Kevin Twohig, CFE, chief executive officer of the Spokane (WA) Public Facilities District, was given Visit Spokane’s Leadership Excellence in Tourism award last Thursday.

The award honors “significant achievement and historically significant contribution by someone who has impacted Spokane’s tourism industry for more than 10 years.” Visit Spokane’s board of directors selects the recipient.

“Kevin’s leadership for the last 40 years serving the Spokane region’s hospitality community is impressive,” said Cheryl Kilday, President and CEO at Visit Spokane. “Our board recognizes his hard work and dedication resulting in a significant impact on tourism to the region.”

Twohig was honored at the group’s annual meeting at the Davenport Grand.

Among his accomplishments:

•Strong leadership in the expansion of the Spokane Convention Center.

•Improvements to the Spokane Veterans Arena.

•Fostering partnerships with the Spokane Sports Commission.

Twohig has served in his capacity with the Spokane Public Facilities District since 2001.

Visit Spokane generates economic growth for Spokane County by successfully marketing the Spokane region as a preferred destination for conventions and leisure travelers from around the world. Visitors to Spokane County spent an estimated $995 million in 2016 providing jobs for more than 10,000 residents in the region.

Four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and his company Real Deal Sports & Entertainment announced that he will kick off his Real Deal Championship Boxing series June 24 at Freedom Hall in Louisville in partnership with locally based Top Knotch Boxing
and Kentucky Venues.

The undercard at Freedom Hall will consist of three amateur and eight professional bouts, including local boxers. Participants in the main card and the undercard will be announced within the next 10 days.

The first installment of the Real Deal Championship Boxing series will be branded “Evander’s Tribute to Ali” with the main bout a CBS Sports Spectacular Broadcast Event that will air live from 10 p.m. – 12 a.m. The fight card will be part of the locally based “I Am Ali” Festival, a six-week celebration of the one-year anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s passing and his global impact and legacy.

“I’m proud to bring the Real Deal Championship Boxing inaugural event to Louisville, and especially pleased to have it take place during the “I Am Ali” Festival,” said Evander Holyfield. “I share many of the same principles as Ali, and this event allows me to pay tribute to his legacy. Ali was an inspiration to me as I started my professional career; the integrity and sportsmanship this event brings to the sport of boxing is one way I can give back to fighters to help them succeed – in the ring and in life.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Evander Holyfield and Real Deal Sports & Entertainment to Kentucky for this exciting championship bout,” said Governor Matt Bevin. “Our state has a rich boxing heritage, and we have worked hard in recent months to cut red tape and remove unnecessary bureaucracy hampering the industry. As a result, Kentucky is able to once again host large scale, combat sports events. We anticipate that this will be the first of many to come and are grateful to Real Deal Sports & Entertainment for their vote of confidence.”

“Louisville loves sports, and we love to win,” said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. “This event is a big win for our city, and another chance for us to welcome folks from around the nation and the world to the hometown of Muhammad Ali.”

The most-recent professional boxing event held in Freedom Hall was on July 30, 2004, when a relative unknown from England named Danny Williams shocked Mike Tyson by stopping him in the fourth round. Among fights on the undercard that night, Laila Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali, kept her I.W.B.F. super-middleweight title with a ninth-round technical knockout against Monica Nuñez.

“Freedom Hall is a major venue in boxing history, starting with Muhammad Ali’s professional debut in 1960 through Jimmy Ellis’ fight in 1967 and Mike Tyson’s defeat in 2004,” said Jason Rittenberry, president and CEO of Kentucky Venues. “We are very proud and excited to partner with Evander Holyfield’s Real Deal Promotions and Joe Reeves’ Top Knotch Boxing to bring the next generation of champion boxers to Freedom Hall and to the world.”

Erin Jepson, CMP, is one of the industry’s fast-rising stars, having been promoted four times at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, before landing in June 2013 as the director of event services at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. She stands out to me for speaking at a VenueConnect years ago during the New Member/First Timer Breakfast encouraging those in the audience to become involved in IAVM as fast as possible.

One such way to truly feel engaged and involved, Jepson believes, is through the power of voting on Association matters, something that comes up this Friday when members may begin voting on the One Member, One Vote initiative. The initiative comes up for a vote by members and follows extensive study, review and open discussion over the last two years, at which point the IAVM Board of Directors voted unanimously to bring forward proposed changes to the bylaws that would make the Association more inclusive and diverse in its decision making. As a means to incorporate the perspective of all IAVM members, these changes would allow every member of IAVM equal opportunity to engage in the Association through the right to vote. These proposed changes must be approved by two-thirds of the current voting members of IAVM.

“When I think about IAVM, I think about the professional contacts I’ve made at other venues across the world,” Jepson said. “They don’t all work at the same type of venue I do, but they experience the same stresses and issues I do. They celebrate the same successes I do. They work their way through the same challenges I do.

“When I think about IAVM, I think about the contacts I’ve made with our Allied partners. They don’t all have equipment and services in my venue, but they jump in to offer creative solutions when I have a problem. They make up a large part of the help I have received during my time on the VenueConnect planning committee whether it be with hours spent brain-storming about session content or the precious dollars needed to pay a speaker for a session. They have been a part of the same stresses, successes, and challenges I have on a regular basis. The Allied colleagues are no different in my experience than my professional colleagues. All are important. All are necessary. All have taught me a thing or two and all have helped me and my team move toward success.”

Jepson can add those who have already contributed a lifetime of experience to the industry who now fall in to a Honorary or Retired category and could have voting rights restored pending passage of the vote. It is one way to eliminate what appears to Jepson to be a divide in the ranks.

“When I think about IAVM, I see a divide in the organization,” she said. “I see faces of colleagues who all put in time and work to make sure our Association is a great one but only a portion of them have the voting power to keep our organization on the right track. Why are we so afraid of eliminating this divide? Are we afraid our membership will have less value? Less relevance? Less significance?

“I only see a strengthened organization during a time when the organization needs this push forward. I see more value for our Allied members and perhaps with that comes a stronger push to join as members on that end. In the end this leads to a stronger Association for all of us. Let’s move forward with allowing all members have access to voting rights and join together to move IAVM forward toward the future we all need for our industry.”

For more information about the One Member, One Vote initiative, please click here.

Mark Herrera, IAVM director of education, was joined by Paul Villotti, vice president at FP&C Consultants in Kansas City, to lead the staff of the Minnesota Vikings and U.S. Bank Stadium through security steps as the venue already begins its year-long countdown toward hosting the 2018 NFL Super Bowl.

Herrera said that the two staffs were trained on situational awareness, including exceptional focus, performance, and control in extreme situations, along with crowd management smart practices.

Billy Langenstein, the venue’s director of guest services, worked to bring the training to the venue to assure staff and guest safety through ongoing training.

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area saw 32.5 million total visitors in 2016, a 2.8 percent increase over 2015’s 31.6 million convention and leisure travel visitors, which is a new all-time record for the area. Meet Minneapolis, Convention and Visitors Association, announced that a study conducted by DKShifflet shows that both the number of visitors and visitor spending increased yet again in 2016. This news arrives as the hospitality industry celebrates the 34th annual National Travel & Tourism Week that concludes tomorrow.

Visitors spent $7.6 billion in the area, an increase of 1 percent over 2015, when spending was $7.5 billion. The number of leisure visitors alone increased 4 percent to 23.4 million in 2016 from 22.5 million in 2015, with their spending increasing to $5.3 billion, or almost 2 percent over $5.2 billion spent in 2015.

“I sound like a broken record, but it’s all true: Minneapolis continues to set all-time hospitality records,” said Melvin Tennant, president and CEO, Meet Minneapolis. “Travel and related spending continue to increase in our own community, just as it is across the nation, where travel is one of America’s strongest industries.” Travel and tourism generates $2.3 trillion for the U.S. economy.

National Travel & Tourism Week gives the industry an opportunity to shine a light on what travel means to jobs, economic growth and personal well-being. Travel employs a prosperous and diverse workforce, from airline and hotel employees to restaurant, attraction and retail workers, and supports related sectors such as construction, manufacturing and finance.

“Travel supports one in nine American jobs, including 34,870 jobs right here in the city of Minneapolis, or 10 percent of the local workforce,” said Tennant. “This week, we are celebrating these workers and what travel means to our community.”