Michael Massari
Senior Vice President, Caesars Entertainment
With the recent unveiling of the $125 million, 100,000-square-foot Waterfront Conference Center expansion at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, Caesars Entertainment is reinvigorating an Atlantic City stuck on a bad luck streak.
Championed by Michael Massari, senior vice president of the gaming and hospitality giant, the successful facility already counts MPI’s June 2016 World Education Congress (WEC) as a client, with hopes of upping the struggling destination’s ante as a business-travel and meetings destination.
“I think this meeting facility has a very good chance of being an inflection point for Atlantic City and that market,” Massari says. “Heretofore, it hasn’t been a big meetings destination, but this expansion really puts Atlantic City into that game in a material way.”
Massari hopes the success of the facility will even spark his competitors in the destination to invest in dedicated conference centers.
“In the long run, we want to see Atlantic City go from 1 percent business travel to 20 percent business travel,” he says, adding that the decision by MPI to relocate WEC to Atlantic City from Philadelphia was big for both Harrah’s and Atlantic City.
Career-wise, Massari is one of those hospitality success stories that started at the bottom and worked his way up.
“I’ve done every job there is to do [in the meetings industry],” he says, recounting how he got his start in a catering hall when he was 15. “I’ve never done anything but this, and I consider myself quite fortunate for that.”
For additional information about the Waterfront Conference Center, look for the Atlantic City section in the December issue of Meetings Today and a video interview of Michael Massari taped at IMEX America on MeetingsToday.com.
SUPPLIERS
Mary Neister, Vice President, Meet Hawaii
The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau named Mary Neister vice president of Meet Hawaii. Neister brings more than 30 years of experience to the bureau, and most recently served as director of sales and marketing at the Hilton Waikiki Beach Hotel.
Catherine Cummings, Director of Sales & Marketing, Pelican Grand Beach Resort, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Noble House Hotels & Resorts named Catherine Cumings director of sales and marketing at Pelican Grand Beach Resort. Cummings has more than 25 years of management and sales and marketing experience, working with brands such as St. Regis and PGA National.
Mario Bass, Director of Sales & Marketing, JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa
JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa hired Mario Bass as its director of sales and marketing. Bass brings more than a decade of group and corporate sales experience to the property, most recently as director of sales and marketing at the Gaylord Texan.
PLANNERS
Carrington Moore, Senior Project Manager, AlliedPRA
Carrington Moore is the new senior program manager in the Atlanta region for AlliedPRA. She will assist with planning and logistics for clients, working with AlliedPRA’s Performance Team to operate events and programs.
Amanda Armstrong, Corporate Travel and Meetings Director, Enterprise Holdings
Amanda Armstrong was named vice chair of finance for MPI’s 2016 Board of Directors. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors for the MPI St. Louis chapter and co-chaired MPI’s 2012 WEC in St. Louis.
Gerritt Jessen, Regional Managing Director, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, MCI Germany
Gerritt Jessen was named a member of MPI’s 2016 Board of Directors. In 1991 he co-founded the event agency p’concept, and joined MCI with his agency in 2007.