Meet Jeff Dougherty, 'Mr. Sacramento' is Spreading Smiles

Jeff Dougherty, association sales director for Visit Sacramento, likes to leave groups laughing.
Jeff Dougherty, association sales director for Visit Sacramento, likes to leave groups laughing.
Group sales head Robert Donahue is ready to guide planners to a new galaxy.
This veteran planning pro blends event production and personal concierge services into a booming business.
Hillary Harris left a top spot at Warner Bros. Studios for life as an independent event producer.
Ever since he was a teenaged event manager in Melbourne, Australia, Wayne Fernandez has sought ways to work leaner, faster and bigger. Today he has dual roles as general manager of the Magic Box at the Reef, a downtown Los Angeles venue and small convention center with over 100,000 square feet of event space, and head of Curated Events, his event production company. Efficiency matters more than ever to him, and with his proprietary cost- and time-saving software, Exhibitor Management Tool, Fernandez is out to streamline how events are planned, managed and invoiced.
Former chef and restaurateur Chuck Samuelson gives back with innovative culinary programs.
Los Angeles enjoyed a record year in tourism in 2015, welcoming 45.5 million visitors. That’s an increase of nearly 3 percent over 2014, and it makes 2015 the fifth consecutive year to shatter visitation records. Some credit for this boom goes to Ernest Wooden Jr., who has been the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board since 2013. It’s under his very capable leadership that LA is marketed both nationally and internationally.
Giuseppe Lama grew up in a restaurant family in Faenza, a historic city in Northern Italy. Doing his homework at one of the restaurant’s 20 tables and observing the goings-on around him, he learned the most important principle of hospitality: “If people are happy, they are going to come back.”
Today, as the managing director of The Resort at Pelican Hill, the Five-Star, Five-Diamond, 504-acre property on the Newport Coast, that mantra still guides him.
Event producer Brynne Frost, founder and CEO of Destination Concepts inc., has built a roster of Fortune 500 clients by never saying ‘no.’
Meet Carol Krugman, MEd, CMP, CMM