The Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), also known as Destination Marketing Organizations, usually paid by a State Grant, is a free service for visitors coming to a city. CVBs job is to assist visitors whether they are on a leisure, conventions, or business travel. 

Heather Larson is Director of Sales at Meet Chicago Northwest, one of the CVBs acting in that city. She is an accomplished hospitality professional with several years of sales management experience. Meet Chicago Northwest represents over 60 hotels, including the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, Medieval Times, Gameworks, and fantastic restaurants. 

In this episode, we had a fantastic conversation about the extensive job of CVBs and how the Request for Proposal (RFP) process works. Heather explained how the hospitality industry works, how hotels are dealing with COVID, and what we can expect in the following months about practices that hotels adopted and will definitely stay even after the pandemic is over. We talked about the Restore Illinois plan and why they decided to join the Esports Trade Association. 

You can connect with Heather on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-larson-cmp-a644801a/

or

visit the Meet Chicago Northwest website: https://chicagonorthwest.co

The Esports Connected Podcast was created by the Esports Trade Association. To find out more, visit: https://esportsta.org/

Full Episode Breakdown:

1:56 – Heather explains what CVBs do and what their mission is.

6:20 – Heather talks about RFP. How they work, and what is the hotel’s criteria to approve them.

10:15 – Heather speaks about the importance of flexibility when organizing an event.

14:16 – Heather talks about how venues are dealing with COVID.

17:56 – About esports inquiries to Heather’s CVB. What can we expect in the forthcoming months regarding live events.

21:20 – Megan and Heather talk about the importance of educating our community members about the value the State of Chicago offers.

24:50 – Heather talks a bit about her experience in sales and how her journey has been so far.

26:07 – Heather tells Megan why they decided to join the Esports Trade Association.