American: You’ve been the head of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission for 18 years. what was the road that brought you to St Louis?
KR: I started my career as the one-person shop director for the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau. One day I was at a meeting when the man who had the job that I have now asked me if I’d be interested in a sales job they had open in St. Louis. That was in 1985. I was moved to St. Louis to do convention sales. After 4 years I was recruited for the Director of Marketing job for a hotel in Denver and I moved on. Over the years I took increasingly more responsible roles in Baltimore (VP Sales and Marketing), Jacksonville (President) and New Orleans (Executive Vice President), and then one day I got the call for this job in St. Louis. I came back here in 2006.
American: You leave New Orleans, a top tier convention and tourist destination, to come to St. Louis. What’s up with that?
KR: I have always loved St. Louis. I have made many friends here early in my career, and even though I didn’t grow up here, it felt like home. I’ve been approached many times over the years that I’ve been here, but I left New Orleans 8 months after Hurricane Katrina to come to St. Louis and it was a very tough decision due to the timing there. It bothered me for a long time afterwards.
American: Why have you stayed here?
KR: When the offers came for me to head up a convention center or the Destination Marketing Organization elsewhere, we always seemed to be in a crisis. I just wasn’t going to leave St. Louis when we had the Rams first tier issue looming, or when we had an international focus on us because of the Michael Brown tragedy in Ferguson, or when we needed to get a convention center improvement done to be able to compete for more business. Also, as I said, I truly love St. Louis, so I always said thank you, but no.
American: St. Louis was a major American city, ranked in the top 10 in population. This is not the St. Louis you came to in 2006.
KR: Let me start with the assets. We are the best family destinations in America. The quality and cost of our visitor attractions like the Zoo, City Museum, Six Flags, the Magic House and so many more make this a place where families can come and have a great vacation for a low cost. And if you are not a ‘kid’ household we offer extraordinary experiences for adults, from food and cocktails to arts and culture. Whether it is Jazz St. Louis or Opera Theatre, The Fox, the Shakespeare Festival, or the Art Fair at Laumeier, the Black Rep or STAGES, on a year-round basis you can find world class experiences at low prices. And our market research shows that we have repeat visitors from within a 350-mile radius.
What about the challenges?
KR: When I arrived in 2006, I thought the inside of the convention center felt like a hospital or a prison. It was stark with no artwork or seating areas and a lot of fluorescent lights. It seemed that no one really cared about how it looked and that was a negative reflection on St. Louis. Working with Comptroller Darlene Green we remedied that quickly with an infusion of more than two million dollars. We brought the sense of St. Louis into America’s Center with photographic artwork of key attractions, two signature pieces by James Smith commissioned by the Regional Business Council and the Staenberg Family Foundation and added lighting and seating areas with charging stations. It’s critical to create a good atmosphere inside the convention center as well as out. We changed up our marketing, which had convention planners taking notice, we worked with the taxicab commission to start driver customer service training, and many other things to improve our ability to sell St. Louis. It wasn’t ideal when I got here but we made some major improvements.
American: Why should people care about conventions and visitors coming to St. Louis?
KR: People should care about conventions because they bring economic activity that drives downtown development as well as our regional economy. In St. Louis we love our sports teams, but our sports teams are all seasonal with limited dates. The Cardinals have a fantastic draw of out of towners, but they don’t create activity for six months, from October through March. Conventions come all year long and when we have a big convention of 10-20,000 people in November, December, or January, it is a major reason that hotels, restaurants, labor unions, and others continue to have work during the winter because new money is flowing in to support them.
The other reason people should care is that conventions provide the opportunity to bring people to St. Louis who would never have come here otherwise. It influences their perceptions of the city and perhaps changes some misperceptions they’ve had based on crime rankings or other negative media reports. A convention organizer selects the city, and the attendees go wherever that convention is held, so we reach an audience that cannot be reached in any other way. We have attendees leaving St. Louis with a very positive experience and that word-of-mouth spreads.
American: Anything else that makes what you do special?
KR: We provide opportunities for everyone. Some people in economic development circles discount hospitality by saying they are low wage jobs. The industry provides more than low wage jobs. The industry employs everyone who wants a job, and that includes high school and college students who just need part time or summer work, it employs seniors or those on disability who can only work a minimal schedule. And it also provides an entry into full-time and ever-increasing level roles for those that want it. The stories include every business – the housekeeper who became director of housekeeping, the front desk clerk who became a hotel general manager, the cook who opened their own restaurant, the girl from Chicago who didn’t go to college and became a national industry executive (me).
You offer that in many industries, but you can do it with us. When I look at our partner businesses today, I see many women and people of color in leadership roles. Visitors come 365 days a year and spend the night, so if you understand that and are willing to work odd hours sometimes, then anyone can have a great career in our industry.
American: You’re very passionate about this?
KR: Yes, I am. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a career doing something I truly love, working in great places with wonderful people, but more importantly I was doing something that I knew mattered, that made a difference in people’s lives. That if I were successful at my job they would have an opportunity to be successful. They would have a chance to realize a dream, to even have a dream for themselves and their children. This industry is really a road to that can lead to a better place.
American: You’ve had to deal with some tough issues. Is it harder to work in St Louis than other places?
KR: Well, it’s not just sales and marketing, is it? Everyplace has unique challenges and we are no different. But yes, I think it’s a bit harder here. And if I had to name one thing that makes it harder, I’d say that the City not within the County complicates things. But it doesn’t have to. For some people, there is a real County versus City divide mentality that is harmful to us all. We have our challenges, as every community does, but we have extraordinary people doing amazing things every day, and we need to celebrate better and work together. It is the reason I asked our board to create the St. Louis Civic Pride Foundation. We must learn to evangelize about all the good and incredible things that we have, while working to help the people and places in St. Louis that need it.
American: You have an impressive list of awards. Which one represents the ultimate validation?
KR: It’s so hard to say because they are all honors from organizations that have been very important to me in my career and really in my life. Last year Meeting Professionals International (MPI) gave me the Industry Leader Award. It isn’t something that I could ever have imagined. It was an extraordinary event. MPI is a global organization of more than 20,000 members which brings together meeting professionals who plan and execute business strategy and events. When I was elected to serve as its International Board Chairwoman in 1996-97, I was one of the first women and the very first person from the destination marketing side of the business. To be chosen from this group of talented, illustrious industry leaders for the recognition last year was the honor of a lifetime, I still pinch myself!
This chapter in the Kitty Ratcliffe story in St. Louis is ending. What are you thinking, how are you feeling?
KR: I’m sad that the convention center project got hijacked because it’s critically important for our community. But over the last 18 years I’ve had such great opportunities to work with so many great community leaders, both elected officials and heads of organizations doing critical work. It’s been a true joy to see collaborative projects come to fruition in wins for St Louis and our industry. It’s been an honor to work with our talented Explore St Louis team members, who all care about doing the best they can for our community and our visitors. I’ve had an outpouring of wonderful messages since the announcement, and it’s made me realize more than ever how fortunate I’ve been.
An industry icon who will be sorely missed at a critical time in St. Louis’ potential expansion of convention center. Unfathomable that this was allowed to transpire, and another example of St. Louis inability to rise above political posturing to reclaim its reputation as major meetings destination.