Oklahoma Travel Industry Association - Event Information
Event Name:
Oklahoma Conference on Tourism
Description:
The Oklahoma Conference on Tourism is an annual event that helps Oklahoma's tourism industry work together to grow our attractions and communities. With the help of a line-up of experts, attendees are kept abreast of the latest trends, tactics and tools needed to maximize opportunity, energize marketing efforts and set the path to sustained growth. They gain insight into current and coming travel trends, share best practices with industry peers, and get real ideas on how to reach more prospective travelers every day. The Oklahoma Conference on Tourism is held in conjunction with the RedBud Awards.
Exhibitor move-in / set rooms / AV check Meinders School of Business, Oklahoma City University
4:00pm
OTIA Board of Directors and Annual Meeting (Open to all members) Meinders School of Business, Oklahoma City University
Tuesday, May 16 - DAYTIME
Meinders School of Business @ Oklahoma City University
2501 N Blackwelder Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73106
Attire: Business casual/logo-wear
8:00am
Registration, Exhibit Review, and Continental Breakfast
8:30am
Welcome by Lt. Governor Todd Lamb and Opening Keynote Presentation: It Takes A Village presented by Steve Chandler, Owner/Brand Strategist, Chandlerthinks
Strong destinations are not created by a new flashy logo. No one ever decides to visit a place because of its tagline. Real destinations are created by a great experience that is delivered by hotels, restaurants, retail, businesses, infrastructure, and virtually everyone in the community. It’s not delivered by DMO marketing. Steve will discuss the notion of place branding and what it takes to really make it work. Simply put, it takes a village. Bring a note pad and prepare to have some fun. Steve is a nut and packs a punch. Seriously, he’s crazy.
10:00am
Break & Exhibit Review
10:30am
Concurrent Workshops
• Common Sense Branding presented by Steve Chandler, Owner & Brand Strategist, Chandlerthinks
In an effort to attract more visitors, families, and businesses, communities across America are trying to create their own destination of distinction. But place branding does not follow the same rules as traditional companies. How can we create and promote a strong identity for our destination? Steve will share a fundamental approach to branding a destination in today’s cluttered commercial and political environment. He calls his approach ‘Common Sense Branding’ and it empowers everyone in a community to get involved. In fact, building a brand any other way is just nonsense.
• Attracting International Visitors in 2017 - How Brand USA is Marketing Oklahoma and the rest of the United States to the World​ presented by Mike Fullerton, Brand USA/The Destination Marketing Organization for the USA/Washington DC
Michael Fullerton, Director of Public Affairs, Brand USA will give an update on Brand USA’s new website, consumer marketing campaign and ways in which you can participate in these efforts and bring more International visitors to all of Oklahoma.
• Digital Advertising Best Practices and How to Measure the Success of a Digital Campaign presented by Lee Warnock, ORANGE142
This presentation focuses on the different ways to measure the success of a digital advertising campaign including paid search, social advertising, banners, video ads, and more. You'll also learn how to measure conversions, track time on pages, and best utilize Google Analytics to measure engagement and success rates with advertising campaigns.
• Strategies For Creating Unique Packages for Tourists presented by Stacy Tomas, Oklahoma State University
Tourists are increasingly seeking out unique, experiential and authentic opportunities when they travel. This session will cover some strategies for creating new and unique packages for tourists while highlighting opportunities to capitalize on emerging trends in travel. Additionally, this session will also share some fun and interesting examples from across the country.
11:30am
Break & Exhibit Review
12:00pm
General Session
Luncheon Keynote: Inside the Beltway - Updates from Our Nation's Capitol presented by Michael Jacobson, Director, Industry Relations and Political Engagement, U.S. Travel Association/Destination Capitol Hill
With the 115th Congress now in session and a new President residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s important to know where important legislation stands. This session will focus on critical issues that impact the industry, including updates on the executive order on immigration, the visa waiver program and improving our nation’s aviation system. Learn how you can get involved to keep the Oklahoma travel industry strong and growing.
2:00pm
Break & Exhibit Review
2:30pm
Concurrent Workshops
• Tales from the Trail presented by Patti Beth Anderson, Good to Go!
If you have ever wondered why doesn't the bus stop here? or how can you make your not-so destination place more of an attraction?, come be a part of this interactive edu-tainment workshop that will give you some great ideas to take down the road.
• Social Media for B2B and Sales - LinkedIn and Beyond presented by Sheila Scarborough, Tourism Currents
Yes, OK, LinkedIn is a logical place to start for B2B networking, but don't stop there. Blogs, Twitter hashtags, Facebook, Instagram...there are many places to connect with meeting/event planners and tour operators to build relationships and develop sales leads via social media. Sure, you can keep cold-calling and sending emails into the void, but there's a better way. Let's talk about it!
• Making the Best Use of Social Media, Paid Search, SEO and Non-Paid (free) Solutions to Reach Customers presented by Lee Warnock, ORANGE142
Before spending money on a paid media campaign, be sure that your “free” channels are running at full capacity. Learn the basics of search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, website blog content, and social media content development to build out your destination’s web presence. Paid search can be one of the most affordable and effective paid efforts and should be a part of most marketing plans. Look at the importance of keyword research and competitor analysis to discover how your target audience is researching destinations online and how to capture them.
• Online Resources to Improve Your Marketing & Your Life presented byJessica Bybee-Dziedzic, Saffire
In this fast-paced session, Jessica Bybee-Dziedzic will take you on a whirlwind tour of the latest and greatest online, smart phone & tablet tools and apps to help increase your efficiency, get control of your email, improve your communication and just have a better life! We’ll specifically discuss tools for marketing more effectively and wowing your website visitors while saving your sanity. Get ready to start your afternoon off right, with lots of ideas and inspiration you can implement easily and immediately!
3:30pm
Break & Exhibit Review
4:00pm
Closing Keynote Presentation: Research. Redefine. Rebrand – Harness the Power of OTRD and Put it to Work for You. presented by Jennifer Mullins, Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department (OTRD)
The Travel Promotion division of OTRD has a reach of more than 91 million impressions a year. Discover how to use our resources to calibrate your messaging and maximize your audience.
Tuesday, May 16 - EVENING
Oklahoma History Center
800 Nazih Zuhdi Dr.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Attire: Business professional
5:30pm
Transportation departs from Embassy Suites OKC Downtown/Medical Center to Oklahoma History Center for Redbud Awards Gala
6:00 - 7:00pm
Cocktail Reception and Silent Auction
A silent auction will be held during the RedBud Awards Gala. Proceeds will benefit tourism education programs. Auction item donations can be confirmed via the online registration form or by downloading this form.
7:00 - 9:00pm
Dinner and Presentation of RedBud Awards
Lt. Governor Todd Lamb and Jenifer Reynolds will once again co-emcee the awards recognizing outstanding marketing efforts by leading organizations from across the state.
Lt. Governor Todd Lamb
State of Oklahoma
Oklahoma elected Todd Lamb as Lt. Governor on November 2, 2010. With a campaign focused on job growth and economic development, Lt. Governor Lamb achieved an overwhelming victory and quickly began putting his forward-thinking ideas and agenda in place. He was appointed to the Governor’s cabinet as the advocate for Oklahoma’s small business. Lamb was reelected as Lt. Governor in 2014.
An Enid native, Lamb played football at Louisiana Tech University, then returned to Oklahoma earning his bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University and his law degree from Oklahoma City University School of Law.
In 1993, Todd Lamb worked on the campaign staff of gubernatorial candidate Frank Keating. Upon Keating's election, Lamb worked alongside the Governor for four years. During his time in the Governor's office, Lamb traveled to all of Oklahoma's 77 counties, almost half of the United States, and 2 foreign countries promoting Governor Keating's pro-growth economic agenda. Lamb served in the Keating Administration from 1994 until 1998.
In 1998, Todd Lamb became a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service. He was elected president of his Secret Service Academy class and graduated with special recognition. During his U.S. Secret Service tenure, Lamb investigated and made numerous arrests in the areas of counterfeiting, bank fraud, threats against the President, and identity theft. His duties included domestic and international protection assignments during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. In 2000, Lamb was a site supervisor for George W. Bush's presidential campaign. In early 2001, he was appointed to the national Joint Terrorism Task Force, where he received training and briefings at the CIA, FBI, and Secret Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. After the terrorists' attacks, he was assigned to portions of the 9-11 investigation.
Lt. Governor Todd Lamb was elected to his first term in the Oklahoma Senate on November 2, 2004 by the voters of Senate district 47 representing NW Oklahoma City and Edmond. Lamb was re-elected without opposition in 2008.
In 2009, Lamb became the first Republican Majority Floor Leader in state history. He has worked as a landman in Oklahoma's energy industry, and in addition to his Senate service, was General Counsel for an energy and wireless company in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Lt. Governor Lamb is the Chairman of the Republican Lieutenant Governor’s Association (RLGA), the immediate past Chairman of the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association (NLGA), and Vice-Chairman of the Aerospace States Association (ASA).
Todd Lamb and his wife Monica have been married 19 years and have two children, Griffin and Lauren. The Lambs are active members of Quail Springs Baptist Church, where Lamb serves as a church deacon. He has been a member of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Association where he officiated high school football. He is active in many other civic and political organizations. In his spare time, Lamb enjoys fishing, hunting, reading, and spending time with his family.
Patti Beth Anderson
Owner, Good to Go!
Corporate Entertainer and Comedy Motivational Speaker Patti Beth Anderson is a professional traveler in the group tour business. She unpacks her suitcase in Grove, Oklahoma, located in the Northeast corner of the state.
Patti Beth graduated with honors from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M with an Associate Degree of Fine Arts, and from Oklahoma City University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theater Education. Ms. Anderson fulfilled her college dream by returning to NEO as an instructor and professor of Speech and Theatre. She taught at the college level directing plays and musicals, instructing speech, acting and theatre classes. Ms. Anderson obtained her Masters Degree in Communication from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. Patti Beth has acted in numerous television and radio commercials, programs and educational and industrial films.
As an entertainer, she has shared the stage and entertained such notables as Ray Price, Porter Wagoner, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, Astronaut Neil Armstrong, Kitty Wells and Jerry Clower. She is asked to speak as Patti Beth or one of her many character creations at events as varied as The Governor’s conference of Tourism, National Travel Shows, Sports Banquets, Ag in the Classroom, gospel music events and as a guest platform speaker at the Oklahoma State Evangelism Conference, just to list a few.
Some of Ms. Anderson’s honors have included Grand Laker of the Year, Honorary Rotarian, NEO A&M’s Alumni of the Year 2011, and has served on the Grove Education Foundation for Excellence as a board member.
Patti Beth is the tour director and owner of Good to Go with Patti Beth, specializing in “Group Travel at its Best.” She has toured 50 states, over 80 countries on seven continents.
Jessica Bybee-Dziedzic
Director of Partnerships, Saffire
Jessica Bybee-Dziedzic has a comprehensive background in online marketing, social media, and website strategy. In 2007, she joined Wright Strategies, managing online projects for clients including KEEN Footwear, Nike and Frito Lay. Two years later, the Wright Strategies team created Saffire, providing events, venues and destinations with websites and ticketing in a simple integrated platform.
Since 2009, Jessica has played a key role in planning and developing many aspects of Saffire. She has served as the Director of Marketing, Director of Client Experience and is currently a Director of Partnerships. She received a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MA in Education from National-Louis University in Heidelberg, Germany. In her spare time, she and her husband pursue their love of films, as co-owners of an indie film production company and annual film festival.
Steve Chandler
Owner/Brand Strategist, Chandlerthinks.com
Steve is a career marketing man with almost two decades of experience in strategic planning and brand development for local, regional and national brands. He originally started working on classic consumer products until becoming fascinated by the marketing of places (cities, destinations, communities and anywhere else you need an experience).
More than 50 "places" later, Steve continues to guide numerous destinations through the strategic and delicate process of community branding and planning, and still enjoys the whole process. He enjoys everything from the research and learning phase, to helping bring out the special experience and story that can be found from each dot on the map.
Throughout his career, Steve has immersed himself in the highly relevant digital marketing industry which allows a continual fresh perspective and approach to branding. He also speaks on various marketing and branding topics where his natural high energy is on full display.
Mike Fullerton
Director, Public Affairs - Brand USA
Michael Fullerton is Director of Public Affairs for Brand USA, the public-private partnership responsible for launching the United States’ first-ever nationally coordinated tourism marketing effort. Mike contributes to the organization’s efforts to build and execute effective marketing strategies to increase inbound travel to the United States in order to increase U.S. exports, create jobs, strengthen the economy, and help enhance the image of the United States with people all over the world. These programs consist of marketing, public relations, and partnership programs critical to the overall marketing of the United States as the world’s premier travel destination, as well as communications programs to provide travelers with vital information that inspires and makes it easier to explore the vast range of experiences and destinations available in the U.S.A.
Michael Jacobson Director, Industry Relations and Political Engagement, U.S. Travel Association
Michael Jacobson is the Director of Industry Relations and Political Engagement for the U.S. Travel Association, the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the tourism industry. He leads the Power of Travel Coalition, the industry's grassroots network of 500,000 employees who advocate to protect and promote travel. In this role, he spearheaded the Vote Travel campaign in 2012, which included dozens of in-district, campaign style, events as part of a nationwide bus tour. Jacobson also led the strategic advocacy efforts that supported the successful reauthorization of Brand USA in 2014.
Additionally, he oversees U.S. Travel's Political Action Committee, Travel PAC, which he has quickly grown to become one of the nation’s largest travel industry PACs.
Michael has more than eight years of experience in grassroots advocacy and nonprofit fundraising. He enjoys volunteering with the American Cancer Society. A proud alumnus of Seton Hall University, Michael lives in Chicago with his wife Sarah, where they enjoy cheering on their local sports teams, particularly the World Champion Chicago Cubs.
Jennifer Mullins
Director of Travel Promotion,Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department
Jennifer Mullins joined the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department as the Director of Travel Promotion in July of 2015. She has 15 years experience in marketing and advertising for the private sector and comes to OTRD from Jordan Advertising where she served as the account supervisor for the Oklahoma Tourism account and senior copywriter for the agency. The Travel Promotion division of OTRD includes Oklahoma Today, Discover Oklahoma, TravelOK.com, Fulfillment, Consumer & Trade Marketing, the Tourism Information Centers, as well as the state tourism branding campaigns.
Sheila Scarborough
Owner, Tourism Currents
Sheila Scarborough is a speaker and trainer specializing in tourism, travel, and social media. She's written for many blogs and print publications and is also a certified Navy Master Training Specialist, with years of experience as an instructor.
Along with Leslie McLellan, Sheila is part of the Tourism Currents team, offering online and in-person training in social media for tourism and hospitality.
Winner of the "Austin American-Statesman" Texas Social Media Award and an AWC (Association for Women in Communications) Clarion award, Sheila trains and speaks regularly about social media to a variety of audiences including tourism and economic development experts, public relations and marketing professionals, and Chambers of Commerce.
She is on the National Professional Development Committee for the AWC, co-founded and still writes for the award-winning Perceptive Travel blog, is active on the Round Rock, Texas Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneurship Council, and serves on the Programming Committee for SXSWi (the South by Southwest Interactive tech conference.) She is also part of the organizing team for #tourismchat, a monthly online Twitter chat about a variety of topics related to destination marketing.
A U.S. Navy veteran who is married with two children, Sheila is an NHRA drag racing fan because there is one winner, one loser, and no whining.
Stacy Tomas, PhD
Asst. Professor, OSU School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration
Stacy is an assistant professor in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK. For more than 15 years, she has worked with small businesses, landowners, farmers and communities to develop and promote sustainable tourism in the areas of agritourism, nature-based tourism, and cultural and heritage-based tourism. In collaboration with community leaders and business owners, she has worked to develop sustainable tourism as a means for community and economic development. She has also assisted landowners and business owners explore entrepreneurial opportunities relating to tourism. Her research focuses on consumer behavior and tourism marketing, as well as tourism development and the economic impacts of tourism. From her research, she strives to contribute to the understanding of what constitutes satisfying tourist experiences and to provide managerial suggestions on engineering positive experiences for guests.
Lee Warnock
Business Development, Orange142.com
Lee Warnock is a proud member of the Orange142 Business Development Team. Hailing from Austin by way of Ardmore, he attended the University of Oklahoma and jumped headfirst into digital media. He has existed on every side of the pixel; from Buyer, Planner, Trafficker, Analyst, Client Services and finally finding his localhost in Business Development.
His greatest love in life is crafting custom solutions in a comprehensive strategy by creating a cohesive voice for every client across a wide ranging and far reaching capabilities arsenal to ensure KPI satisfaction and accomplish the goals of meeting or exceeding every campaign’s success metrics, every time. His second greatest love is reporting on those same metrics. He also enjoys speaking at local, state, and national events on digital media advancements to elucidate new tech, trends, and best practices, with a strong focus on relationship-building and reputation management. See him at Orange142.com.
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The Oklahoma Conference on Tourism is an annual event that helps Oklahoma's tourism industry work together to grow our attractions and communities. With the help of a line-up of experts, attendees are kept abreast of the latest trends, tactics and tools needed to maximize opportunity, energize marketing efforts and set the path to sustained growth. They gain insight into current and coming travel trends, share best practices with industry peers, and get real ideas on how to reach more prospective travelers every day. The Oklahoma Conference on Tourism is held in conjunction with the 
Dinner and Presentation of RedBud Awards
Jessica Bybee-Dziedzic
Michael Jacobson
Jennifer Mullins
Oklahoma Travel Industry Association