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Economic Development through Hospitality with Peggy Williams-Smith
Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO of VISIT Milwaukee, is passionate about selling her beloved city to national and international visitors. She grew up in the hospitality industry, starting work in the field at 15 years old, and her work these days has her doing everything from being part of a bipartisan group of leaders bidding for national political conventions to leading her team in culturally responsive work.
In this episode, Williams-Smith talks about economic impact through hospitality and discusses her efforts to engage diverse businesses in VISIT Milwaukee’s partnership base. Above all, she says? Never put a limit on your potential – and be kind.
Episode Highlights
03:37 - We are on the road to recovery. It's awesome. It's great for us. But we have taken a really inventive approach to how we market the city. We're not doing the things we used to do. We're much more verbose about how great our city is. It has been a long time that we're often talked about as being quiet, under the radar. People come to our city and say, "Oh, I just didn't realize how good it was." My goal, at the end of my tenure with VISIT Milwaukee, is to never hear anyone say that again. We need to shout it from the rooftop because it does create economic impact.
14:03 - We're all here together for one purpose, and that's to shine a light on Milwaukee. So, it's been an incredible experience. Now the hard work begins, and that's actually shining the light on Milwaukee and hoping that this allows us to create more economic impact, more opportunity that will then allow us to fix some of the things that we still need to fix.
26:14 - Never put a limit on your potential. I started as a bartender and a waitress. I worked my way through hospitality, and I'm now the CEO of an organization that gets to sell the city. I get to be on stages around the country talking about how amazing Milwaukee is.
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Guest Bio:
Peggy Williams-Smith is a Milwaukee native and veteran of the hospitality industry who joined VISIT Milwaukee as the company’s first female president and CEO in 2019. Under her direction, the company has launched exciting, dynamic marketing campaigns to increase economic impact to the community and elevate the city’s reputation.
Since 2019, Williams-Smith has deepened the company’s local connections and developed a nimble team that is more responsive than ever to changes within the travel and hospitality industries. This was none more apparent than during the pandemic when VISIT Milwaukee became the go-to source for information for the hospitality industry and the industry’s No. 1 advocate on state and local levels.
From promoting the city to the nation during the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship run to leading the city’s bid to secure the 2024 Republican National Convention, Williams-Smith’s strategic leadership will ultimately result in economic gains for Milwaukee for years to come.
Prior to her work at VISIT Milwaukee, she worked for Marcus Hotels & Resorts for over 22 years and held leadership positions at varying levels throughout the division. Williams-Smith is a proud mentor of other women in business and uses her free time to support numerous charitable causes. She resides in Milwaukee with her husband, Tim Smith, their niece, Jocelyn, and their Boston Terrier, Tito Fenway.
