By: Ed Jones

Bill McGowan has been awarded the ICVA Rose Award for Service Excellence, and has received the Sagamore of the Wabash from five different Indiana Governors among many other awards. Mr. McGowan belongs to many professional organizations. He has held the job that most students in the TCEM program dream of holding one day, President and CEO of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association. He held this position from 1984 to 2002 and is currently the Vice Chairman of the ICVA. I recently had the pleasure, and believe me, it was a pleasure to speak to Mr. McGowan about everything from life as CEO of the ICVA to the importance of the Indianapolis Colts.

Even though Mr. McGowan has a lot to brag about, he is a very humble man. Being a TCEM student, I wanted to know how he got to be President of the ICVA and he was quick to tell me that he does not want to sound like he is bragging about his accomplishments.

Oddly enough Mr. McGowan did not start in the tourism industry. He graduated from Notre Dame with a B.S. in Business Administration and started in the banking industry. He became very successful in banking. The ICVA position was achieved by being active in the community and a member of many different organizations. He did not actively seek to be the President of the ICVA and was not quite sure that he wanted to be the President when he was asked; however, he has no regrets.

Mr. McGowan had many accomplishments as the President of the ICVA. During his watch, the Convention Center went from 100,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet and Conseco Field House gave Indianapolis a world-class event center. He was on the first committee to bring the NCAA Final Four to Indianapolis in 1991. Since then Indianapolis has hosted the Final Four in 1997, 2000, and will host it again in 2006. I asked Mr. McGowan what it takes to bring an event like the Final Four to Indianapolis. The answer he gave me was the common theme throughout the entire conversation: “Always go above and beyond their expectations.” He mentioned that by doing simple things, like offering twelve fax machines when they only request ten, just to offer a little extra.

I talked to Mr. McGowan about what he liked most about his job, and it was not meeting local celebrities or traveling the country to different meeting and conventions; it was satisfying customers. To Mr. McGowan the best thing about his job is when groups are satisfied with their convention and come back the following year. Examples of Indianapolis going above and beyond is when the Big Ten Tournament was here and the city put up street signs of the visiting teams. For Mr. McGowan, one of his personal favorite moments as President of the ICVA was bringing the Final Four to Indianapolis because he is a basketball fan.

Indianapolis has a lot of strengths to go along with the go above and beyond attitude. One of the greatest assets of Indianapolis is its central location and convenient airport. According to Mr. McGowan it truly impresses clients when they are picked up from the airport and downtown in just ten minutes. Due to the current state of world safety, travelers to Indianapolis have felt secure. Very little affect occurred in the convention business. Many other cities are suffering a great deal according to Mr. McGowan, but Indianapolis was one of the only cities to not have their conventions cancel the week of 9/11. The biggest challenge Indianapolis has is a perception problem. Many people do not realize how much fun Indianapolis can be. An area that helps Indianapolis is the professional sports we have here in Indianapolis.

I asked Mr. McGowan if the city should try and hold on to the Colts and he convincingly stated that we have to. He believes that the city receives priceless advertising when the Pacers and Colts play on national television. Not only do the games sometimes air nationally, but the highlights are played on ESPN’s Sports Center in the evening and the scores are shown on many news channels throughout the night. It is the constant repetition of Indianapolis that can make people from around the country think Indianapolis. He believes that Peyton Manning does great work to promote the city through his endorsements and incredibly positive off-field image. He stated that many conventions judge the city as to whether or not they have a NFL franchise, and there are only 32 cities that have an NFL team. Therefore it is important for the city to keep the Colts for the city’s image. Mr. McGowan was there for the beginning of the Indianapolis Colts and continues his dedication to the city and tourism.

Recently Mr. McGowan was honored for his contributions to tourism through an endowed scholarship. More than $100,000 was raised to annually offer two students a $2,000 scholarship. Because of his incredible humbleness, Mr. McGowan tried to avoid using the word honor while talking about how the scholarship was started, but there is no way around it. This is truly a great honor to a man that has done a great deal for the community of Indianapolis. Because of the amount of time he spent on the road, his wife also had to make many sacrifices and he stated that he wanted his wife’s name, Joan, on the scholarship to honor her. Mr. McGowan hopes that this will lead to other scholarship opportunities for the TCEM department. With the scholarship being an endowed scholarship, students fifty years from now will benefit from the hard work that Mr. McGowan did for Indianapolis.

I highly recommend that all TCEM students make it a point to meet Mr. McGowan. He is a man that truly cares about the students at IUPUI and the future of tourism in Indianapolis. I asked him what advice he would like to give students just entering into the tourism industry,and he said “That it is a very exciting business with a great future and is the world’s largest industry. You must exceed customer expectations and if you work hard people will come back.” He also stated that “Hospitality is a total team effort that starts at the airport when people arrive. The streets must be clean and all members of the service industry including the police must serve the visitors beyond their expectations.” It was a pleasure speaking to Mr. McGowan. It is quite motivating to hear him speak about how Indianapolis has grown and the future that is yet to come. I believe that the positive affect he has had on Indianapolis will be an influence on the future of Indianapolis tourism for years to come.

The Future of the TCEM Department
By Josh Aspenson

These days tourism is one of the world’s largest industries. This growth is a direct reflection of the growing demand in the tourism industry, as well as, the many opportunities for upward mobility that are within the tourism industry. Large growth in businesses such as airlines, car rentals, hotels, and restaurants, offer many opportunities for getting involved in the tourism industry.

With tourism on the rise, the future of the TCEM Department looks bright. Currently the TCEM Department has 168 students. The department hopes to be above 250 students in a couple of years. Also at this time, enrollment in the TCEM Department is growing at a steady rate of about 10 to 12 percent per semester. A large portion of students currently in the department are already a part of the tourism workforce, but regular growth seems to bring the arrival of new, inexperienced students. Although, with the departments anticipated growth, there becomes the need for more resources and department goals.

Dr. Sotiris Avgoustis, Department Chairman for Tourism, Conventions, and Event Management (effective 7/1/03) and P. Nicholas Kellum, Dean of the School of Physical Education and Tourism Management both have ambitious outlooks for the future of the TCEM Department. They both feel that the number 1 priority for the TCEM Department is to expand and improve the faculty. Improving the TCEM faculty will increase the ability to engage, teach, and keep students in the department. Recruiting and obtaining more students, along with expanding department awareness, are also other priorities for the TCEM Department. Although, this desired growth of students is highly dependent on the quality and size of faculty. Becoming more supported and involved with local industries is another large goal for the TCEM Department. Not only would this benefit the department financially, but it would better help the TCEM Department understand the current needs of the industry.

This involvement with the community would allow the department to strengthen its degree and quality of education, along with its faculty; all benefiting the student. The TCEM Department also has the desire to become more of a resource for the local industries, such as performing studies and surveys for tourism events. Such studies have taken place for the World Basketball Championships, the World Police and Fire games, and the Jazz Festival.

Indianapolis is a growing city and tourism has a big reason for a lot of this growth. Along with our variety of sports entertainment there are also other significant attractions in the city. Additions including museums, hotels, ethnic restaurants, and city festivals and events all provide for a prime area in the tourism industry. Dr. Avgoustis and Dean Kellum look forward to the future based on industry growth and department growth.