Management Team

ConventionPlanit.com Mission Statement

To provide the meeting, event and tradeshow planning community with a comprehensive web based portal designed to facilitate easy access to information, both domestically and internationally, on destinations, facilities, service providers and other industry related resources.


Katherine S. Markham, CHME
Principal & Co-Founder


Katherine Markham, CHME is the Principal & Co-Founder of ConventionPlanit.com, a multimedia search channel and RFP portal. She is responsible for marketing strategies and new business development. An innovator for her time, Ms. Markham created ConventionPlanit.com in 2003, when online bookings for the meetings industry were not yet widespread.

Her vast knowledge of the hospitality industry combined with a desire to solve a problem sparked the creation of ConventionPlanit.com. The concept was simple: provide meeting planners an easy way to access information while helping suppliers reach more buyers. An Advisory Council of meeting planners assisted in outlining the search functionalities of the website, truly making the website a tool designed by and for meeting planners. With a vision to position buyers with sellers through technology at the forefront, the website is an industry favorite for original meeting planners who prefer a commission-free environment and easy sourcing tools. Today, ConventionPlanit.com boasts a strong industry endorsement by Senior Planner Industry Network (SPIN), and partnerships that include the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association (HSMAI), IMEX and IBTM. Additional digital offerings for suppliers have grown over the year to access hard to reach buyers.

Ms. Markham began her career in group sales with Marriott Hotels and has held leadership positions in sales and marketing for Renaissance Hotels, Radisson Hotels, Homestead Resort, Associated Luxury Hotels and Resorts, Inc., Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Expovision. She is also a Certified Hotel Marketing Executive (CHME). Prior to launching ConventionPlanit.com in 2003, Ms. Markham was Co-Founder of the Alliance Service Network, a lead generation firm for service providers. Ms. Markham was a weekly host of Your Meeting Matters, a segment of the Washington, DC radio program Association Nation, in which she engaged key players in the meetings industry in lively discussions. Ms. Markham served on the marketing advisory councils for APEX and Event Technology Exposition.


David B. Markham
Principal & Co-Founder

As principal & co-founder of ConventionPlanit.com, Mr. Markham is responsible for operations, in addition to new business development.

Mr. Markham began his career at the Watergate Hotel and Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC, where over a period of several years, he assumed several management positions of increasing responsibility within the rooms and operations division. David later joined the Astor Hotel Management Company to open the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC, and held management positions in both the operations and sales and marketing departments of the Renaissance Hotel and Congressional Park Hotel.

Following his tenure with Astor Hotels, Mr. Markham assumed the role of Director of Sales & Marketing for the Madison Hotel Group and Omni Georgetown Hotel, both located in Washington, DC. From 1992 thru 2000, David was Director of Sales and Marketing in the Washington, DC office of the David Green Organization, a national representation company of leading independent hotels and resorts.

Prior to launching ConventionPlanit.com, Mr. Markham was principal & co-founder of the Alliance Service Network, a national sales office and lead generation firm for leading service providers to the meetings industry.


Maureen Pickell, CTC
Director of Global Accounts and Media Relations

Maureen S. Pickell, CTC, has worked in the travel industry for more than 25 years. She has worked as a travel agent as well as in airline sales for five different carriers. Most recently, she spent 21 years with Northwest Airlines as its manager of meeting and incentive sales based in Washington, D.C., specializing in the association market.

Maureen holds a Certified Travel Counselors degree from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents and was called on by the Professional Convention Management Association to author the chapter on Transportation for the 3rd edition of its textbook for planners entitled "Professional Meetings Management." The Potomac Chapter of Meeting Professionals International named her the 2000-2001 Supplier of the Year and she has received numerous sales and marketing achievement awards during her airline career.

Jo Ann Hoffman
Regional Director of Sales

Jo Ann Hoffman, whose career began in 1969 in the hotel industry, brings an impressive expertise in association management, golf tournament management, site selection and event management. Her association career began in 1976 at the American College of Cardiology. She has also worked for the American Association of Blood Banks and Experient, holding numerous positions and titles at these organizations.

Jo Ann has volunteered her time and talents to many organizations. She is a Past President of the Professional Convention Management Association and served on the Board of Directors for eight years and the PCMA Education Foundation Board of Directors for four years. Her years of volunteer work with PCMA have included committee chair, author, speaker and Annual Meeting Program Committee Chair. Jo Ann has been a member of ASAE and GWSAE. Jo Ann developed and produced the “Women’s Golf Experience” for GWSAE. This program was established to guide women into the game of golf and to educate attendees on how it can be a wonderful business and career asset. Jo Ann also served as a member of the Auction Committee for ASAE.

Jo Ann was instrumental in the founding and organizing of The Meeting Industry Ladies Organization, LTD (MILO). She was also a member of the Golden Links Advisory Board for Corporate Meetings and Incentive Magazine. She recently served as a member of the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board. As speaker and author, Jo Ann has established a presence not only in the Meeting and Hospitality Industry but has also worked on various projects with the Executive Women’s Golf Association (EWGA), the LPGA, USGA, National Association of Golf Tournament Directors and various members of the PGA.

July 2000, Meeting News selected Jo Ann as one of the "25 Most Influential People in The Meeting Industry". She has been the cover story for Corporate Meetings & Incentives Magazine, Meeting Professionals International Magazine and Association Management Magazine.


Alice Turner
Director of Business Development

Alice Turner is an accomplished award winning sales and marketing professional with over 30 years of expertise in key account management, national sales and partnerships.

Alice began a hospitality career during college as a clerk for a resort gift shop and city hotel front desk. After college she landed a dream job in Washington, DC as a hotel group and transient sales manager. She is honored to be a USAF brat which gave her a creative personality and diverse skills to include operations. She has worked for major brands, independent organizations, associations and non-profits and 10 years ago started marketing her skills under Turner Solutions. Her heart is in the commercial marketplace to excel in customer success using her core values of honesty, trust and integrity.

Alice has worked in several channels on both sides of sales vs operations and supplier vs planner. She has been a hospitality industry leader with MPI, Potomac Chapter, AMPs, AAHOA, Hotel Brand Owner’s Associations and an industry expert to include her favorite as a travel advocate on Capitol Hill. She held a CMP designation from 2001-2006. During her 10 year tenure at USA TODAY, Travel Circulation Division, she worked closely with large volume accounts and partnered with a variety of hotel brands and management companies.

Alice holds a B.S. degree in Marketing, School of Business, from The University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL and an A.A. from The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. She enjoys helping those in career transitions after her many years volunteering at CNM-Career Network Ministry in McLean, VA.


Nancy Barag
Regional Director of Sales

Nancy began her sales career with Sheraton Philadelphia then shifted to the Westin Bellevue Stratford. Following that, she joined the preopening team of the Adam's Mark Philadelphia Hotel and from there to the Sheraton Society Hill where she was promoted to Director of Sales & Marketing. Her third preopening job was at The Inn at Penn, A Hilton Hotel where she worked for 21 years.

During her time at The Inn at Penn, she was twice named Director of Sales of the Year for Hilton Hotels & Resorts. Her sales teams were also selected twice as Sales Teams of the Year. MPI selected her as Supplier of the Year in 2014.


Muzette Randall
Director | Marketing Services

Muzette Randall has more than 25 years of advertising sales, marketing and management experience. Her career has included broadcast, direct mail and interactive media as well as direct print and advertising agency sales development.

She got her start in newspapers, where she held several advertising sales positions culminating with a regional and national advertising sales assignment with Landon Media representing newspapers across the country, including publications in every major city in Georgia. Randall served as President of the Atlanta chapter of the Newspaper Advertising Sales Association. She was a pioneer in the industry’s effort to streamline multiple newspaper placement and billing through her efforts with The Newspaper Network and The Associated Press.

Randall launched her own consultant company, Ten20 Marketing, where she has taken on several internet marketing initiatives involving online news, manufacturing industry resource sites, and real estate consumer marketing. She has worked closely with a wide variety of clients from small family-owned business to Fortune 500 companies. Her hospitality clientele has included cruise lines, major hotel chains, and national travel services.


Sandra Reed
Director of Latin America - ConventionPlanitLatam.com

Sandra Reed has worked in the hospitality industry for over 25 years. Sandra studied Hotel Management at the Institute Internacional de Glion in Switzerland and has worked in hotels in Geneva, Panama and Miami. Her position as Corporate Sales Manager allowed her to work directly with meeting planners and international clients. Most recently, she was the Regional Director at a publishing company where she was responsible for the annual Mexico Meetings and Incentive Planner.

Sandra is fluent in English and Spanish and proficient in French. She has intimate knowledge of Mexico, Panama, Colombia as well as the rest of South and Central America.

When Sandra is not traveling, she enjoys playing golf.


Al Rickard, CAE
Director of Communications

Al Rickard is a Certified Association Executive (CAE) with 30 years of experience in communications, marketing, publishing, public affairs, and association management. He is president of ASSOCIATION VISION, a communications company that provides services to a large client base of associations and corporations that sell to associations. He launched this company in 2000 following a long career working for major associations in the Washington, DC area.

In the late 1990s, Rickard served as Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives (GWSAE), where he integrated the public relations, government affairs, and publishing operations into an expanded Communications Department.

He also led a major division of one of the nation's largest trade associations, serving as Senior Vice President for Member Services & Marketing at the National Food Processors Association.

He also served as Vice President of Communications and Government Relations at the International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (now the Destination Marketing Association International), where he spearheaded association involvement in the first-ever White House Conference on Travel and Tourism, developing and implementing a strategy to nominate and install 235 CVB executives as delegates to the conference.

Rickard spent several years as Vice President of Communications at the Snack Food Association, where he created and launched a consumer public relations campaign, National Snack Food Month and published Snack World magazine.

Earlier in his career, Rickard was the first Section Newsletter Editor at the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and was the first Editor of USAE newspaper, an independent trade journal covering the association/meetings/hospitality industry.


Daniel Shipman
Webmaster

Daniel Shipman is Vice President of Interactive Media at SRJ Marketing Communications. He honed his web programming skills through hands-on experience in interactive marketing. Mr. Shipman has supervised and personally created a wide range of technologically advanced websites for a wide range of clients. As soon as a new technology is introduced, Mr. Shipman carefully assesses it before integrating it into his development processes. He has advanced programming knowledge of Flash, PHP, MySQL, PERL, CSS, DHTML, and HTML. Mr. Shipman attended Wayland Baptist University.

Debbie Carter
Director of Administrative Services

Ms. Carter began her career in office management with Prudential Insurance in 1975. Upon moving to Southern Florida in 1982, she worked in sales and office administration for Nautical Furnishings and later, in the same capacity with Coldwell Banker. Before joining ConventionPlanit.com, Ms. Carter previously worked part-time in sales and office administration for INESS, a telecom equipment sales and marketing firm in the Washington, DC area.

As Director of Administration, Ms. Carter performs a myriad of tasks relating to marketing and office administration.


Ashley Chalmers
Director of Internet Operations

Ashley Chalmers has been involved in the hospitality industry for her entire professional career. She has experience in Web design, marketing, event planning, and sales -- a strong combination for this industry.

At ConventionPlanit.com, she handles company operations, maintains social media and the ConventionPlanit.com blog, e-newsletter, and some internet marketing. Chalmers assists meeting planners with RFP distribution through the popular RFP Valet® and RFP OrganizationSM programs and is the primary staff contact for member ad fulfillment, press releases and listings.

She is an active member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), especially through the Under 30 Gateway, a group for young industry professionals. She sits on the national council for this group and serves as the Marketing Co-Chair, and is a former Chair and Vice Chair of the National Capital chapter. Chalmers has co-presented educational sessions for both meeting planners and suppliers for The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and The Potomac Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI). Chalmers attended the University of Maryland.


 

 

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