Reinders: What Vacation?
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 9/4/2006
Reint Reinders retired at the end of June after 15 years as president and CEO of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau.
He spent less than a month relaxing and vacationing, and then founded his own consulting firm.
It didn't take much time before Reint Reinders & Associates had its first client, advertising firm MeringCarson. Reinders and Dave Mering, the 21-year-old firm's CEO/creative director, have known each other for some time. They met through the California Travel & Tourism Commission, of which Reinders is a former commissioner and for which MeringCarson does advertising work.
"Obviously, I wouldn't do this for just anyone," Reinders said.
The Sacramento, Calif.-based agency in the last few months has established a Southern California presence, with a new office in San Diego-adjacent Oceanside.
"We hope Reint will help us communicate our brand to the business community in San Diego," Mering said. "I also am aware that, for our expanded office to be successful, we need to integrate ourselves into the community. It is our hope that Reint will help us expedite that process through his contacts and knowledge of the region."
Reinders said he would spend about 20 percent of the work week assisting MeringCarson from his San Diego home office.
That isn't all he has planned. "There are some hotel special deals that I've talked to some people about, (and) I've talked to a few of my friends in the CVB business."
Reinders and former San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau leader John Marks, who also retired this summer, shared a spot on MeetingNews' recent list of the 25 most influential people in the meetings industry.
Reinders said of himself, Marks and the soon-to-be-retired Bill Peepers of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, "We're all feeling much younger ... you feel like you're 50. We all enjoyed very much being president of a CVB."
However, he added, "You overstay your welcome at some point. (It's hard) to constantly do the right thing way above and beyond (the call of duty). Sometimes you have to take the plunge and do it."
David Peckinpaugh, a former chief marketing officer for the Cleveland-based Conferon Global Services, has replaced Reinders.
Reinders said it's good for bureaus to be "getting some fresh blood. Life should be about a lot of different experiences. It's good for the individual; it's good for the organization."
Reinders, 61, said his limited summer vacation was sufficient, considering that "when you live in San Diego, you live in a resort area anyway. I get up in the morning, I take a nice 45-minute walk, and it's like I'm on vacation."
