Lori Shumpert joined the Raleigh Convention Center as the director of events in early April. In her new role, she is excited to bring nearly two decades of knowledge and experience in venue management to the growing convention center.
“I wasn't the director, but now that I'm the director, I want to be able to take that knowledge that I've gotten from sitting back and listening and being a sounding board,” she said.
Shumpert recently talked to Meetings Today about her diverse career managing events across the country and discussed Raleigh Convention Center’s growth.
Meetings Today: You bring more than 18 years of experience across large-scale events and venue operations. How will that background shape your approach to event and guest management?
Lori Shumpert: I started out in a small convention center in Louisiana many years ago. And from there, it's just been word of mouth on how I've gotten jobs and how my career has progressed. I was at that convention center a couple of years in Kenner, Louisiana. It's right outside of New Orleans. Great little venue. We had Mardi Gras balls and graduations. And that's where the law students took the state bar. So, I gained a lot of experience there just with different types of events. But my GM at the time recommended me to the Saenger Theater and Mahalia Jackson Theater, which are sister theaters in downtown New Orleans. The GM there was looking for a director of theater services.
I got the job and spent five of the best years of my life there. We did Broadway Across America. We did concerts, comedy shows. We actually opened with Kristin Chenoweth and Jerry Springer. When I started, there was scaffolding in the building. Just throwing myself into that situation and learning on the fly. I feel really taught me a lot about the industry in general.
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From there, I was recommended to head to New York City sight unseen to run the Kings Theater in Brooklyn, New York. It was one of the ‘seven wonders theaters.’ What I learned there is how to work with different industries. We had the television industry do a lot in our theater. It taught me how to deal with different groups. New York is very diverse.
My immediate position before I came here was assistant director of premium services at Ole Miss. I worked in athletics. I spent five years getting acclimated to the sports world. [But] I decided to move back into something I knew I could do. That's why I applied for this job. I was familiar with the convention world and having that experience working in a performing arts center—running different types of shows at those venues—prepared me for whatever could come about here at this convention center.
What do you think planners need from your team the most when they are building out the event and onsite? And how do you encourage your team to deliver on those things?
They want to feel like their event is the most important event that you have on your plate. Now, obviously, we handle three or four events at a time. And sometimes you have people that are reaching out to you and their event is not for several months, and they want to feel like they are important to you at that moment.
I feel it’s key to be very transparent and communicative and to listen to what clients’ needs are, but also manage their expectations, right? I encourage the team to be transparent about what we can do and can't do, but also offer things that the planner might not be thinking of. That's thinking outside of the box.
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The Raleigh Convention Center is preparing for an expansion. What excites you most about this period of growth, and what priorities will guide your work during this time?
I think what excites me the most is just being at the table during the planning process. While I was working at Ole Miss, I was able to dabble in some venue redesign. We opened new club spaces, we redesigned club spaces, and that was one of my favorite things to do.
I think that's the moment I'm most excited about. Although a lot of it is planned and solidified, there are times where I will have the opportunity to offer my insight on what things should look like or how things can work. As event managers, we do look at things in a different light.
Obviously, we're going to have 300,000 more square feet of space. But it's an exciting time for us. It's an exciting time for Red Hat, which they're working on now, and the plaza across the street is getting done. I'm excited about it all.
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