Once upon a time, Brooke Underwood was walking across the stage of the Abraham Chavez Theatre as a contestant in Miss El Paso.<\/p>\n
She was crowned Miss Congeniality, with little inkling that one day her congenial nature and orientation toward leadership would bring her back full circle to managing that theatre and other iconic El Paso venues.<\/p>\n
Underwood, president and CEO of Destination El Paso, has been working with the city contractor for 18 years. She was named to her new position in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are El Pasoans, and we are all rowing in the same direction because we truly believe in the product that we sell and the buildings that we manage,\u201d Underwood said.<\/p>\n
Underwood grew up on the Eastside and attended Hanks High School before going to the University of Texas at El Paso, where she received her degree in marketing. Her plan was to become a flight attendant, but life took her in a different direction. She worked for Stanton Street Marketing for several years before landing at Destination El Paso.<\/p>\n
Destination El Paso is technically a contractor for the city that also functions as a department. Under its umbrella are Visit El Paso, the tourism marketing arm; El Paso Live, which manages city-owned venues and events; and El Paso Water Parks, which manages the city\u2019s four water parks.<\/p>\n
There are 100 full-time employees on Underwood\u2019s team, and that number grows in the summer when each of the four water parks gets an additional 100 employees.<\/p>\n
Underwood recently sat down with El Paso Inc. at the Destination El Paso visitors center in Downtown to talk about drawing tourists to the Borderland, raising the city\u2019s profile and what\u2019s on her must-do weekend itinerary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brook Underwood<\/p>\n
Ruben R. Ramirez<\/p>\n
Q: How do you track tourism?<\/p>\n
When I was the executive director of Visit El Paso, we were laser focused on the tourism aspect and how important that was. And now, from the position I sit in, it\u2019s important that we see this as an economic driver for this community. Of course, there are ways to measure success. Bridge crossings are important because a lot of our data shows that we\u2019ve got visitors who come from Mexico.<\/p>\n
Everything in that 300-mile radius around El Paso, we call it the Travel 300. If you put El Paso right in the middle and draw a radius around it at about 300 miles, that\u2019s a good drive market. That includes places like Lordsburg, Alamogordo and Albuquerque as well and into the Midland-Odessa area and northern Mexico. That\u2019s a nice, easy drive, and people see this as the big city in that area.<\/p>\n
So when they\u2019re looking to celebrate or they\u2019re looking for a prom dress, they\u2019re driving here. They\u2019re going to do back-to-school shopping. They\u2019re looking for the greatest entertainment or festival. It\u2019s really important that we market there.<\/p>\n
We also market in other places. The fly markets are really important, especially the ones with direct connectivity. Flights into Chicago and LA and some of these other locations, it\u2019s important that we put our advertising there as well to expose people to it and remind them we\u2019re one flight away.<\/p>\n
Q: It seems like there\u2019s been a bit of a turnaround with El Paso attracting good concerts and shows. How does your team work on that?<\/p>\n
We have a great relationship with UTEP Special Events, and we understand that the work that they\u2019re doing benefits us all. Everyone in El Paso should understand that the things and the talents that they bring benefit small businesses, and these are the people who are stopping in your restaurant or they\u2019re putting gas in their rental.<\/p>\n
There has definitely been an uptick, and I think that’s been because of some changes in leadership at UTEP where they\u2019ve valued their focus on education. But they also understand that they can be that mecca for some good quality entertainment. So things like Coldplay and the success from BTS is really important.<\/p>\n
I have to look at it from two perspectives. I am a citizen here as well, and I want to see those concerts and high-quality entertainment in my own city, but I also see it from a marketer\u2019s point of view and what that does to a community by way of hotels and shopping in our malls and eating in our restaurants. Success from one event contributes to successes elsewhere. Now promoters are looking and saying, \u2018OK, they\u2019ve got the appetite for it.\u2019<\/p>\n
Q: What goes into venue management, and do you have a wish list of what these places need?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got fantastic assets, and we manage them on behalf of the city. They all need regular maintenance. They\u2019re aging facilities, but they\u2019re well taken care of.<\/p>\n
As you grow hotel occupancy or inventory in a community, the next step is to bring up the square footage of your convention center. We are in that next step, where we need to take a hard look at the convention center and what she\u2019s in need of.<\/p>\n
For the majority of my career here, there have been challenges that we would face when bringing people in. They go, \u2018OK, I\u2019d like to see your ballroom.\u2019 And that\u2019s one thing that the convention center has never had. We\u2019ve tried to work around that. We carpeted one of our exhibit halls and tried to put up lighting and trussing to give it more of an intimate feel. But ultimately, we are short of that very specific space that is on the checklist for many planners and event organizers.<\/p>\n
An expansion of the convention center would be the logical next step, and a ballroom is the main component of that. With a ballroom, where a lot of food and beverage events happen, you need a bigger kitchen. Breakout space is also really important.<\/p>\n
What we\u2019ve heard from planners is that the exhibit hall is a good size. They can work with that, but we\u2019re light on meeting space, those breakout rooms and the ballroom.<\/p>\n
The Abraham Chavez Theatre is a wonderful facility, but she is in need of some modernization and infrastructure. I\u2019d love to have that done under my tenure, restoring that symphonic hall to its original glory.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d also like to take the opportunity to add that both of our theaters are performing quite well. For the mid-year reports from Billboard, the Plaza Theatre is at No. 30 worldwide for a theater of its size. And the Chavez isn\u2019t too far behind at No. 50.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brooke Underwood<\/p>\n
Ruben R. Ramirez<\/p>\n
Q: Do you have a timeline that you would like to have the convention center expanded?<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t realize how quickly things come and go before you\u2019re onto the next booking. In 2008, I thought that 2015, when we had the big bowling congress come through our facility, seemed like forever. And it really wasn\u2019t. And then we looked at other things like the Texas Democratic Convention, and they all seem so far away until you\u2019re six months out.<\/p>\n
I would imagine that there are some other things at play, like financing convention centers or going through plans and studies and things like that. Ideally, it would be within the next four or five years.<\/p>\n
Q: How do you bring Fort Bliss families into the fold of El Paso and the region?<\/p>\n
We value the relationship with the installation. El Paso sets the bar for how we\u2019ve been able to retain that talent in this community. It surprises me all the time. Fort Bliss gives us a very unique opportunity to dispel those myths with people who are experiencing it.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, we\u2019re told that El Paso\u2019s not always on their first choice of installations they get to go to. We have a military liaison who regularly goes onto the installation. She\u2019s actually a veteran herself. Neither she nor her husband is from this area, but they opted to retire here after their service, and that\u2019s what we want.<\/p>\n
Every couple of months, we get a new batch of people that we encourage to come off the installation. It\u2019s safe, and these are all the things you can see and do while you\u2019re here. They\u2019re here longer than a visitor would stay in a hotel, but it is an opportunity to maybe swing them into the idea of relocation here.<\/p>\n
Q: What\u2019s on Brooke\u2019s itinerary? If you had to give someone an idea of what they can do in El Paso, what would you want them to do?<\/p>\n
Right now, looking at the weather forecast, this is the time to get up into the mountains early in the morning so it\u2019s still nice and cool and fresh. That\u2019s a great way to start the day, taking in those sights and the still of the morning, and being able to see those three states in two countries, but one culture.<\/p>\n
After that, you want to find a good brunch place. There\u2019s a variety of them, and I don\u2019t even know if I should name just one. Refuel, then find a weekend farmer\u2019s market, get some local honey. I don\u2019t know if people realize there are different flavors of local honey.<\/p>\n
Exploring that is awesome. And then, of course, entertainment. There are lots of free music series all over the place. Cool Canyon Nights up in McKelligon Canyon. You\u2019re listening to some great music, maybe you have an icy beverage in your hand and the backdrop is the mountain.<\/p>\n
Live music happens once a month out here right in front of the convention center. So if there happens to be a convention in town, they come out and they\u2019re greeted with free live music. We\u2019ve got a full calendar of events and things that happen throughout the year. I\u2019d be lying if I said it would be wonderful if there were a little bit fewer of them. I think we\u2019d be bored.<\/p>\n
El Paso\u2019s America250 celebration came from us traveling to Minneapolis, and they said, \u2018It\u2019s a big birthday coming up. What are your communities doing?\u2019 We started hatching a plan, and we took it to the city, and they went, \u2018Yes, how can we help?\u2019<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got to take advantage of our wonderful landscape and topography, and it\u2019s got to be local. It\u2019s really important. There\u2019s so much talent and great food here. Jump in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once upon a time, Brooke Underwood was walking across the stage of the Abraham Chavez Theatre as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[133615,19460,138,140,139,1910,3814],"class_list":["post-377830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-brooke-underwood","tag-destination-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-leadership","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}