She inspires her team, challenges co¬workers to think outside the box and has a true passion for running a convention center. Her name is Kerry Painter and she’s been in charge of the Cox Business Center in Tulsa, Okla., for SMG for the last four years.
This year, the 2015 Venues Today Woman of Influence won the Venues Today Hall of Headlines Award for Operations for spearheading the massive remodeling and rebranding of the venue.
“Kerry stretches her staff to think differ¬ently and do things not necessarily in a tradi¬tional way. She doesn’t just run the building, she’s constantly striving for us to improve our¬selves… to make everyone successful,” said Kathy Tinker, director of sales and marketing of Cox Business Center, a 310,625¬sq.¬ft. facili¬ty in downtown Tulsa.
The center has 120,000 square feet of exhi¬bition halls, a 9,000¬seat arena, roughly 20,000 square feet of conference halls and 11,000 square feet of meeting space.
The remodel included revamping the exhibit space where the exhibit hall floors were diamond ground and new lighting and fresh paint helped spruce up the area.
Cox Business Center is 51 years old. The 30,000¬sq.¬ft. ballroom was added in 2010. In the last year, other areas of the center were revamped, including painting the entire con¬vention end of the building, putting wraps on the walls, updating the lobby with fresh paint and buying new furniture.
“We really activated the lobbies and the public space,” Painter said.
They also rebranded the convention cen¬ter with a new value statement that says “Outrageously Excellent.”
“We brought in a facilitator, and we iden¬tified ourselves and we created mission lines. We identified a value statement,” Painter said. “It’s on things, and we say it a lot.”
They put “Outrageously Excellent” on uniforms, lanyards and the lobby wall.
“It’s really hard to be lame when you’re wearing something that says ‘outrageously excellent,’” Painter said with enthusiasm. “If you’re coming up to meet with us about a con¬tract, it’s smack in your face about what we’re going to do.”
It wasn’t Painter or top management that came up with the logo. It was the entire team, which is the way things happen around the convention center. Painter is a collaborator, not a dictator, and she likes to involve her team on big decisions.
Outside thinking and collaboration will be key next summer when Painter, her team and SMG prepare for a $55 million renova¬tion of the arena attached to the convention center.
The plan is to blow out the inside of the 9,000¬seat arena while keeping the shell of the structure intact. The space will become an extra 45,000 square feet of exhibition space.
Also included in the renovation is a three¬story, glass¬fronted atrium at the front of the convention center. “The building has no great primary entrance,” Painter said, adding that it confuses guests on where to enter the building.
Those renovations start in July with a projected completion in 2020. Funds for the construction come from a Vision Tax approved by voters, Painter said.
Painter’s spirit and management style hasn’t gone unnoticed by SMG or her supervi¬sor, Jeff Nickler, who is the GM of the SMG properties in Tulsa.
“She is the face of Cox Business Center),” Nickler said. “She’s really over every day¬to¬day function of that staff. She spearheads all facets of that building.”
He applauds Painter’s “forward think¬ing” and “passion” for the industry.
“Kerry is somebody who embraces change. She wholeheartedly believes that just because we’ve done something one way doesn’t mean that’s the way it needs to be done, which is rare in the industry. She’s always challenging our staff to find new ways to do better cus¬tomer service, which is really cool,” Nickler said.
For example, each year the convention center hosts a holiday party for its clients, and the event traditionally is held in the ballroom “because it’s the newest room we have,” Tinker said.
This year, Painter suggested moving the party, themed Champagne and Steel, to the exhibit hall to show off the newly renovated space.
“Most of our clients haven’t been in the exhibit hall,” Tinker noted. “We like to keep their interest piqued by not always making it same old, same old.”
Working with Painter on a day¬to¬day basis is always a learning experience, Tinker said.
“She sends us articles for potential busi¬ness and professional development. There are tons of marketing ideas, a lot of time there are things we don’t even think we can do. She gets us thinking about how can we translate that into our market and our clientele,” Tinker said, adding that Painter is a “huge proponent of education.”
Painter teaches various industry classes throughout the year, including the IAVM’s Venue Management School. “I love to teach people; I get to do that quite a bit,” Painter said.
A typical day at the office for Painter includes finding ways to bring clientele to a convention center located in Tulsa. “What I learned when I moved here is that Tulsa didn’t have a bad reputation, but it had no reputa¬tion,” Painter said, highlighting how challeng¬ing it was to bring big national or international conferences to the city.
Attracting new business comes down to getting them to Tulsa for the first visit, when they’re invariably “shocked” at what a cool city Tulsa is, Painter said.
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‘Outrageously Excellent’ Operation
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