When Linda Hoath was talking with a Sault Ste. Marie Convention & Visitors Bureau board member 22 years ago about the organization’s job opening for an executive director, she wasn’t initially interested. She already had a role she enjoyed with Kewadin Casinos, with the company’s main casino in Sault Ste. Marie. Plus, she says, she wasn’t even sure what it is that a convention and visitors bureau executive director does. “Now I know,” she says. “We do everything.”
And Hoath couldn’t be happier about that. Setting aside her initial hesitation, she took the leap and accepted the position. The journey has been a revelation, she notes, as the organization has grown, marketing tools have become more sophisticated, and the bureau’s role has expanded in multiple directions. “I can tell you it’s my dream job in my hometown,” Hoath says.
When she first started, there was one other employee in the whole organization. Now there are three full-time staffers, three part-timers, and one extra summer helper. She calls them her dream team. That includes the office manager who has been with her for 15 years, a part-time graphic designer, and a full-time director of marketing and communications—the latter of which has mostly relieved her of the job duty she likes the least: writing. What she does love, though, is working with the bureau’s board, and she says the community has a loyal core of businesses and volunteers that joins forces to get things done.
“We’re still a small convention and visitors bureau, but when we hit our goals, we can always do more,” she says. “We started off with very low revenue coming in, and last year we had the best budget year we ever had. The more people you have doing things, the more things you’re able to do.”
Hoath credits the organization’s longtime relationship with Pure Michigan for helping build the city’s brand as a meetings destination and desirable place to live. In the beginning, she says, “Every time I would say I was from Sault Ste. Marie, people would say, ‘Ontario?’ That doesn’t happen at all anymore. They know Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and for that I give a lot of credit to Pure Michigan and all the organizations we belong to [Michigan Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, Tourism Industry Coalition of Michigan, etc.].”
She adds, “We don’t just market the city anymore,” she says about her organization having a voice in future projects. “We can build it—it’s always about being progressive. You always have to look for change.”
