Vince Morabito Looks Back at Early Years of TEAMS Conference

As the TEAMS Conference & Expo turns 25 years old, we want to take a look back at some of the people that have made each event go as smoothly as it does — the ambassadors that you see helping direct traffic to events and also working in the exhibit halls and seemingly everywhere you turn. For a number of those who started out attending the TEAMS Conference while still in college, those experiences have given them entry into the industry.

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NAME: Vince Morabito, ambassador from 1999–2003

WHERE IS HE NOW: Morabito has been with Marriott for 20 years in various roles and currently serves as the area sales lead for Marriott Hotels of Maryland and Virginia. He started with Marriott in Northern Virginia out of graduate school, selling for about 20 hotels in the sports market and attributes his understanding of that segment of the business in part to attending TEAMS for five years. It’s his team’s responsibility to drive sales for the hotels, which includes working closely with sports organizations in the area to get their teams to stay at those hotels on the weekends when they’re in town for tournaments, especially at the Maryland SoccerPlex.

WHAT HE REMEMBERS AS AN AMBASSADOR: “I went to graduate school at George Washington University, under Lisa Delpy Neirotti, and I got my Masters of Tourism Administration there. While I was Lisa’s student, we went to Anaheim to attend TEAMS and that was back when it was in a ballroom because it was just beginning. Going to TEAMS exposed me to the networking opportunities that were there. I think what stood out to me the most was between my first TEAMS in Anaheim and my last one in New Orleans, the growth of the conference was amazing. And that just shows how successful the conference was — and still is today. The networking opportunities were priceless at that time because it was really the first of its type of event. It was centered around sports, but also provided an opportunity for networking between the hoteliers and the CVBs. And that’s really the first time in my career I saw that.”

HOW IT CHANGED HIS CAREER PATH: “TEAMS helped give me the knowledge of how to bring tournaments or sports events to your area. And learning how to do that was extremely valuable to me because that’s something I did when I was starting with Marriott, creating new business and new sports tournaments. That helped grow my career. TEAMS solidified and helped grow my knowledge on how to be better at what I wanted to do in my career and definitely put additional tools in my tool belt to do my job better.”

THE CONNECTIONS HE MADE: “I thought something that was unique about TEAMS — which is more common now, but then was first of its kind — was the ability to schedule appointments before the conference started with the customers that you’re trying to target and see. Conferences I’d been to previously, you were just standing in a booth and hoping for people to walk by. TEAMS made it a lot easier to sell to your stakeholders that are paying for your booth that you’re going have a guaranteed 10 appointments with 10 target customers. That was extremely valuable in providing an ROI. TEAMS was important in making some contacts, especially with CVBs in my area and in the surrounding area that I still keep in touch with for any questions that I might have for business that is coming into the area.”

HIS ADVICE TO NEW AMBASSADORS: “Network. Use the opportunity to network and expand your knowledge of how to create business. Because I feel that’s what it provided me. … Find common ground, whether it’s with customers or colleagues at the conference. What you’ll find there is a majority of the attendees have a passion for sports in one way or another and you can build rapport with those customers or colleagues through talking about sports. Find out what they’re passionate about and then learn about that passion. It’s a great icebreaker. Be able to not only have a conversation, but have a conversation out of your box and be curious to learn.”