Visit Frisco's Christina Decker on the Major New Meetings Offerings in This Metroplex Gem

From the sprawling new Omni PGA Frisco Resort to major professional sporting facilities and a growing downtown, Frisco, Texas, is making moves in the meetings and events world.

Christina Decker, director of sales and services for Visit Frisco, explains the phenomenal growth of this Metroplex town and how the many additions and upcoming venues will dramatically increase its meetings and events clout.

[Related: Frisco, Texas, Has Arrived Via Major New Meetings Offerings]

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[Related: Taking Off: Why You Should Consider Frisco, Texas, for Your Next Meeting or Event]

Transcript:

Editors note: The following transcription was facilitated by AI program Otter.ai and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.

Tyler Davidson
Hello, and welcome to this Meetings Today Podcast. I'm Tyler Davidson, vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today, and I’m joined today by Christina Decker, who is director of sales for Visit Frisco in Texas. 
Thanks for joining us today, Christina.

Christina Decker
Thank you, Tyler, so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and talk about that my favorite city in the world.

Tyler Davidson
And there's lots to talk about there, for sure. How about we start off with your history. How long have you been with the bureau and what's your history in the meetings and hospitality industry?

Christina Decker
Well, I'm actually one of those people that stumbled into this industry 30 years ago. My very first job in the industry was at Hotels Accommodations of Texas, and there we managed a huge citywide hotel blocks for Dallas. And after a few months of being there, they closed their doors, but the Dallas CVB took over the housing part of it, and with that, I came with it. 

So, at Visit Dallas, I worked my way up into sales and ultimately to the director of sales for Express. I never thought I wanted to be a salesperson, but I worked with the most amazing sales people that taught me that the sales world in our world is just to help people, so we learn what their meeting needs are and then we find the best hotel and venue for them. 

So, when the opportunity came to me for the director of sales and services for Visit Frisco, I was so excited. I knew it was the perfect opportunity for me to continue to learn and grow in the fastest growing city in the nation. And I'm so blessed to be a part of this amazing team and city. And it's been, what, seven years now almost?

Tyler Davidson
Wow, lots has changed in Frisco in that amount of time.

Christina Decker
Oh, my goodness, I always claim to fame, so, I'm like, it all came when I got here. But, no, it's in an amazing city.

Tyler Davidson
Well, I'll let you take credit for that. How's that? The services that visit Frisco provides—with all those new venues and different facilities and attractions you offer. What sort of services does Visit Frisco provide for meeting planners?

Christina Decker
Well, I take great pride in the services that we offer. I feel like this is where we stand above the rest with our award-winning destination services team. They can assist with pre and post planning and meeting events; some of the frequently used ones are offsite locations.

So, they help with private dining, unique indoor, outdoor spaces. They help with vendor referrals, which includes transportation, AV, DNC, even down to furniture rentals. For our marketing, they can assist with videos to promote their shows or events. We can create badge designs. We also offer registration assistance.

So, for every 60 peak rooms, we offer four hours of free registration. And with this registration, they could use it for anything they want. They can use registration staff to stuff bags or do onsite registration or human arrows, whatever they want to use it for. They can use those, and our team is known for customization based on the client's needs.

Tyler Davidson
Wow. Okay, that sounds amazing. How about just Frisco as a destination for meetings and events? You mentioned it’s the fastest growing city in the U.S. I've been there and was amazed. I stayed at the Omni, the Dallas Cowboys, At the Star. I forget the name. Since then, the PGA Frisco resort opened up. PGA National.

There’s lots of stuff there. What should planners know about Frisco as a destination?

Christina Decker
So, when people are looking at Frisco for a destination, they just need to remember location, location, location. We are 25 minutes from two Dallas major airports. So, from anywhere in the United States, you could get there in under three hours. We have several sports organizations, 9 million square feet of retail space. 

We have over 4,400 hotel rooms, more than 400,017 square feet of flexible meeting space. We also earned a spot in the top meeting destinations in North America by Cvent and you can get paid with incentives when you book through us in Frisco.

Tyler Davidson
Cool, what are some big new and up and coming venues. I mentioned that big PGA National resort, which is huge. We did a cover story on it. What new and upcoming venues and attractions should planners know?

Christina Decker
Yeah, I'm glad you asked. Our Omni PGA Frisco Resort opened last May, last year, and that's a 510-room resort with two championship golf courses. It's a beautiful, beautiful resort, but new and upcoming.

We have the Hall Park Hotel. It's our very first Marriott Autograph Collection. So, this hotel opens in September with 224 rooms. It has 60 out of those rooms that are apartment-style suites. It has 23,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space overlooking our new, beautiful Kaleidoscope Park.

The Kaleidoscope Park is new, and it's a six-acre park where nature meets culture and art. The park will feature public art gardens, a children's play area. It'll have a dog park, there's a performance lawn, outdoor workspaces and shaded areas and plazas, and we also have our Universal Kids Resort. It's the company's first ever theme park designed specifically for families with young children. It will include theme lands that celebrate Universal's iconic brand of entertainment, humor and fun with family-friendly attractions. It'll have interactive and play shows, and the resort also includes a 300-room themed hotel. I can't wait to hear what brand that will be, and that park opens by the summer of 2026.

And then we also are excited about Rollertown Beerworks. This is a brewery they just broke ground on in March. It will feature Frisco's landmark silos. This space will be ideal for hosting large-scale events, festivals, concerts. The production facility will feature a brewhouse with over 13,000 square feet. It'll be two levels, indoor/outdoor tap room, a beer garden, a rooftop deck and the outside areas, like 30,000 square feet of space. It's going to be amazing.

Tyler Davidson
Excellent. And, yeah, you got so much there. You're really expanding a lot. And there's a lot of economic activity there. Has that opened it up to any other sort of meeting segments, like pharma, medical, that are considering Frisco that may not have, say, 5 or 10 years ago.

Christina Decker
Yeah, actually. We were so excited about a year ago when we added a new sales position in the medical market, and we were super excited because, I mean, we welcome all meetings, but the medical market is up and coming here in Frisco, and this person handles not only pharma, but anything to do with medical. It's association, education, medical and then, of course, pharmaceutical. But we are top-notch in the medical industry and excited about this position.

Tyler Davidson
One thing in researching for this interview and talking with your folks there at the Bureau, I learned more about the Rail District, which is just fascinating to me. I think the city was named Frisco because it was a rail head that ended in San Francisco, right? I mean, the history there, and it's so great when I learn about communities that really use their historic districts for offsite activities, activations.

Tell us more about the rail district and what it offers for groups.

Christina Decker
Yeah, the Rail District. It's the cutest little downtown. It's my personal favorite spot in Frisco. It embodies the history of Frisco. Frisco has a long history of being a shopping destination. In the city's early years, it was common on weekends for the sidewalk and streets to be packed with farmers and ranchers and city folks, and even today, people still come over to visit the Rail District to frequent historic houses that are now shops and restaurants.

Our groups utilize it in all kinds of ways. We have the nanobrewery, it's called Three empires. We have the Bittersweet Ivy, Summer Moon Coffee, Tumbleweed TexStyles. This has Texas-inspired apparel.

We have a Randy’s Steakhouse, which is a beautiful historic home that has the most amazing steak. We have Eight 11 Place, which is a little wine bar; the Heritage Table, which is one of my favorite restaurants, farm-to-table, and so much more.

Tyler Davidson
That's really great, because there's so much new there. It's nice to kind of have that echo from the past still relevant in the destination offering, you know, and a lot of what's new—I guess, not completely new—but I mean the sport-related venues in Frisco. I mean, the Dallas Cowboys have their headquarters there. They have their practice field there; all sorts of sports-related venues and activity options.

What are some of the more popular ones, and how do groups use them?

Christina Decker
Yeah. Well, after all, we're named Sport City USA. So, we already mentioned the PGA of America. They moved their headquarters here a few years ago. So, obviously, with that came our beautiful championship golf courses.

So, lots of golf tournaments, and we also have the Omni PGA that came with the PGA of America and was just named the number-one Texas resort in Travel + Leisure in the 2024 World's Best Awards. We're so excited about that and proud of them.

And then, of course, as you mentioned, we are home to my favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys, which is headquartered here. And within that project, there's a 12,000-seat indoor—it's the largest high school stadium indoors, where we hosted the Academy of Country Music Awards the last two years, and then they just announced that they're coming back for 2025 for their 60th award show.

But for me, the Ford Center is a giant exhibit hall for me and my team. We use it for exhibits and all kinds of things. We also have the Comerica Center, which is where the Dallas Stars are headquartered, and that's home to the [Texas] Legends [NBA minor league team]. And we use that not only for sporting events, but it's right next to our Embassy Suites Convention Center.

So, we use it for concerts, general sessions, off-sites, dinners and so much more. And then I have to mention our Riders Field. Where the world champion Texas Rangers’ feeder team, our RoughRiders play games, and you could sit in the lazy river and enjoy a game.

Tyler Davidson
Wow, that sounds fun. What other sorts of offsite activities and excursions are groups showing interest in in Frisco?

Christina Decker
Oh my gosh. We have so many things we could do for excursions. We have sport tours. We can include the National Soccer Hall of Fame, the interactive Soccer Hall of Fame, you could do many things there. Of course, shopping excursions. Believe it or not, the shopping is the number-one reason people actually visit Frisco. We even have a high-end gun club. I know it's not for everyone, but it's a great option when people get to pick and choose.

We have art tours throughout the city, food tours, guided tours at The Star.We have hiking and biking trails that are beautiful parks, and, of course, the museum tours that include the National Video Game Museum. There's an ’80s themed arcade. So, if you plan on adding that, make sure you give them extra time, because you can't get them to leave.

Tyler Davidson
Thank you for your time today, and before we leave, I just wanted to get your impression of just how the whole Metroplex has grown, and it's a center for companies relocating. I mean, there’s just a lot of stuff happening there, and of course, Frisco is a big part of that

Any sort of superlatives or things you guys in the Metroplex talk about, about how things are going so good for you now, and a lot of different economic indicators.

Christina Decker
Yes, well, Frisco and the work of our economic development corporation. They cultivate an exceptional environment for businesses to thrive here. Things like low taxes, exemplary schools, lifestyle amenities and access to top-tier sports that we talked about, plus a deep talent pool here and competitive incentives help with our corporate relocation success.

We have zero state income tax and 98% of our high school students graduate from high school. And of course, our unique public/private partnerships with the Dallas Cowboys and the PGA, and so we are highly competitive with major markets across the country.

And I also have to mention the tourism impact on the population boom and relocation, it all starts with a visit to Frisco.

Tyler Davidson
Excellent. What's the best way for people to get in contact with the DMO there?

Christina Decker
Okay, www.VisitFrisco.com.
Tyler Davidson
Well, thank you for joining us today. Christina.

Christina Decker
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. If anyone wants to learn more about Frisco, please reach out to me.

Tyler Davidson
Excellent. And that was Christina Decker, who is the director of sales for Visit Frisco. I'm Tyler Davidson, vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today. 

Thank you for joining us for this Meetings Today Podcast. And if you're interested in any of our other podcasts with meetings and events industry thought leaders, just head on over to Meetingstoday com, into our podcast section, where you'll find a variety of podcasts. 

So, thank you for joining us today, and no matter what you're up to with the rest of it, go out and make it great.

This podcast is sponsored by Visit Frisco.