Dan Fenton, CEO of Team San Jose, confirmed his resignation from the destination marketing and facility management corporation Dec. 16.
Fenton said he will leave his post Jan. 31 and will pursue new ventures. An acting CEO had not been named at press time.
Team San Jose has been under scrutiny in recent months. Despite increasing revenues 73 percent during the last five years, net operating losses rose 17 percent during the same time period, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News. Other woes included being issued a default notice by the city of San Jose for being $750,000 over budget and incurring a $5.4 million operating loss in 2009, according to the same report, which also noted that a civil grand jury in 2007 “criticized the city for failing to hold Team San Jose accountable for not meeting its contract,” which Fenton takes issue with.
“If you look at our contract, Team San Jose is measured on eight points: attendance, direct spending, room nights, ROI calculation, customer satisfaction, revenue and GOP [gross operating profit]” Fenton told Meetings Focus, also adding the measurement of theater performance to the list. “On seven of those eight measures, we had a 99 percent score or above, so we received a 100.2 percent overall incentive score—and that included GOP. So even though there is all sorts of press about the amount, it was within $80,000 of the actual goal.”
“We’re really very proud of what we’ve done,” he continued. “We look at some of the local press as unfortunately being uninformed.”
Team San Jose is the result of an innovative destination promotion and convention services model that unified the San Jose CVB, hotels, arts and other venues, and local labor organizations. The corporation manages the San Jose Convention Center and arts and entertainment venues that include the California Theatre, the Center for the Performing Arts, Montgomery Theater, Parkside Hall, San Jose Civic and South Hall.
Fenton said the model was geared toward delivering an exceptional experience to both visitors and meeting planners.
“The customer response has been phenomenal from day one,” Fenton said. “Over 95 percent of the decision-makers that received surveys rated us as exceeding their expectations, overall.”
According to Fenton, the Team San Jose model has since been adopted by Memphis, Tenn.
“We’re very proud of that and what it demonstrates about the model,” he said.
“One of the things that we were known for was creating nontraditional flexibility with clients, and it was because of that partnership with labor,” Fenton continued, adding that the relationship with hotels also was the key factor in the decision to expand the San Jose Convention Center. “The convention center absolutely would not have happened had Team San Jose not existed. The hotels’ participation in the funding of the convention center expansion—they voted to self-tax themselves—was all because of their ability to be involved in the Team San Jose model.”
The following are some highlights of Dan Fenton’s career in San Jose, issued by press release Thursday night:
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Since 2004, under Fenton, Team San Jose has become a major economic driver in Silicon Valley, evolving into a $24 million company with more than 900 employees.
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Fenton served as President of the San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau from 1998 to 2008 when Team San Jose and the San Jose CVB merged into one corporation.
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During his tenure as Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) Chairmanship (July 2009-June 2010), Fenton led replicating the Team San Jose model nationally, encouraging national arts, hotel chains to work with DMAI to elevate the meeting industry’s profile. A partnership with the Council of the Arts was created to Fenton’s leadership.
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Fenton, in partnership with local arts leaders, developed the San Jose Theater Preservation Inc., a non-profit corporation established to support theater capital renovations and enhance the patron experience at the San Jose Civic, Montgomery Theater, California Theatre and the Center for the Performing Arts, all theaters managed by Team San Jose.
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Fenton, in partnership with the local hotels, established the San Jose Hotels Inc., a non-profit corporation to support San Jose as a destination. As city resources continued to decline, local hotels through a special Hotel Business Improvement District helped support investments to attract local conventions.
