When looking back on my almost 40 year work life, it seems my path was pre-destined. Every step I made to simply earn a living led in the direction of a career that focused around the travel, meeting and convention industry and its many and varied opportunities. The end result has been both satisfying and productive. I am eternally grateful to the mentors who’ve guided me and the clients who’ve had faith in me. So, let me take this opportunity to say thank you, thank you, thank you to each and every one. Here are some of the professional adventures enjoyed over a lifetime….(from the most recent down to the very first).
Coldwell Banker – MM Parish
In 2001 (after 9/11) my life as a “Road Warrior” stopped, and as I was not yet ready to retire, the next step was to became a licensed realtor, working for the largest and oldest real estate firm in north central Florida and the first Coldwell Banker franchise in the entire state, Coldwell Banker M.M. Parrish Realtors, located in their High Springs branch where I achieved a top producer status in the company, responsible for almost $7,000,000 in real estate listings and sales.
In early 2004 the President asked me to serve in a consulting capacity, to establish a Marketing Division, and work on various projects for the company and its agents. These projects included creating a New Development Division, designing the corporate brand image and position, creating a marketing plan, designing the advertising program, revising the company web site and creating associate support materials to generate more business for the firm.
In December of 2004 I was finally ready to seriously retire and, after traveling to Costa Rica and Panama searching for the perfect spot, I decided on Boquete in the Highlands of the province of Chiriqui, in Panama where I purchased a beautiful home. The rest of the story is on the various posts on this blog see Panama, Ecuador & Argentina pages). Below are my career adventures.
The Ripple Effect
From 1986 through 2001, The Ripple Effect provided a variety of business-to-business marketing services to corporate clients the world over. Specializing in meetings, conventions, users conferences and trade shows, these services included Staff Training, Print Promotions, Industrial Theater, Video Production, ROI Measurement & Analysis, Computerized Lead Management Software (RippleWare™), Special Events Production and Meeting/Conference Planning.
Clients included American Airlines, Ameritech, AON, Arch Communications, AT&T, Canadian Telephone Company, CellStar, CNET, Colgate-Palmolive, Compaq Computer Corp., Computer Sciences Corp., Connaught Laboratories, Conoco Oil Company, Evinrude Outboard Motors, Frito-Lay Foods, Goss Graphic Systems, GTE, Hewlett-Packard Company, Hormel Foods, IKON Office Solutions, IT Services Corp., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Kerr Drugs, Lucent Technologies, MANRoland, Inc., MasterCard International, Merrill Lynch Securities, Miller Brewing Company, Outboard Marine Corp., PageNet, Paragon, Pepsi Cola Company, Pittman Corporation, Polaroid Corporation, Procter & Gamble, Rapistan Systems, Kodak, Reliant Building Products, Rockwell Automation, Shell Oil Company, Source One Communications, Springmaid Corporation, Sprint Press, Texas Instruments, United States Postal Service, Viskase Packaging, Xerox Corporation and many others.
Convention Service Associates (CSA)
As owner/operator of Florida’s largest destination management company (1980-1986), I enjoyed creating and producing marketing events and programs for trade and professional associations and major corporations, through my offices in Miami, Orlando and Naples/Marco Island. After 6 enjoyable years, the business was sold in order to pursue my many clients’ requests to travel with them outside of Florida, providing these and other services. Thus, The Ripple Effect was born.
University of Miami – School of Medicine – Department of Anesthesiology
As Director of Educational Programs (1979-1980), I was responsible for faculty Continuing Education requirements, medical school rotation programs, and independent program curricula for domestic and international meetings, as well as a variety of training and administrative programs in a department of 150 employees.
Thomas Cook Travel
Recruited by TCI, the world’s largest (and first) travel company whose founder was the inventor of the traveler’s cheque, to serve as their Branch Manager of the San Francisco Financial District office. I then moved back to Miami to open their Coral Gables office. Once that office was up and running smoothly, the company gave me the responsibility of authoring an operations manual for their 350 travel counselors, evaluating and recommending a nationwide computerized reservations system and then creating and managing a Training Division. As Director of Training for North America, I was responsible for 8 regional training managers handling the 85 U.S. offices. (1977-1979)
Eastern Airlines
My introduction to work life began when joining the second largest airline in the free world, where over an 11 year period, I enjoyed a number of positions including reservations, consumer affairs, schedules and airline planning, sales development, management recruiting and field sales. These responsibilities included setting up the first IT packages for Walt Disney World in Orlando, developing incentives for telephone sales agents to increase revenue to target markets, and direct responsibility for communicating with the client base on behalf of the Chairman of the Board and President, Astronaut Frank Borman. I was also responsible for organizing meetings and events for the executive branch of the company. (1966-1977)
Penny In Paradise 