As vice president of marketing for the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau, Karen Brand, 34, is one of this area's top promoters.
Over lunch at the Old Chicago Grill, we talked about the challenge of selling Tampa Bay, her days as a softball and volleyball player at Lakeland's Florida Southern College, and making the transition from being a Moccasins third baseman to a heavy hitter for our community.
Pull up a chair and join us.
ERNEST: So is it okay if I call Florida Southern and get some pictures of you playing volleyball?
KAREN: They may not have pictures of volleyball. I had a longer softball career. I only played volleyball two years, but I played softball all four.
What position did you play?
In softball, I actually made the rounds in the infield but my standard line is I played third in two of my four years, so I consider myself a third baseman.
How do you trace your sports involvement?
I grew up in a very athletic family. My father played baseball at Florida State, and my brother (Bill Kull) played at Florida Southern. I actually followed him there. So growing up, we were always out in the yard playing. He's in the record books at Florida Southern. Actually, he'll probably kill me for saying this - sorry Bill - but I think he holds the career strikeout record.
Did you harbor dreams of marketing then?
No, not at all. I think if you went back to my high school yearbook in the senior profiles, I think I said I was going to go to Florida State, major in fashion or play volleyball in the Olympics. I think I'm far, far away from that.
Your career - and your love life - have taken you from Tallahassee to Connecticut to Kissimmee. Tell me about that.
When Yale calls, you don't really say no. I met my husband Scott in Tallahassee when he was doing some post-baccalaureate work and he had always wanted to go to Yale's divinity school and he made it. When we knew we were leaving Connecticut, I wanted to get to Tampa. I had always loved Tampa. There was always a great feeling I got about Tampa when Florida Southern would come over to play UT.
But you didn't know anybody in Tampa and you ended up working for Special Olympics in Kissimmee. How did you get here?
I was doing textbook networking. I called a friend of mine who worked for Enterprise Florida. He gave me Dianne Jacob's name at Hardin Construction. I came over and had drinks with her at Big City Tavern in Ybor. One of the people she told me to talk to was Michael Kilgore, who was the incoming chair of the convention and visitors bureau's board of directors. Two weeks later, he e-mailed me and said, "I just got this notice from CVB that this marketing position is open. If you're interested, why don't you throw your hat in the ring?"
I have to give credit to president Paul Catoe and executive vice president Steve Hayes for having a vision and saying, Here's somebody who doesn't have experience in the tourist industry but we need someone who can market. It's been a great ride ever since.
You could have lived anywhere, but you go to work in downtown Tampa from Valrico every day. Why?
When we lived in the Northeast, we got the experience of living very close to your neighbors. We love working in the yard and gardening and landscaping and we wanted to find a house we could afford but also had a little bit of land to it. And we knew Brandon because my brother has lived here since he got out of college.
What are your primary responsibilities?
My job is to make sure Tampa and Tampa Bay is positioned well for people when they're thinking about a convention or place to go for vacation. My team's responsibility is to make sure we're getting coverage for Tampa either from publicity or articles written about the destination in meeting publications or consumer publications.
So if a travel writer came here and wrote something bad about our fair city, would you visit him with your old softball bat?
Tempting, but probably not. We take the good with the bad and I think the true heart of the city is going to come through when writers visit us. It's actually pretty rare that we have something bad written about us. Our PR manager, Kelly Earnest, does a great job.
What's been the biggest challenge?
In a way, I feel like all of my jobs leading up to this prepared me for this job, but I have to say nothing could possibly prepare you. I've worked on a Super Bowl bid, a bid to host the Republican National Convention, a successful bid to bring the women's NCAA Final Four to town. Those are opportunities and experiences that you're probably not going to have before you get to this job.
You've learned a lot in two years. Do you see yourself being here for a while?
Every job that I had, I would stay for an average for two years, which I guess isn't rare these days. I'm sure that kills my dad, who has been at Sears for 40 years. It's the only job he's ever had. But I know Tampa is where I want to establish myself and have a great career. I would not choose to live or work anywhere else.
DESSERT: A postscript from Ernest
Brand says creativity is stressed in her job because her budget is significantly less than those of her in-state competitors, including St. Petersburg. While she commutes every day, her husband, Scott, designs Web sites and continues to work on his Yale dissertation. Like her brother, Brand earned a spot in the Florida Southern record book. But her record for most walks in a season (33) was broken by Tampa freshman Ashley Alpizar this year.
