Gregory Thomas, 34, is national sales manager for Meet Boston. He's based in Denver. A quote from his nomination: "Greg is a complete go-getter. He comes up with and creates the most unique and engaging client events. It is hard to find a DMO salesperson who is personable, business savvy, and ahead of the curve in terms of customer service."
My career journey: "After receiving a personalized tour from a family friend of the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel in Chicago at 18 years old, I fell in love with the idea of working in hotels and the hospitality industry. I went back to Ohio State and switched my major to hospitality management, graduated, and moved back home to Toledo, Ohio, for a year while working at a local downtown hotel.
I quickly realized that if I wanted to get the most use out of my degree, I needed to be in a Tier 1 city. One of my best friends was living in Boston at the time, and I decided to go visit him to see if Boston would be a good fit for me. I obviously fell in love with the city and was lucky enough to land a job at The Westin Boston Seaport District. After six months, I found out about an open position with the Metro Market in Boston, which was a sales team responsible for selling the six (at the time) Starwood Hotels in downtown Boston. I started as an executive assistant to multiple managers and eventually worked my way up to being a sales manager handling multiple different markets.
Thomas' advice for his younger self? "This is a relationship business. Learn to build and foster strong relationships with your teammates, partners, and clients, and you will find success."Photo: Courtesy of Gregory Thomas
A little over three years later, and once the merger with Marriott was finalizing, I became aware of an open position at the Boston CVB handling the West Coast market. Realizing my desire to travel more, I decided to switch paths from hotel sales to destination sales where I have been with Meet Boston for the past six years and could not be happier."
What inspires me: "People. I love meeting new people. Everyone has their own unique stories and experiences, and I love hearing/learning about them. Also, exploring different cities. Every time I go to a new city, whether it's for work or pleasure, I always take time to explore as much of the city as I can. It not only gives me different perspectives and ideas to bring back to my city, but it also helps me learn more effective ways to sell against those cities for my job."
The advice I would give my younger self: "This is a relationship business. Learn to build and foster strong relationships with your teammates, partners, and clients, and you will find success."
Impressive stats I'm responsible for: "Bringing over 175,000 room nights to the city of Boston from West Coast planners/companies."
A time I averted a complete event disaster: "One year, I had back-to-back events to travel to: a trade show in Denver and a client event at the Rodeo in Houston. On the last day of the conference in Denver, we encountered a 'snowpocalypse' and almost every flight for the rest of the day was canceled. However, I needed to get to Houston that day, as my event was the following day and there was no chance of a refund, and I knew how excited my clients were for the Rodeo event.
I explored every option—planes, trains, and automobiles—in hopes of figuring out how I could get myself to Houston by morning so I could make the event. I eventually begged, cried, and pleaded to the airlines and was lucky enough to make it on the last flight out to Houston for the day before they shut down the airway. All but one partner, that were joining me in hosting the Rodeo, made it out of Denver with me, but we made it all work with what we had and the event went flawlessly."
