BUSINESS SERVICES
CONVENTION/MEETING SITES, RANKED BY SQUARE FEET
Top 10 PHOENIX CONVENTION CENTER & VENUES 100 N. Third St., Suite 2A, Phoenix, 85004 // 602-2626225 // phoenixconventioncenter.com MEETING/ EXHIBIT SPACE 900,000 PRINCIPAL John Chan, director HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Kathryn Wenger, deputy director business services TALKING STICK RESORT ARENA 201 E. Jefferson St., Phoenix, 85004 // 602-379-2000 // talkingstickresortarena.com MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 600,000 PRINCIPAL Ralph Marchetta, senior vice president and general manager HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Maria Baier, senior vice president, communications and public affairs JW MARRIOTT DESERT RIDGE RESORT 5350 E. Marriott Drive, Phoenix, 85054 // 480-293-5000 // jwdesertridge.com MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 240,000 PRINCIPAL Steve Hart, area vice president HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Jennifer Martin, director of human resources; Yoko Hodges, director of finance THE WESTIN KIERLAND RESORT & SPA 6902 E. Greenway Parkway, Scottsdale, 85254 // 480-6241000 // kierlandresort.com MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 200,000 PRINCIPAL Bruce Lange, managing director HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Elizabeth Franzese, director of sales and marketing
PARADISE LOST, FOUND
PAIGE CABACUNGAN DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING BY GEORGANN YARA
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With an enviable life and a career she loved in Hawaii, Paige Cabacungan was living a dream. But the area director of sales and marketing at The Phoenician and Arizona Starwood Hotels & Resorts vividly recalls two days during the recession that felt far from idyllic. In 2007, Cabacungan’s job at a Maui hotel was to assist 20 newly laid-off employees transition from the working world into unemployment. She spent 45 minutes with each person, talking about medical coverage options, job agencies and answering questions from worried workers who didn’t know how they were going to feed their families. “It was very hard and very sad,” Cabacungan recalls. However, the Seattle native was able to turn that experience into an asset that has influenced how she now does her job. “It created more creativity and strategies about bringing business to the destination,” says Cabacungan, who has held her current position since 2015, when she moved to Arizona to work for The Phoenician. The venue itself makes her job easier. Cabacungan is eager to tout the resort’s amenities as well as the Valley’s restaurants, cultural scenes and unique destinations like Desert Botanical Garden. “There are so many options here
and it’s so much fun to expose people to them,” she says. Cabacungan’s interest in the industry was piqued while earning her economics degree at the University of Puget Sound. She interned with a company that was a vendor at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, and was hooked. “Everyone in the hospitality industry likes to help people,” she says. “That’s the core of what we do.” Cabacungan’s career took her to the islands when a destination management company recruited her. Cabacungan decided to reenter the hotel side of the industry in 2002. She joined Starwood in 2007, and rose through the ranks. The opportunity to work at The Phoenician lured her from the ocean to the desert. Cabacungan is the youngest of three children. Her father owned a heating and air conditioning company. Her mother owns a tour business. Cabacungan’s daughter is a student at Northern Arizona University. Some might question her decision to leave life in an island paradise for the dusty Southwest. But Cabacungan has no second thoughts. “I’ve really enjoyed Arizona and the people in Arizona,” she says. “I came with the lens that Hawaii had so much aloha that you were never going to find that again. But I have here.”
ARIZONA BILTMORE, A WALDORF ASTORIA RESORT 2400 E. Missouri Ave., Phoenix, 85016 // 602-955-6600 // arizonabiltmore.com MEETING/ EXHIBIT SPACE 200,000 PRINCIPAL AND HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Sheila Foley, general manager UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX STADIUM 1 Cardinals Dr., Glendale, 85305 // 623-433-7101 // universityofphoenixstadium.com MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 160,000 PRINCIPAL Peter Sullivan, general manager, regional vice president HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Melissa Wasson, assistant general manager THE PHOENICIAN 6000 E. Camelback Road, Scottsdale, 85251 // 480-941-8200 // thephoenician.com MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 160,000 PRINCIPAL Mark Vinciguerra, managing director, The Phoenician; area managing director, Starwood Arizona HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Paige Cabacungan, area director of sales and marketing, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Arizona FAIRMONT SCOTTSDALE PRINCESS 7575 E. Princess Drive, Scottsdale, 85255 // 480-585-4848 // fairmont.com/scottsdale MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 156,000 PRINCIPAL Jack Miller, general manager HIGHEST-RANKING WOMEN Pam Gilbert, director of sales and marketing; Rosemary Taylor, director of human resources ARIZONA GRAND RESORT & SPA 8000 S. Arizona Grand Parkway, Phoenix, 85044 // 480-438-9000 // arizonagrandresort.com MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 120,000 PRINCIPAL Paul Gray, general manager HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Kerry Feltenberg, director of catering and conference services THE SCOTTSDALE RESORT AT MCCORMICK RANCH 7700 E. McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale, 85258 // 480-991-9000 // thescottsdaleresort.com MEETING/EXHIBIT SPACE 60,000 PRINCIPAL Ken McKenzie, general manager HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Willow Jodar, director of human resources
WHO’S WHO IN BUSINESS // 2016
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