by Nat Grubbs

Kevan Kirkpatrick is the new Executive Director of the BancorpSouth Arena & Conference Center in Tupelo. He brings 18 years of experience in the venue management industry to the area’s premier regional event center.

“The Tupelo Coliseum Commission conducted a national search that garnered interest from all over the country. Kevan has served three terms as interim director of the BancorpSouth Arena & Conference Center. He knows our venue and understands what it takes to run a successful regional event center,” said Nat Grubbs, Tupelo Coliseum Commission Chairman. “We are grateful for his leadership over the years and are
thankful for the continuity that he will bring to the arena from day one.”

Kirkpatrick began his career with the BancorpSouth Arena & Conference Center in 2003, previously serving as both Assistant Executive Director and Director of Marketing. He was instrumental in securing the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant for the facility during the pandemic, providing much needed capital at a time when events were cancelled.

“Kevan’s long term commitment to Tupelo and the venue management industry is exemplary,” said Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan. “We look forward to the continued success of the BancorpSouth Arena & Conference Center under his leadership as he works to create exciting events for citizens and visitors to Tupelo.”

Opened in 1993, the BancorpSouth Arena & Conference Center is a 10,000-seat multipurpose arena and conference center located in the heart of Downtown Tupelo. A $15.2 million expansion was completed in 2021, doubling the meeting space and renovating existing spaces at both the arena and conference center.

“I’m excited to continue to serve the city of Tupelo and North Mississippi in bringing top entertainment acts and providing world class conference facilities,” said Kevan Kirkpatrick. “Our staff has set high expectations for ourselves as we move into the next chapter of the BancorpSouth Arena & Conference Center.”

By Stacie Bauer

Ungerboeck, the World’s Event Software, has hired Ryan Morrow as Chief Financial Officer and recently promoted several key leaders, as the organization looks to grow and scale globally.

Morrow serves as Ungerboeck’s first CFO. As part of the executive leadership team, Morrow will focus on building a high-performing organization that will scale with the expected growth coinciding with a recent investment from Cove Hill Partners. As a strategic advisor to Ungerboeck’s CEO and Board of Directors, Morrow will drive the overall financial strategy of the business while building out FP&A, corporate development, accounting, treasury, tax, and other departments.

“We are glad to have Ryan join our rapidly growing team. Ryan brings a wealth of cross-industry experience in accelerating companies’ growth, as well as strategic business planning and handling mergers and acquisitions.” said Manish Chandak, President and CEO. “Ryan will help us continue to achieve our financial metrics and accelerate our growth trajectory.”

Along with the addition of Morrow, several recent promotions round out the leadership team.

“We are thrilled about the post-pandemic growth of the events industry, and we are preparing our team to support that growth,” Chandak said. “I am very excited to announce our expanded leadership team. This leadership team truly embodies our values and is ready to serve our customers and lead the industry with expertise and innovation.”

The new roles include:

FRED LAZZERINI – Senior Vice President, International
In his new role, Lazzerini will oversee sales and delivery for all markets outside of Americas, where he will drive the rapid growth of Ungerboeck activities and the company’s ongoing focus on customer success.

Lazzerini brings more than 20 years of experience in the events industry, first working for the technology branch of GL Events, a major venue and exhibition management company based in France, and then having held a variety of roles with Ungerboeck, providing and delivering their event technology solutions to customers in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. For the last 10 years, Lazzerini has overseen the expansion of the Asia-Pacific region.

MIKE CAMERON – Vice President, People & Culture
Mike Cameron will continue fostering a workplace culture where employee engagement, strong leadership, employee relationships, and successful endeavors can thrive. The importance of company culture has become an even more vital element of the work experience for all of us. While working alongside our leadership team and each individual employee, the People and Culture team strives to attract, engage, retain, and unleash the potential of our teams.

JENNIFER DIEBLING – Vice President, Marketing
Jennifer Diebling will serve as an active contributor and collaborative member of our dynamic senior leadership team. She will be responsible for designing and implementing the organization’s strategic global marketing plan. Diebling will be instrumental in positioning the brand for growth, increasing brand awareness in emerging markets, growing the sales pipeline with strategies that align with our business goals, and developing opportunities to grow affinity and advocacy with current customers in the broader Ungerboeck community.

JOE WHITE – Vice President, Product Development
After a six-year hiatus from Ungerboeck, Joe White is returning home as Vice President, Product Development. White will focus on the new direction and the next generation of Ungerboeck software. He will concentrate his efforts on automation, unit testing, and a heightened level of customer satisfaction and confidence in the products that the department delivers. White’s teams are the backbone of Ungerboeck, delivering high-quality software at an amazing pace. In his new role, White will continue to focus on delivering business value while ensuring that we’re building our products on a solid foundation.

Stacie Bauer is the Event & Sponsorship Coordinator, Marketing at Ungerboeck.

By Mary Klida

Karen Totaro, general manager, TCF Center/ASM Global in Detroit, announced several awards recently received by the venue, each representing the highest quality of venue service and meeting experience.

“These awards are such a wonderful reflection of the creative, hardworking team at TCF Center,” Totaro said. “I’m so proud to be part of this extraordinary group.”

Centers of Excellence Award (Exhibitor Magazine)

Exhibitor Magazine readers evaluated their favorite convention centers using an objective algorithm weighted to reflect how they value a variety of variables. The myriad criteria considered were categorized into five primary areas:

• Facility & Functionality
• Location & Accommodations
• Service & Execution
• Expansions & Upgrades
• Awards & Industry Participation

TCF Center received this distinguished award for four years in a row. The award is a particular honor because essentially it comes from the venue’s trade show customers.

Stella Award (Northstar Meetings Group)

The silver medal in the Best Convention Center Category, Midwest Region was given to TCF Center by the Northstar Meetings Group in their 2021 Stella Awards program. It demonstrated a commitment to helping meeting professionals pull off a flawless event, as determined by the people who know best: experienced meeting planners. The nominations received public, planner voting and third-party, objective planner judging.

The Stella Awards honor excellence in the meetings industry. The program distinguishes suppliers from around the globe that consistently deliver quality service and innovation to meeting and event professionals. Winners include the very best hotels, convention centers, conference centers, convention and visitor bureaus, destination marketing organizations, destination management companies, airlines and cruise lines. This year, more than 6,000 votes were cast from around the world for the 603 destinations, hotels and service providers nominated in 17 categories in six regions in the United States and worldwide. There were a total of 260 total winners and finalists for 2021.

The program distinguishes suppliers that consistently deliver quality service and innovation to meeting and event professionals. The winners are recognized for achieving overall excellence, superb food and beverage, professionalism of staff, technology innovations and other critical aspects of meetings and event experience.

“Congratulations to all of the 2021 Stella Award winners and finalists,” said Loren Edelstein, vice president and content director for Northstar Meetings Group. “All of the honorees truly represent excellence in the meetings and events industry as valued and respected suppliers.”

TCF Center also received the award in 2019.

Prime Site Award (Facilities and Destinations Magazine)

For the seventh year in a row, Facilities & Destinations Magazine has recognized TCF Center with its Prime Site Award, as a venue that is an ideal environment for stakeholders to engage in dialogue, brainstorming, learning and networking. Winning the award signals client satisfaction on many levels and recognizes that the center is a standout in a competitive meetings marketplace.

Community Safe Haven Award (US Green Buildings Council)

TCF Center was awarded the Community Safe Haven award at Michigan Energy Summit in August. The 2021 Michigan Energy Summit recognized and celebrated competitors of the Michigan Battle of the Buildings ‘biggest loser’ competition. It has been a program of the U.S. Green Building Council of West Michigan since 2014. It is the largest voluntary biggest-loser-styled energy competition in the country.

TCF Center was recognized with this award for providing several essential community services in downtown Detroit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, TCF Center’s doors were opened to Forgotten Harvest and Food Rescue US as a food distribution center to lessen food insecurity in Southeast Michigan; aided the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Detroit District to construct a field hospital for up to 1000 COVID patients in the venue to help alleviate the overcrowded Southeast Michigan hospitals; housed a Battelle for sterilizing and redistributing masks; housed the Pope Francis Warming Center to care for the needs of Detroit’s transient population including showers, laundry, food, rest, legal counsel and health care; became a 2020 General Election Ballot Counting Center; and served Detroit’s largest COVID vaccination center.

Amid these services, the facilities team was meticulous to create separate zones for each initiative and were highly strategic to steward the center’s energy use wisely in concert with safety. One strategy included stacking the segregated zones to be served by the same air handling column without risk of cross exposure. Through careful research, TCF Center devised top procedures to make sure air changes aligned with health best practices without excessive energy costs.

Mary Klida is Sr. Marketing and Communications Manager at TCF Center.

From Globe Newswire

Tampa Bay Defense Alliance (TBDA) President Donna Huneycutt and Airlift/Tanker Association (A/TA) Chairman General Duncan J. McNabb, USAF (Ret.) named Kevin Twohig, CVE, from Fairchild Air Force Base, WA as the winner of the 2021 Tampa Bay Trophy. The Tampa Bay Trophy recognizes a civic leader whose lifetime achievement and distinguished service to the United States Air Force and Air Mobility Command epitomizes the synergy between civilian and military communities.

Donna Huneycutt and Gen. McNabb presented the long-time IAVM member and retired venue professional from Spokane with his citation at the 2021 Airlift Tanker Association Convention held at the Marriott World Resort, Orlando, FL on October 29.

“This year highlights the power of great relationships between military bases and their surrounding communities as they come together to help recover from the effect of a global pandemic. The Tampa Bay Defense Alliance was excited to learn about the outstanding nominees sent to us from Air Mobility Command communities. We enjoyed the hard task of selecting a winner from these fantastic leaders who support military communities, personnel, and their families. We’re incredibly honored to recognize this year’s recipient, Mr. Kevin Twohig from Fairchild Air Force Base, for his outstanding leadership, innovation, and devotion to his community,” Huneycutt said.

Twohig distinguished himself by exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service to the Airmen and families of Fairchild Air Force Base, the greater Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane community, the State of Washington, and to the United States Air Force. Twohig provided exemplary energy, compassion and sustained, enduring service to the men and women who provide our nation’s critical global mobility capability. A renowned community leader and advocate for Spokane, Washington, his Forward Fairchild committee leadership strengthened the relationship between Fairchild AFB and the local community by enabling groundbreaking public-private partnerships and improving military spouse licensure, childcare availability, housing affordability, diversity and inclusion partnerships, and education quality. To that end, Twohig partnered with the 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander to conduct the Wing’s first Airman and Family Quality of Life Summit that developed eight actionable community support initiatives. A passionate advocate for military families, his engagement with Washington state leaders led to improved military spouse employment opportunities and his mentorship of local school districts improved resources for transitioning military children. Selected as both an Air Education and Training Command and Air Mobility Command civic leader, his dedication and continuous commitment to the air mobility mission, our Airmen, and the United States Air Force reflects the outstanding, enduring civic leadership he displayed as he enhanced the mission of our bases, improved the quality of life for all our Airmen, and secured Air Mobility Command’s mission across the globe. Twohig has truly championed the Air Mobility mission of Fairchild AFB earning honor and recognition as the winner of the 2021 Airlift/Tanker Association Tampa Bay Trophy.

“We could write a book on all the amazing support and initiatives that Mr. Twohig has championed or helped advance for Team Fairchild,” said Colonel Cassius T. Bentley, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander. “He is our biggest supporter and community partner, and he is an amazing person and mentor; he is well deserving of this award,” said Col. Bentley.

“We appreciate the Tampa Bay Defense Alliance for recognizing our outstanding AMC civic leader every year with the Tampa Bay Trophy. Kevin’s long time devoted work for our Airmen, service members, veterans and families raised the bar for the entire Fairchild Air Force Base community. He truly championed our airmen and their families, the Air Mobility Mission in Eastern Washington, and led the way to make our Air Force and our Nation better,” said A/TA Chairman, Gen. Duncan McNabb (Ret.).

Pictured: Twohig, Air Mobility Command civic leader, is presented the Tampa Bay Defense Alliance trophy by U.S. Air Force Col. Cassius T. Bentley, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Anneliese Kaiser)

The Meadowlands 2040 Foundation has revealed plans to build a new Meadowlands Convention Center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The 460,000 square foot center would supplement area attractions like American Dream, MetLife Stadium and the Meadowlands racetrack. It would host major conventions, banquets, festivals and more. Sources say that the space would include 300,000 square feet of flexible exhibition space 100,000 square feet of meeting space and 60,000 square feet of banquet space. The location is the former Izod Center.

The announcement was made during the foundation’s Thought Leaders Conference/ Mdest 2021 on October 19 at the Hilton Meadowlands in Rutherford, New Jersey. Key speakers included Rob Hunden, CEO of HSP; David DuBois, CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, and Brad Mayne, CEO of the International Association of Venue Managers.