WELLNESS AT WORK

From Left: Richard Cooley, TSAC Tennis Pro Severin Birchler, TSAC Aquatics Director Sydney Barnett, TSAC Group Fitness Director Bianca Snyder, TSAC Yoga Studio Director Don Martin, TSAC Club Manager / Tennis Pro Greg Eberhart, TSAC Asst. General Manager Kristen Davis, TSAC WERQ Instructor Andrea Myers, TSAC Owner Lisane Swartwood, TSAC Tennis Pro Jesse Sharp, TSAC Personal Training Director

Tri-State Athletic Club

Tri-State Athletic Club is committed to providing a truly unique fitness experience to the Tri-State area. They are thrilled that 2021 marks 50 years of service to the community.

Offering a wide variety of athletic programs from tennis, aquatics, and hot yoga to personal training, group fitness, and private Pilates, TSAC has got you covered. The success of the club for more than 50 years would not be possible without a solid foundation set in place. That foundation is their strong team of trained fitness professionals motivated to inspire personal growth and positive change on a daily basis. To set goals. To take action. To exceed expectations.

But it doesn’t stop in the club. Now more than ever, the team at TSAC is dedicated to giving back to the community that has given them so much. Their efforts include involvement in local charities and organizations, numerous fundraising events, blood drives, and outreach projects such as their new worksite wellness program.

Tri-State Athletic Club has been proud to call Evansville home for the past five decades and pledges to continue enriching the community through health and wellness for many more years to come. 555 Tennis Lane • 812-479-3111 • tristateathleticclub.com

NFP

NFP is a leading insurance broker and consultant providing specialized corporate benefits; property, casualty, retirement, and individual solutions. We enable client success through the expertise of our professionals across the globe, investments in innovative technologies, and enduring relationships with highly rated insurers, vendors and financial institutions. We have great passion for building strong personal relationships based on trust, transparency, and active communication so we can create the best possible work environment for our employees and deliver the best possible solutions to our clients.

415 Crosslake Drive, Ste. A • 812-422-4000 • NFP.com

Bodyworks

As business professionals we want to use every tool available to keep our minds fresh and focused. Stress affects our decision-making. During a massage your mind and body rest and reset, and post-massage is an excellent time to focus on essential responsibilities and projects. Your business and coworkers will thank you for taking care of yourself.

2809 Lincoln Ave, Ste. 110 812-490-9009 • bwmassage.com

Lighthouse Counseling Services

For more than 20 years, Lighthouse Counseling Services, Inc. has offered therapy and case management services to children, adults, and families with a variety of needs. Our counselors are licensed professionals within their scope of practice. We take KY Medicaid and Medicare, many private insurances, and have self-pay options.

203 N. Elm St., Henderson, KY 270-826-8761 • lcsinc.org

CROWD PLEASER

Local tourism and hospitality suffered this past year, but they’re working to bring visitors back BY RILEY GUERZINI

TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY IS A $700 BILLION INDUSTRY

according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics that is focused on bringing in visitors to stay in local hotels, eat at restaurants, and shop at stores. But perhaps no market suffered more from the crisis of this past year than the fifth largest industry in the country.

As the pandemic raged across the United States 96 percent of companies that hosted or produced events had to cut staff or wages. These were the group of workers most affected by the pandemic as 75 percent of employees in the hospitality or events industry lost all of their income.

That impact was felt particularly in Evansville, though not as much as larger cities. In 2020, local hotel revenues were down 39.3 percent with occupancy down around 28 percent. The city still exceeded larger regional cities like Indianapolis, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky by 4.8 percent and 8.9 percent.

Overall in 2020, COVID-19 related event cancellations in Vanderburgh County totaled 140 events, 30,269 hotel night stays, and an economic impact loss of $32.8 million, according to the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau and Old National Events Plaza.

The major loss of events and connected revenue forced the CVB to adapt in ways they never before had done. They immediately reduced their operating budget from $1.8 million to $1.2 million and put a hold on all 2020 advertising. They also closed their Visitor’s Center, the Pagoda along the Riverfront in Downtown Evansville, to the public.

“For us as an industry, we saw this as certainly square on our radar screen, that it was going to have a significant impact as everything came to a halt when people could no longer meet and gather,” says Jim Wood, president and CEO of the CVB. “We were hoping it was going to be a short term impact, so we started seeing some cancellations leading into the March, April, June dates and then as we got into over the next couple of months, then we saw cancellations for the remainder of the year with a higher level of uncertainty of what the future was going to hold for those events.”

It’s been the uncertainty that Wood says has been the difficulty trying to get things back to normal. He says many of the events scheduled in 2021 were rebooked in hopes they could get back to normal, but “For us as an industry, we saw this as certainly square on our radar screen, that it was going to have a significant impact as everything came to a halt when people could no longer meet and gather.”

— Jim Wood, president and CEO of the CVB

many were more confident about meeting in 2022 than in 2021.

“That type of scenario has been playing out all across America and for us as well,” he says. “Some events have rebooked, so if we spent a lot of our time helping and assisting those conventions that were booked, trying to rebook for future years or we couldn’t, then we had to work on releasing them from their contracts because this was a unique situation.”

Wood adds that the good news is activity is perking up and events are scheduled for later this year and into 2022 and 2023, when he expects a full return to 2019 levels.

Events that were rebooked include the National Beta Club Indiana State Convention in 2021, the 2021 Massey Expo of North American, the Indiana League of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers, and the International Jugglers Association Festival in 2025.

Opposite, clockwise from top row, Global Leadership Summit and Indiana Department of Education convention, both in 2019 at Old National Events Plaza. Bottom row, Foreigner concert at Old National Events Plaza and USSSA opening ceremonies in 2019 at the Ford Center.

This also includes tournaments scheduled this summer at the Deaconess Sports Park at 6800 N. Green River Road. Unlike many other events, the Sports Park did host 19 tournaments last summer under strict social distancing guidelines with 829 teams participating, though still far from the usual 30-plus tournaments it hosts each summer. The adjacent Goebel Soccer Complex hosted two tournaments with 100 teams participating. Though attendance was still down by 40 percent, the economic impact from both complexes total $10.3 million.

Amateur sports are Evansville’s largest tourism market. Aside from the sports complexes that host a large number of youth sporting events each year, Bosse Field, which is home to the Frontier League baseball team the Evansville Otters, attracts a large base of local and regional sports fans each summer. The Ford Center, Swonder Ice Arena, and Old National Events Plaza also host many sporting events from hockey to basketball.

The Deaconess Aquatics Center, which is expected to open in July 2021, will also attract more sporting events to the area. The $28 million facility will have a stretch 50-meter pool plus separated diving wells with just under 1,000 seats for spectators with the ability to accommodate more than 1,000 bleacher seats on the pool deck.

“We are very fortunate to be able to have hosted some sporting events last year at the sports complex,” says Wood. “It really made a big impact on the hotel occupancy. In retrospect, we are very fortunate that the tournaments hung in there.”

Despite successful tourism from local youth sports tournaments through the years, Evansville has struggled to find its footing as a destination for tourists, largely due to a lack of a downtown convention hotel.

The city’s main convention hotel, the Executive Inn, was torn down in 2011 to make room for the Old National Events Plaza and the Ford Center.

The Old National Events Plaza was opened as The Centre in 2000 without a downtown convention hotel despite its main purpose of hosting conventions. This remained for 17 years before the Hilton DoubleTree opened on Valentine’s Day 2017. This has brought other hospitality companies to look at Evansville as a city to invest in, including Hyatt Place, located at the corner of Second Street and Chestnut Street in Downtown Evansville, which is expected to open within the next couple of months.

“We’re excited for the opening of the Hyatt Place and know that it will bring additional room nights and their associated restaurant and retail activity to Downtown Evansville,” says Josh Armstrong, President of the Downtown Evansville Economic Improvement District.

The victory of a returning convention hotel was short-lived, however, as the world came to a screeching halt in early 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, Innkeepers tax revenues were down 37.3 percent. The CVB, which reports to the Vanderburgh County Council and Commission, is funded through the county Innkeepers tax. Revenue from the tax is distributed among the CVB for sales and marketing promotion, the Tourism Capital Improvement Fund — which is designed to support facilities and events to increase tourism and hotel occupancy in Vanderburgh County — and the Old National Events Plaza.

“It was pretty significant in terms of the monies that were

Above, Deaconess Sports Park and left, Bosse Field are integral parts of Evansville’s largest tourism market — amateur sports. Last year, sporting events made a big impact on the hotel occupancy.

brought in to support both organizations, which ultimately drives tourism to town,” says Alexis Berggren, general Manager of the Old National Events Plaza.

The Old National Events Plaza alone lost about $10.7 million from cancelled scheduled events in 2020 — that’s in addition to the $22.1 million reported by the CVB. Berggren says they’ve already lost about $2 million this year from events that would have been held in 2021.

In 2020, more than 80 percent of the Events Plaza’s forecasted events were either cancelled or postponed, a huge step back from their 365 event days in 2019.

“That was a great year for us and so we were hoping to push past that mark in 2020,” says Berggren. “We had a great 2020 lined up. 2020 across the industry was just looking to be stellar.”

After being shut down for 11 days after their last event on March 11, the Events Plaza was asked to reopen to host emergency and essential meetings for the city and county, which they continued to do for the next several months. They also become a satellite location for the courts.

When they opened back up to small, public events in October of last year, they made sure requirements were in place to handle pandemic protocols. Social media videos were created to explain to ticket purchasers the Event Plaza’s procedures. They also invested in touchless technology to cut down on interactions between guests and staff as well as self-scanning ticket kiosks and mobile apps for concession purchases.

Berggren says the shift to more technology-based services was a long time coming and an aspect of pandemicera live events that will stay in the future.

She says handling social distancing was the biggest challenge the Events Plaza faced from the pandemic, particularly in its financial implications.

“A lot of theatres and arenas and venues have found the math just doesn’t work at any sort of half capacity,” she says. “Even if you are seating a socialdistanced venue, you have to open up the whole venue, so it doesn’t necessarily help in terms of cost savings on utilities or staffing because it’s still the whole venue, it’s just less people.”

Though the tourism and hospitality industry has suffered immensely from the pandemic, the outlook is not all dreary.

Full capacity shows are expected to come back in August with public, ticketed events resuming in the Aiken Theatre at a limited capacity beginning June 23. Many of the larger events will come back in 2022.

“We will be at about 95 percent of where we were in 2019 by 2022. We’ll be almost back to normal but not quite,” she says. “Next year looks great. The year after looks better.”

A rolling schedule of events through 2025 is expected to bring almost 20,000 attendees, 12,000 room nights and over $8 million in economic impact to Vanderburgh County. As for the CVB, event leads through 2025 could result in an additional $25 million in economic impact. z

Alexis Berggren, general Manager of the Old National Events Plaza, expects to be at about 95 percent of where they were in 2019 by 2022. Below, an aerial view of Old National Events Plaza, Doubletree Inn, and the Ford Center.

What we do together today, determines tomorrow. Thank you to those who are creating brighter tomorrows for thousands in our community.

Accuride AK Steel Albion Fellows Bacon Center Alcoa American Electric Power American Red Cross of Southern Indiana Anchor Industries, Inc. Apex Tool & Mfg., Inc. Ark Crisis Child Care Center Ascension St. Vincent Evansville AT & T Atlas World Group Aurora, Inc. Azzip Pizza Baird Banterra Bank Berry Global Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Indiana BKD, LLP Blankenberger Brothers, Inc. Boy Scouts Buffalo Trace Council Boys & Girls Club of Evansville Brake Supply Company, Inc. Breck Logistics Carver Community Organization Caterpillar, Inc. Catholic Charities Diocese of Evansville Catholic Diocese of Evansville CenterPoint Energy City of Evansville Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, Inc. Crescent Plastics, Inc. Cresline Plastic Pipe Co, Inc. D Patrick, Inc. David Matthews Associates Deaconess Health System Deig Bros Lumber & Construction Diehl Consulting Group Donaldson Capital Management Duke Energy Easterseals Rehabilitation Center ECHO Community Health Care, Inc. Energy Systems Group Evansville Housing Authority Evansville Regional Airport Evansville Sheet Metal Works Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation F.C. Tucker Emge Realtors FedEx Fifth Third Bank First Federal Savings Bank First Financial Bank GE Appliances George Koch Sons, LLC German American Bank Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana Goodwill Industries Hafer Associates, PC Harding, Shymanski & Company PSC Heritage Federal Credit Union HR Solutions, Inc. HSC Medical Billing & Consulting, LLC IBEW Local 16 Jerry David Enterprises, Inc. Kahn, Dees, Donovan & Kahn Keller Schroeder & Assoc., Inc. Kemper CPA Group Koch Air LLC Koch Enterprises Inc. Lampion Center Legal Aid Society Lensing Building Specialties Lochmueller Group Louisville Gas & Electric LyondellBasell Advanced Polymers Meijer Memorial Community Development Corp. Mental Health America / Vanderbugh Merrill Lynch & Company Midwest Equipment & Supply Co. Mills Body Shop Old National Bank OneMain Financial ONI Risk Partners Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Red Spot Paint & Varnish Co. Regency Property Services, LLC Schiff Air Conditioning Schnucks Markets, Inc. Shoe Carnival, Inc. Skanska South Western Communications, Inc. Southwest Indiana Chamber Springfield Electric Supply St. Meinrad Archabbey St. Vincent Early Learning Center, Inc. Sterling Industrial Stoll Keenon Ogden, PLLC Suez Water Target Stores Texas Gas Company The Arc of Evansville The Salvation Army The Women’s Hospital Traylor Brothers, Inc. Tri-State Bearing Company Tri-State Trophies Uniseal, Inc. United Bank United Companies United Way of Southwestern Indiana University of Evansville University of Southern Indiana UPS - United Parcel Service Vanderburgh County CASA Vanderburgh County Health Department VOICES Wabash Plastics Woodward Commercial Realty YMCA of Southwestern Indiana YWCA of Evansville Ziemer Funeral Home Ziemer Stayman Weitzel Shoulders

NOW MORE THAN EVER. LIVE UNITED.

WHEN CHALLENGES ARISE, it is more important than ever to unite in service to others. These generous partners stepped up to invest in our community during a critical time. Their contributions will help provide financial assistance to those who have lost jobs, support for students who are falling behind, and affordable childcare for local families.

TOMORROW IS BETTER WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER.

Call (812) 421-7479 to learn how your company can get involved with United Way. unitedwayswi.org