November 13, 2012 – SMG, the world leader in venue management, received two awards in the 2012 Venues Today Hall of Headlines, the annual awards given to people who are making headlines and events within the venue industry. SMG's Sarah Haertl and SAVOR chef Vincent Lai were voted best in their categories, marketing and concessions respectively. Haertl and Lai will be showcased and caricatured in The Venues Today Year-End Issue December 2012.
“We congratulate Sarah and Vincent on their 2012 Venues Today Hall of Headlines Awards and our proud of our 8 other SMG nominees,” said Wes Westley, President and CEO of SMG.
Sarah Haertl, Former Director of Sales/Marketing/SMG at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kan. won for a 4 part trade advertising campaign with each ad highlighting a specific customer service initiative offered to promoters, tours and artists from the building. Haertl has since moved to BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., but looking at numbers for 2012, Intrust Bank Arena ranked #47 and #51 in the first two Social Media Power rankings in Venues Today. Haertl created a campaign that was unique and eye-catching and highlighted specific qualities that set the venue apart from others in the industry and response from promoters and industry peers has been incredibly positive.
Vincent Lai, Chef for SMG's SAVOR... Chicago at McCormick Place for cooking for 19,000 for the NATO Summit held at McCormick Place in May. There were more than 7,500 individual delegates with an additional 5,000 foreign ministers in attendance and support staff. More than 2,000 members of the media were reporting back to their countries. With more than 2,000 journalists present and reporting on a job well done, their objective was to give their visitors a taste of Chicago and they made sure each visitor left the Windy City craving more.
