FORUM MARK TESTER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER
BY GEORGE SELI
L
ast month, Mark Tester began serving as the new Executive Director of the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC). He joins the OCCC at an exciting time, as the facility breaks ground on a major expansion this fall that is expected to be complete by the end of 2023. Since January 2008, Tester had held the position of the Director of the Austin Convention Center. In addition to managing the Austin Convention Center Department, he served on the Executive Committee of Visit Austin and was the President of Austin Convention Enterprises, the board that oversees the City-financed Hilton Austin. Prior to Austin, he spent 13 years working in Chicago’s convention industry, holding senior positions at the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau (now Choose Chicago) as well as the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.
organization; it’s about planning for the future and moving the organization forward. Q. How do your previous positions with Austin and Chicago, respectively, prepare you to lead the OCCC? Are their any parallels between the convention industries of those cities and Orlando’s? A. The fact that [the OCCC] is a government-run facility is something I’m very familiar with coming from Austin, which is also a publicly run facility, although city instead of county. And there are a lot of similarities to Chicago, not necessarily in the way the facilities are owned and operated, but [in regards to] the customers and the mega shows that come in and dictate how you need to operate. A huge influx of 50,000 to 70,000 people needs to be accommodated, and feeding that many people in a two or two-and-a-half-hour period during lunch would be a very similar issue in Chicago and Orlando. Q. What is your perspective on the utility of the OCCC’s new expansion project?
“They’ve got beautiful facilities here in Orange County, but I always say a facility in and of itself can only be good, and it’s the people that own and operate it that make it great.” Q. What enthuses you most about assuming a leadership role in Orange County’s convention industry? A. I always had admiration for the Orange County Convention Center. I felt that it was a well-run facility in a top-tier destination. They’ve got beautiful facilities here in Orange County, but I always say a facility in and of itself can only be good, and it’s the people that own and operate it that make it great. So I always felt like Orange County had a great working culture with a commitment to taking care of customers’ needs. They are already running a great 14
A. The North/South Building needed a bigger ballroom and some additional meeting space to complement the large exhibit floor. [Events] that may have been a few meeting rooms shy can now fit into that facility. The [new] Multipurpose Venue not only has additional exhibit space, but also gives the opportunity [to host] huge general sessions of 10,000 to 12,000 people. Being a large columnfree space, it’s going to be very flexible for corporate groups that want to come in and create their own environment. The grand concourse that connects the two sides of the building not only improves the circulation, but also gives additional public space to be utilized for casual events and networking. Q. How will you partner with Visit Orlando to drive business development? A. I will be on the Visit Orlando board and working very closely together on bringing customers in for the new building and bringing the message out to our industry. We certainly want to expose all the great things happening in Orange County that can correlate to any business that comes in. [We want to] make sure that it’s not just bricks and mortar, space and chairs, but that we help them truly be successful in drawing their attendees and maximizing their time in Orlando and Orange County.
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FACILITIES & DESTINATIONS 2020 SPRING
