SMG Makes Management Changes
By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 6/14/2004
SMG has named Ron King the first general manager of the new Puerto Rico Convention Center. King, already in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was previously general manager of the Salt Palace Convention Center and South Towne Exposition Centre in Salt Lake City and Sandy, Utah.
At the same time, Allyson Jackson has been promoted from sales and marketing director at the Salt Lake City and Sandy facilities to general manager there.
The Puerto Rico Convention Center, now under construction, is slated to open in late 2005 with 152,700 square feet of exhibit space. King said the new facility would be the first dedicated, full-service convention center in the Caribbean, with all the amenities and services offered by other SMG facilities, including state-of-the-art wireless and fiber-optic services.
King is the new convention center's first employee, an exciting challenge for him.
"I've opened expanded facilities before," he said. "South Towne was new, but there I used staffers I knew. Here, I have to assemble a new staff for a new building from scratch, in a place where English is not the first language. But it's a great opportunity, and I feel very positive about it. It will give me the chance to do all the things I haven't been able to do yet at a convention center. And of course, living in the Caribbean is very appealing."
The new convention center, being constructed on the site of a former U.S. naval base, is part of a massive redevelopment project in San Juan. Ground will also be broken for a new Sheraton hotel by the end of this year.
