richmond Region Tourism, who has spearheaded the region's LGBT marketing efforts, will speak on Richmond's successes. Bruce Yelk, Director of Public Relations at Visit Philadelphia, and Troy Petenbrink, an LGBT travel writer, also join the panel.
Katherine O'Donnell of Richmond Region Tourism, Governor Terry McAuliffe, and Kevin Clay at Virginia Pride.
VA-1 is an annual tourism industry conference held each November. The conference draws around 500 tourism and related industry professionals from across the Commonwealth. This year the focus is on Creative Communities and Drive Destinations around Virginia. There are also several smaller hour long Breakout Sessions with topics tailored to hospitality, tourism, economic development as well as traditional marketing and sales professionals.
More information on the VA-1 Tourism Summit including registration can be found here.