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Jay Burress
See, sooner or later everything in Dallas winds up in Arlington — even the folks who sell Dallas to tourists and convention-goers; “trading up,” I think it’s called. Notes the The Startelegram today, Jay Burress — currently the senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau — is heading due west to take the CEO gig for the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau. Burress is replacing the interim CEO, Fort Worth’s Doug Harman.
The 43-year-old Burress, who started at the DCVB 20 years ago as a project coordinator and moved through 11 different convention sales and tourism marketing positions there, tells Unfair Park today he officially take over June 2. And among the first orders of business will be finding out where Tom Hicks is with his $600-million Glorypark project. “I’ve seen the plans,” says Burress, “and it’ll be fantastic, if we can get it underway.” But, of course, prepping for the Super Bowl at Jerryworld will keep him especially busy between now and February 6, 2011.
“In my opinion, Arlington has the unique assets everyone in the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area shares, from the flagship theme park [Six Flags Over Texas] to major-league baseball to the new Dallas Cowboys stadium,” he says. “The Super Bowl will be our first shot having at the eyes of the world on Arlington and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and we have to be prepared for it. We have to be prepared for the visitors, the media and the exposure worldwide. I can’t think of a better time to jump in on the action.”
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Burress, who started at the DCVB right after graduating from Baylor in 1986, and his family will continue to live in Dallas, at least till the end of the school year; he’s got two kids in elementary school. He’s got till the end of ’08 to make the move westward. Which he will, of course, because, like I said, everything in Dallas moves to Arlington eventually.
“I guess I can say that now,” Burress says with a small chuckle. “But we’re all really just growing together.” Spoken like a true convention and visitors bureau pro. –Robert Wilonsky
