DMO Vet Al Hutchinson Launches Consultancy In Step With the Times

Al Hutchinson is a meetings and events industry leader with more than 30 years of experience primarily in the destination marketing organization (DMO) segment, most recently as president and CEO of Visit Baltimore.

Meetings Today's Tyler Davidson caught up with Hutchinson to explore his new venture, AVH Enterprise, and its mission to provide comprehensive leadership development, strategic planning and social impact solutions tailored specifically to DMOs.

At a time when DMOs are facing issues ranging from talent and leadership pipeline and retention challenges to a radically changed government regulation and policy environment, Hutchinson believes his more than three decades of leadership that includes serving on the boards of U.S. Travel Association, Destinations International and Religious Conference Management Association can help show the way through the fog.

[Related: DMO Vet Al Hutchinson Launches New ‘Enterprise’]

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Transcript:

Editors note: The following transcription was facilitated by AI program Otter.ai and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.

Tyler Davidson  

Hello, and welcome to this Meetings Today podcast. I'm Tyler Davidson, Vice President and Chief Content Director for Meetings Today, and great to be joined by industry veteran and someone I've had the pleasure of working with and covering for years now. Al Hutchinson, the former president and CEO of visit Baltimore, who has launched a new enterprise called AVH Enterprise. Thanks for joining us.

Al Hutchinson

No Tyler, thanks for having me, and you and I, you're absolutely right. Our friendship goes way back several years, and I've always kept an eye on your work and appreciate your leadership, and thanks for inviting me to this conversation.

Tyler Davidson  

Yeah, the feeling is definitely mutual, Al, and for all you've done for our industry and will continue to do. And you know, let's continue on with what you're going to continue to do. Tell us what AVH Enterprise is and where you fit, I guess, specifically in the DMO universe.

[Related: DMO Vet Al Hutchinson Leaving Visit Baltimore]

Al Hutchinson

Yeah. Great. Thanks for the question. 

So, just to give a little context to this, I've been in this industry now 30-plus years, about 33 years, and I was coming up on my renewal for my contract with Visit Baltimore as president CEO. And probably over the last year I started receiving inquiries from a couple other destinations about a president/CEO job, actually. San Diego, St. Louis, Chicago and New York City were four cities that headhunters reached out to see if I was interested in those jobs, and each one, I was very honored of the ask, but I did not want to make that move. Didn't want to uproot my family. Nor did I want to make that investment as part of my career. 

And then secondly, Visit Baltimore's board was talking to me about a three-year extension, and that didn't excite me as well. And I felt over the past year to 18 months, my wife and I started talking about the next chapter. And my wife is a human resources professional, and she's been in that space for 30-plus years. 

So, we started thinking, is there a way that we could come together and do some impactful work in the travel and tourism space, especially with the DMO community? And so, we decided to come together to create AVH enterprise. My middle name is Vincent, so that's the V; that's what that stands for. And we decided to launch this business earlier this year. 

And it's essentially, Tyler, a leadership development company. That's the focus. We believe that this is a critical time period in the history of travel and tourism; a lot of new leaders are elevating to the C suite. A lot of them may or may not be equipped for the job they come from, mostly from the sales space or marketing space. And the question is, do they have the real knowledge to navigate the headwinds that are facing every DMO in this country right now?

So, with that said, we felt this may be an opportunity for us to come together and focus on really five key areas. One is on helping DMOs, specifically the $5 billion and below, the smaller ones—not that we're going to ignore the big budgets—but the small ones sometimes feel like they don't get the love the big boys get, right? 

So, we want to focus initially on mid-to-small strategy, how to navigate city hall, how to navigate community engagement work, how to do effective storytelling or rebrand, if you will. 

So, that's the strategy, not so much strategic planning, but political navigation, community navigation and brand story. 

Secondly, C-suite leadership; how can we maybe provide coaching to some of these C-suite leaders? Lot of them are new, moving in that space. 

The third area is cultural design; how to build good teams with value and respect. My wife is really going to bring some great intellect to this space because she's been doing that throughout her career. And then social impact work. As you know, many communities cannot talk about diversity, equity, inclusion. So, we want to see how we can help those communities navigate this space from a social impact perspective, do it in a way, maybe change the language, but still be effective. 

And then the final piece of the puzzle is human resources, best practices, and that's essentially my wife's strength. Some smaller DMOS, they outsource their HR, and if we can help them navigate [in] that space. We really want to be impactful, so essentially leadership development, but how to do effective, sustainable leadership in the future, and I think that's going to be important in the DMO space.

Tyler Davidson  

And I totally agree with you that it's a time of transition in the DMO world, really everywhere. And I know I've written stories about some of the difficulties in getting talent in the pipeline, getting younger people involved, say, in a career with a DMO. And it's interesting that your wife, brings that skill right to the top of your company, because I think it's an integral right now in the environment, I was wondering, you know, what are your perspectives on that really sort of moving DMOS forward and keeping getting young people in and keeping the ideas new and fresh. 

And then also, what are some of the other major issues impacting DMOS right now?

[Related: Meetings Industry Leaders Discuss State of DEI During PCMA Panel Discussion]

Al Hutchinson

Yeah, I think to your pipeline question, that's going to be definitely a focus area of ours. If you think about it, currently in the DMO space, most of us have multigenerational already working in our organizations, from the Boomers to the Gen Zers to Gen Xers, right? And trying to figure out how to navigate that. 

So, there's a retention issue. How do we retain that talent? And then how do we recruit this next generation, who, when, probably you and I were first getting involved in this, this industry was really cool. It was hip. It was sexy. The younger generation now, not so much. They don't really see this as something they want to do, and so I think there's a conversation that needs to be had from a leadership standpoint. How do you go about recruiting the next generation of talent in this industry? How do you do it in an inclusive way, bringing all people to the table, offering them opportunities, career pathways, if you will? 

We don't need all C-suite leaders to look the same way, to talk the same way, to believe in the same things. So, I think it's going to be important to help organizations with that strategy and methodology, if you will. And I think it's a conversation that we want to have.

And the headwinds that you mentioned. Look, there are multiple headwinds right now. Number one, one of the biggest headwinds is on resources. A lot of DMOS around the country are being attacked because they have some access to resources. They may have a good retainer on funds, but now cities are underwater financially, and states are, and they're looking to these tourism organizations to help fund other things that in the past weren't a part of our bailiwick, whether it's affordable housing, whether it's playgrounds, whether it's roads, whatever the issue is in your community. 

So, I think protecting your resources and also increasing your resources—what are the new incremental ways you can drive revenue to your organization? I think it's big. 
I think, second-early headwind, just the geopolitical issues, as you know, right? There's a lot happening in that space, whether it's coming from the federal government side. Some things you can say, some things you can't. If you say certain things, your budget may be impacted and attacked. 

You know, our Canadian friends don't feel real comfortable coming to this country right now, as well as a lot of our European friends, just because of the politics of the country. how do we navigate that space and continue to make our destinations warm and friendly and welcoming? So, I think those are big. 

And then the warm welcome piece is another one, because I think a lot of destinations, they want visitation, but sometimes it's like, I can't welcome my friends from the gay community, or I can't welcome my friends from the African American, Asian American, Latino American community. How do you do that with this landscape? How do you talk about it in a professional way without alienating some of your stakeholders in your community? So, those are just some of the headwinds that are facing us.

Here's the last piece to this. Most CEOs in the DMO space, we did not go to school to navigate the political space. We didn't go to school to navigate how to protect resources and how to do warm, welcoming…we're learning it on the fly. 

And so, I believe, and I'm hopeful that my wife and her experience, my experience—it's not textbook…we're going to be talking about our experience. I can share what I did in six other destinations of this real-world stuff, not textbook. And my wife can share the same thing from her experiences on the private sector side.

Tyler Davidson  

Before we close out. It always just amazes me, the talent and a level of like, especially a CEO of a DMO, because it's inherently a political position. No matter where you're at, you're dealing with different funding setups for different DMOS. You're dealing with the community. You're dealing with local governments. 

You're saying a lot of people, probably, find themselves getting to that position come from a sales background, but there's just a whole suite of skills that it's probably not in any book that you need to learn, right? And with your experience, especially being in all sorts of different leadership positions and DMOS, I think it's very valuable, because I just It amazes me—folks who've done what you do. I mean, how do you navigate that, and what makes you cut out to do navigate those choppy waters?

Al Hutchinson

So yeah, for sure, man, and look your listeners, if they're looking for an organization that can help them navigate these waters. Right now, my wife and I would be open to having those conversations. I know you're a huge jazz fan, like I am, and it really… leadership is sort of an art. 

So, you think about a jazz combo with a drummer, a saxophone player, trumpet player. How do you navigate all those spaces? Let your individuality come out. But how do you combine the sounds to get a tone that everyone can listen to, and then you folks listen to it and say, this is beautiful. 

I love the music. I love moving forward. So, that's what we're hoping to do; bring this great sound of jazz together in these communities. Let folks be individuals, but come together to make a team of a great music.

Tyler Davidson  

Well, excellent. We’ll leave it at that. How can people find out more about AVH enterprise?

Al Hutchinson

Al.AVH enterprise@gmail.com is a good way to reach out to us, and then websites online too, with avhenterprisellc.com, so, definitely go to both of those places. Check us out. We're brand new. We're just getting started. There'll probably be more platforms in the future, but right now, those are the two best ways to reach out.

Tyler Davidson  

Well, you know, I wish you much success, and like I said, you're an industry veteran who's contributed so much to our industry in so many different ways, and just looking forward to what you're bringing now with your new enterprise and hope to see you out on the road at one of the millions of industry shows that we all go to.

Al Hutchinson

I'm sure I'll see you real soon, Tyler, and again, you keep doing what you're doing, man, we need your voice out there, so I'm forever grateful for your leadership.

Tyler Davidson 

Thank you. I really appreciate that. Thank you, sir. And that was Al Hutchinson, who has just launched AVH Enterprise, a really exciting new venture that will really bring a lot to the DMO community. 

I'm Tyler Davidson, Vice President and Chief Content Director for Meetings Today. Thank you for joining us for this Meetings Today podcast, and if you're interested in some of the other podcasts that we've done with industry thought leaders, just head on over to meetingstoday.com and check out our podcast section for a wealth of information on the industry. 

So, thank you for joining us. And no matter what you're up to for the rest of the day, go out and make it great.