Trendsetter Tuesday: Why Debbie Garcia Believes Virtual Site Tours are the Future

Debbie Garcia is the CEO of Virsitour, an online directory for meeting and event planners that allows them to experience virtual site tours of hotel and event venues from around the world. She is also a certified meeting planner and serves as the vice president of finance for MPI’s Tennessee chapter. 

As part of our weekly Trendsetter Tuesday podcast series, Meetings Today digital content coordinator Logan Pratt sat down with Garcia to learn why she still believes in the value of virtual site tours and how she got to be where she is in the industry today. 

[Related: The 2024 Meetings Trendsetters Paving New Paths in the Events Industry]

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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.

Logan Pratt

Hello, and welcome to this Meetings Today Podcast, I’m Logan Pratt, digital content coordinator for Meetings Today, and we’re back with another podcast celebrating our Meetings Trendsetters class of 2024. 

Every year, Meetings Today selects 20 Trendsetters whose unique contributions to the meetings and events industry make them stand out, and here with us today is one of those trendsetters, Debbie Garcia. 

Debbie Garcia is the CEO of Virsitour, an online directory for meeting and event planners that allows them to experience virtual site tours of hotel and event venues from around the world. She is also a certified meeting planner and serves as the vice president of finance for MPI’s Tennessee chapter. And she’s here with us today to talk more about her journey in the industry. Welcome to the show, Debbie.

Debbie Garcia

Thanks Logan for having me.

Logan Pratt

Yeah. So I just want to kind of start off with just, you know, tell me a little bit about your journey in the industry up until this point. You know, how did you get started and how did you get to where you are today as a Meetings Today Trendsetter?

Debbie Garcia

Well, first of all, it is again, honor to be a Trendsetter. Um, it was a surprise to me, but my journey has been this winding road. I actually… Growing up, I grew up in New York, and I always thought I was going to be an actor. I was just like, “I'm going to be on stage, I'm going to be on television, I'm going to be in the movies.” And it was a blow to me when my dad said, “I'm not going to pay for college unless you pick something that actually you can get a job for.” So my heart was always in video and, you know, all of that sort of stuff. 

So I went into communications, in radio, television and film. And I spent 15 years working in advertising, in television, in MTV, I worked for Gray Worldwide, and ended up in radio. Which was kind of interesting, but always ended up behind the scenes. Was very into production, and produced many radio shows and television shows throughout my career. And ended up in Nashville in 2023 after I had launched CMT Radio Networks, and I ran the studio here. 

And then I got really into events, as I was just planning a birthday party, and then I was like, “I'm going to be a wedding planner.” And really had this journey of production and planning just went hand in hand, and just always had this logistical understanding. And in 2012 when I got laid off from my radio job, I went straight into events and worked at a DMC. Which was like, huge, like, you're just being thrown to the wolves, in a sense. But most of the reason I got that job was because of my production experience. And I worked in operations. I learned a lot. 

But as things go, you spend about six months someplace, and you get gobbled up by another company. You get laid off again, the second time in a year, which was super great, as I was pregnant with my first child. So also getting a job in the events industry while you're pregnant was not easy, but what I did was I found my way through openings. I opened a venue here in Nashville. I went to places after that, and just tried my hand in hotels, venues, tech companies, services, catering, and really just learned a lot about the industry. 

And in 2017, I believe, I made the switch from supplier to planner. So I went from hotels and venues and all those services over to venue sourcing. And it was mostly because I had my second child, so I had two kids, and really needed to hone in on staying home, working from home, and being a mom. And I also worked for another tech startup in the events industry and entertainment. But as we all know, in 2020, when the pandemic hit, everything left, everything went away, including all of my venue sourcing income, which was all commission. I had two kids in virtual school, and I lost my full time job for a tech startup as the business development person. 

So I sat around and said, “What the heck am I going to do? What are my talents?” And I just reached back into video, venue sourcing, understanding event planning, and tried to really help my client figure out how to get into the next level of their events as we're in a pandemic. And I said… Her name's Liz, and she knows that she's always in my story. She's actually my avatar in my pitch deck, which is funny, but “Liz,” I said, “Hey, what do you normally do at this point when you're sourcing?” She goes, “I go on site visits.” And we both laughed. And I said, “We are not going anywhere. But give me a week. Let me figure this out.” And as someone who has done virtual site tours at hotels. I said, “We can find this. I'm going to use virtual site tours.” And found it incredibly difficult to find them all in one place. 

And so I went back to her and I said, “I really tried. I can't get in touch with anyone that has them. I can't find them online.” I said, “I really don't know what to do.” And after a few conversations with her and some others, they said, “Why don't you create this void?” And that's where Virsitour came from, was creating an online directory or a marketplace for event planners to come and utilize virtual site tours and other information to source. And that's kind of where we are right now. And we've changed a few times along the way the last four years, but that's really the story of how Virsitour came to be and where I am right now.

Logan Pratt

Yeah, it's always interesting how people kind of fall into the industry, because it almost seems like a lot of people that I talk to who are CMPs, who become planners at some point in their career, never really started off that way. They always kind of start somewhere, somewhere else, and then kind of just accidentally get into the industry. So do you have any kind of advice for maybe, you know, younger people in the industry trying to, like, you know, break in and stuff and like, you know, what have you seen talents of people who are most successful in a meeting planning role?

Debbie Garcia

I think, more than anything, it's especially when you're getting started, say, yes. I mean, I know it's really hard at my point in my career. Right now, I'm starting to have to say no to people, but say yes to everything. 

Say yes to that networking event that you may not want to go to because you're tired, say yes to coming onto a project where you may not know what you're doing, but you're going to learn and really just focusing in on learning and talking to people and learning from mentors. I think if I did not have people that I ask questions to that if I just didn't know something and I wasn't able to tap into my mentors and people in this industry, I would not be where I am today. And I hope that right now, I'm also giving back to people. And I think that, you know, once you first get started, and I got started, you know, I didn't come out of college and start doing this. I had a whole career before I got into this, and I had two kids at home. 

So you're never too old. That's another thing. There's never, you're never too old to change. I'm not going to give my age away, but I was born in the 70s, so I have some life experience. But there are people who are constantly feeling that they can't do something because I don't have that certification, or I don't have that I don't have connections, they're always there. Certification shouldn't stop you. You can always go back and get it, but don't let things that you can figure out later, stop you and try to just say yes to what is in front of you.

Logan Pratt

Yeah, definitely, I think, you know, saying yes to many opportunities and trying to, you know, take the right path is always something that a lot of, I think young people are struggling with, as well as, like, what is the right path for me? But definitely, I do want to ask you about Virsitour. And kind of you know, you mentioned a little bit of the impetus behind it was Covid, but I know you're still running it. And I think a lot of people, you know, may be wondering, you know, even four years after covid after site tours, in person, site tours might be making a comeback. What do you see as the value of having a platform like Virsitour, even though, you know people could, you know, hop on a plane and go see a venue in person, like, what? What is the what? What is the value that you think that has today?

Debbie Garcia

I think, more than anything, what we found out from Covid and during that time and after it was that we may be connected, we may need to travel, but thinking about all the other ancillary things, and it really comes down to my what was happening in my life, especially being a parent, I cannot literally hop on a plane today or tomorrow to go see a site. It's even hard sometimes for me to drive across town, because I got to pick up kids from school. The child care issue is huge and prevalent in this country and around the world, especially after covid, where the prices are very expensive, or we just don't have the people to watch our children anymore. 

So I think that was a huge factor for me, understanding that as a parent, that we may want to go places and go on fam trips and go to different conferences and site visits. But it is prohibitive. It's also a little bit cost prohibitive. Flights have gotten very expensive, and traveling in a hole has gotten very expensive. So even though maybe your room is covered. Your company still may have to pay for your flight there. 

But what we found with Virsitour, as we've kind of come through, it started with in person, hybrid virtual that's where we started, where we are right now, with the platform actually releasing very, very soon in the second ideation with the full RFP management is, it is full event sourcing. It is not just hotel and venue anymore. It's hotels, venues, virtual services and cities. So you can search an entire destination to find everything you need. And may, they may not be virtual site tours, but they might be a video of a transportation company with their fleet. It's really getting. 

That visual understanding before you send that request for proposal out of is this who I want to work with. And I give this example a lot of times, with the graduate hotel here in Asheville, they get a lot of press from me, I think, but it is a very feminine hotel. You walk in, there's a huge mini Pearl like tapestry up. The whole place is decked out with Dolly Parton. It's a very feminine Hotel. Now, it may hit all the check marks on any spec sheet for this event. Let's just say it is the beer pong associations, you know, annual event, which is usually made up let's say of a lot of men this hotel may check every box, but until you see it, it is definitely not where these people belong. They belong someplace else that is a little more masculine. 

I believe that really fits-in with the visuals. And I think being able to qualify that lead before sending it off to the hotel not only helps the planner envision and do their homework, but on the supplier end, you're sending a qualified lead and an 80% close rate, because that planner is not sending off to 10, 20 different venues or hotels. They're really doing their homework and understanding where they're sending it. So when you get something from Virsitour, you know that it that a lot of work went into before that. Now we're really just understanding, are your dates available? What are the rates? But they know immediately, is this going to be something that fits in? I never say that a site tour is not important. There is something about being visual, being in a space. 

But instead of hopping on a plane and trying to fit in five different places in one day, you're really trying to hone it down to one or two. Save your time so you're not, you know, stressing the grandparents out or whoever's watching your kids, but also coming back fresh. You're able to have a really good relationship. Ask those questions and then go back and look at the virtual site tours again and compare notes. And that's what virtual Virsitour is. It's that not just sourcing, but it really comes in the planning process as well.

Logan Pratt

Yeah I was going to ask you, like, kind of where you think that Virsitour belongs, kind of in the step by step like process. It sounds like maybe people could utilize this, where it might even be before, you know, a fam tour or something, where you look on Virsitour and kind of see all of the options visually, and then you can help narrow that down to maybe, you know, two or three, rather than, like, five or six. So you have to go and check out in-person and do a site tour of that kind of how you see it.

Debbie Garcia

Yeah, yeah. We have case studies of this. We've been working on this for four years. We've had several clients that never actually stepped onto a site until the actual event, because they were so confident in what, you know, what we did with them, because the connection was made there between the the hotel or the venue and all the services that are out there where they can actually plan and go back and utilize these services. And one of the biggest things that I ran that we ran into during covid or right after covid, and it's not happening quite as much now as compression has released a little, but compression was such a huge thing. Whether you want to go see those five sites, but that salesperson is not available, they're remote, or there's an event already in the space you need, or they're sold out. If you take all of that and you try to see five places in one city at the same time, it is prohibitive for you right now to do that. So that's where we come in. We're able to really help with that and create that perfect kind of visiting an entire city within an hour right from your desk.

Logan Pratt

Yeah, definitely. I also kind of want to ask you a little bit more about, you know, your journey and stuff. Because I know there's, there's always kind of this thing about, you know, women in tech that is very inspiring to me, because, like, it is a very male dominated industry, and yet, meeting planning is a very female dominated industry. So what have you noticed about kind of the transition between, you know, production and maybe more of the tech side of things, versus, like, maybe the media planning side of the industry. And like, you know, where did you feel most comfortable, and how did you, you know, manage both of those areas of your professional life?

Debbie Garcia

Yeah, so, you know, definitely starting out in production in, you know, radio and television, I was probably one of the only females doing that. And not until I started my own company did I realize that I was definitely wearing two different hats. I was definitely that production person and understood back end and but I was never a coder. I am not like your tech founder. I'm definitely the idea person, and behind it was the why I'm doing it. 

And I think that females tend to see the why behind where what we're doing, and I think bringing that as an event professional is we bring the why to all of our events. It's like ingrained in us, and understanding that you know why I'm doing this is because I need more time to be able to work with my clients and not be traveling all the time. I need to focus on the event, not the travel portion of it. I've gotta focus on my family, I have to pick and choose where I'm going to go. And then, you know, in a very male dominated tech industry, which I just came back from, a three day event where it was a lot of tech, it was a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of investors, and seeing how difficult it is for women to get funding, to be in a technical space and to understand that we need to rise above as the expert I am the I go into those meetings as I am the expert in my industry. I am representing all those meeting planners out there that is an 80 to 85% female dominated industry. And we have to understand that when you walk in and you're the expert and you're just not the person who presses the buttons and creates the technology that's important, because anybody really could have picked up, it probably would have taken them less time to create what we're creating, technically, but the reason and the why behind of what we're doing is the most important. I think that resonates with event planners.

Logan Pratt

Yeah, definitely. I also kind of want to ask you about, you know, obviously, you are a Meetings Today Trendsetter, class of 2024, so I kind of want to ask you, you know, you know, how did you feel when you when you got that award, and how would you define a trendsetter? And what would you give any advice to people who, maybe you know, people who have already in the industry. I know you give some advice for people who are starting out in the industry, but now people who are in the industry on becoming a trendsetter, you know, becoming kind of like that expert in the room. You know, what would you say to them to if they wanted to get to where you are?

Debbie Garcia

Yeah, well, first, when I found out, I was shocked. To be honest with you, I have been running in circles around meetings today just trying to get in the door and talk to people there. And you know, there are, there are other awards out there that you get nominated for and nominate you, or you're asking people to vote for you. And this was a lot different. This was definitely a surprise. I didn't, I didn't even know that this, this the I've seen it before, but I didn't know how you got it. And to be to get that recognition from not like asking your friends to vote for you or putting yourself out there on, you know, all the places to vote was definitely it was different. It felt a little different from some of the others, and I really appreciate this one a little more than some of the others, because, you know, being a trendsetter means you're being recognized for being different. 

And I think that that's the whole thing about being a Trendsetter is there's, you know, there's a lot of buzzwords that go around with it is risk you have to be you're ready to put it all in, like, if you want to be a trendsetter, then put everything everyone says aside and go after what you believe in. Because it is, if it's in your gut and in your heart, then it means something. I think it also means, like, being innovative, and not just innovative in a technology way, but innovative in a life way. I mean, I feel like what we're doing touches so many different people, like, it's the moms, but it's also the people I did theater my whole life. I want to get back on stage, but I couldn't do that, because, if I had an event or I had to travel, I couldn't do that. Also, sustainability is huge for me, you know, if we, if we just, you know, take down, like, a bit of that carbon footprint. So understanding not just like, how this affects one group, but how it affects everything. 

Other words, like for trendsetter, you know, people who are definitely just putting themselves out there. You know, I'm like saying yes, like I said before, is just doing research, taking it all in, trying new things, not being afraid of the No. I think that was the hardest one for me was I did not want anybody say no to me. I wanted to tell them what I was doing, and you sign up, and you think that when the idea is so big in your head. And then also, what's really hard is you, you sometimes think nobody's listening. But if you've got your fans out there, you've got those, those people who are behind you and they want to listen to you, and you're inspiring them, and you have a passion that is what a trendsetter is. It's someone who really believes in changing something. I want to change this industry. I don't want to just have a tech, tech tool or a tech platform. I want to change the way we do things, because it's not working, and we're losing people, and we're busier than ever. If we talk to people, we're busy, busy, busy. My job was to figure out as a trendsetter or an innovator, is, how do I make people get back to being happy? How do they how do I give them the freedom? How do I give them inspiration, empowerment, gratitude and passion for what they do? And that is where I feel like I fit in as a trendsetter. 

And, you know, you asked about, how do you get, you know, how do you talk to people who are in the industry, have been there a while, that want to get to this. You know, I spoke to a lady yesterday, and she was so sweet, because she's been an event planner in some of the biggest tech companies in the world, like IBM, and she got laid off, and was like, I don't know what to do. Do. And she was asking me about certain things, and I said, you don't need a certified certification. You don't need this. Just talk to people. Talk to everyone you know. Tell everyone you know you're looking for a job and what job you're looking for and it you know, don't hide behind things. And I think that using your network, you know. I said, “Do you know anybody in this industry?” I said, and I even gave her the advice, “If you can't sit down and have 10 people that you can reach out to and just tell them what you're doing, then then you have a bigger problem.” I said, “If you're able to do that, and then you get referrals, and you get this and like, you will have a job in no time, or you may just find that you want to start your own business.” 

So I think that be if people want to move ahead, they just have to stop being so scared. You know, fear is definitely that thing you have to Judy holler, says it all the time. You know, fear is my homeboy. I love Judy holler, huge shout out to her. But you know, don't be afraid of the fear. Use it in your favor. And also you gotta sometimes, like, put it, put it behind you, like it's going to sit in the back seat today. Fear is not going to sit in the front seat. It's going to sit in the back seat. It's going to watch. But you also have to realize is that, you know, you have to keep trying, even though you don't want to, like, I wanted to go to sleep yesterday. I just was like, I was tired, and then I didn't get up for six hours because I knew that I had stuff to get done. And sometimes that's what you have to do,

Logan Pratt

Definitely. And I agree with, I agree with all that. Like, so many of our trendsetters are so inspiring, it's often amazing, like, kind of what they can do, and sometimes, like a very short period of time, especially since so many people have had career changes, and, you know, maybe they've been a professional for a long time, and maybe not in the meetings industry for a terribly long time, and are still able to, you know, make a huge impact, and, you know, set those trends for the future. But yeah, thank you so much for being on Debbie, if people want to learn more about you, or connect with you or learn more about Virsitour. How can they do that? Where can they find you? 

Debbie Garcia

Yeah, absolutely. So we have a website, Virsitour.com, V, i, r, s, i, t, o, u, r, dot com. It's like virtual site, or all smooshed together. They also can find me on LinkedIn, sane handle in Instagram, Facebook can email me, it's just Debbie@virsitour.com. I’m also on LinkedIn, it would be, you know, “debbiegarcia1”. And you know, I'm always open to talk to people, and always inspired by others. And just love to chat with people about where you are in your life, and that gives me inspiration to keep going and creating something that's going to help this meetings and events industry move forward.

Logan Pratt

Awesome. Well, yeah, thank you so much for being on the show, Debbie.

Debbie Garcia

Thank you.

Logan Pratt

That was Debbie Garcia, CEO of Virsitour and one of our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters. Once again, I'm Logan Pratt, digital content coordinator for Meetings Today. And thanks again for joining us for this Meetings Today Podcast. If you want to hear more, head on over to meetingstoday.com/podcasts, thank you so much for listening.