October 20th, 2006
A party for the party people
Talk about pressure.
Imagine planning events with elaborate food, drink and entertainment for 2,500 people who are event planners themselves, ready to notice every detail and flaw. And to top it off, they have the power to send tens of millions of dollars of convention business to Charlotte — or steer it away.
The responsibility for wowing the members of Meeting Professionals International, a leading professional trade group of meeting planners, fell on Jeff Hewitt, senior director of sales for Visit Charlotte.
Hewitt, wearing a Carolina blue sweater vest and Carolina Panthers pin along with his nametag Sunday afternoon, twitched visibly when asked how he was handling the responsibility. “What pressure?” he said with a shaky laugh.
Later, he added: “This is probably the toughest crowd in the business