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About Visit Omaha
Mission Statement:
To stimulate economic growth for our community by increasing visitation.
Key Objectives:
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Successfully sell and promote our community as a desirable visitor destination.
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Influence tourism development to ensure future destination success.
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Deliver a positive and memorable customer experience.
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Collaborate and enhance relationships with local organizations, businesses and stakeholders.
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Operate as an efficient, high performing organization.
Organization Description:
Visit Omaha creates sustainable visitor demand for the community through: meeting, event, sport and leisure marketing; collaborative relationships; broad industry experience; and unprecedented product knowledge. Visit Omaha’s efforts result in economic growth and job creation for our community.
Guiding Principles:
Relevance: We are committed to being consistent, accountable, transparent, perseverant, and dedicated to excellence.
Innovation: We are committed to being creative, pioneering, collaborative, and problem solving.
Gratitude: We are committed to being appreciative of both the big and small contributions that make our organization and industry valuable to our community.
History:
Visit Omaha (a.k.a. Omaha Convention & Visitors Bureau) began operating on December 1, 1980 as the Douglas County Department of Conventions and Tourism. In 1997, the name was changed to the Greater Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau (GOCVB), but was still operated by Douglas County. In 2002 during the development of the new city-owned convention center, the first Interlocal agreement between Douglas County and the City of Omaha was established to transfer control of the GOCVB to the city and to add the GOCVB’s executive director to the Mayor’s cabinet. The Interlocal agreement was renewed in 2007 and again in 2013 for a ten-year term, ensuring the department would remain a City entity through 2023. In 2016, the name was changed to Visit Omaha, Omaha’s Official Tourism Authority in an effort to simplify and better brand the department.
Visit Omaha continues its efforts in showcasing Omaha as a destination for leisure, convention, meeting, sport and motor coach visitors. The current team enthusiastically supports the economic growth and development of the entire Omaha metro area.
Visit Omaha Awards:
View the complete list of awards and designations.
DMAP Certification:
Visit Omaha is certified through the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program (DMAP). The globally recognized DMAP accreditation ensures that Visit Omaha's policies, procedures and practices meet the highest standard in the industry.
Deborah Ward
Executive Director
Strengths: Achiever, Responsibility, Ideation, Individualization, Learner
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” - Seneca, Roman philosopher
Dean Miller
Vice President of Operations
Strengths: Futuristic, Achiever, Strategic, Competition, Self-Assurance
“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, either way you are right.” - Henry Ford
Jodie Jordon
Office Manager
Strengths: Responsibility, Harmony, Relator, Consistency, Discipline
”Responsibility finds a way. Irresponsibility makes excuses.” - Gene Bedley
Shannon Wiig
Director of Visitor Services
Strengths: Empathy, Developer, Learner, Positivity, Achiever
“Make each day your masterpiece.” - John Wooden
Cindy Brickey
Visitor Services Executive Assistant
Strengths: Maximizer, Responsibility, Achiever, Communication, Individualization
“Communication is key to a team. Make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction and no one is trying to sink the boat.”
Cathy Keller
Vice President of Sales & Services
Strengths: Strategic, Maximizer, Relator, Achiever, Includer
”We are visitors on this planet. We are here for 100 years at the very most. During that period, we must try to do something good, something useful with our lives. If you contribute to other people’s happiness, you will find the true meaning of life.” - Dalai Lama
Mark Rath, STS
Director of Sports
Strengths: Positivity, Arranger, Responsibility, Developer, Self-Assurance
“Great things happen to those who don’t stop believing, trying, learning, and being grateful.” - Roy T. Bennett
Mattie Scheeter, CMP
Director of Sales
Strengths: Developer, Empathy, Achiever, Responsibility, Relator
“Don’t ruin a good today thinking about a bad yesterday.” - Russell Simmons
Matt Heck
Senior Sales Manager
Strengths: Responsibility, Relator, Arranger, Deliberative, Self-Assurance
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Lao Tzu
Jessica Settje
Tourism Sales Manager
Strengths: Futuristic, Arranger, Individualization, Achiever, Woo
“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.” - Jane Goodall
Patrick Keele
Research Analyst
Strengths: Achiever, Restorative, Learner, Arranger, Context
“You don’t lose if you get knocked down, you lose if you stay down.” - Muhammad Ali
Jen Swanson
Sales Executive Assistant
Strengths: Empathy, Futuristic, Adaptability, Activator, Maximizer
"The noblest art is that of making others happy." - P.T. Barnum
Erin Brungardt
Director of Convention Services
Strengths: Communication, Restorative, Connectedness, Responsibility, Woo
“Communication is merely an exchange of information, but connection is an exchange of our humanity.” - Sean Stephenson
Madeline Meyer
Convention Services and Housing Manager
Strengths: Responsibility, Developer, Discipline, Belief, Positivity
“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.” - St. Teresa of Calcutta
Jasmyn Goodwin
Vice President of Marketing & Communications
Strengths: Maximizer, Achiever, Responsibility, Competition, Focus
“Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be Empowered.” - Michelle Obama
Erin O'Brien
Director of Marketing
Strengths: Learner, Input, Restorative, Responsibility, Empathy
“You’ll never grow beyond your current circumstances if you’re closed off to everything except what you currently know.” - Marie Forleo
Noelle Agenor
Social Media Manager
Strengths: Input, Developer, Learner, Intellection, Achiever
“What good are wings, without the courage to fly?” - Atticus Finch
Amy Cunningham
Graphic Designer
Strengths: Intellection, Relator, Deliberative, Input, Developer
“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” - Henry Van Dyke
Lynn Mace
Marketing Research Analyst
Strengths: Empathy, Input, Adaptability, Learner, Individualization
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein
