The president and CEO of Events DC manages five of the District’s most prolific venues, including Nationals Park and the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The convention center hosted Chuck Brown’s memorial service on short notice. How’d you do it?
We do many events that get planned years in advance. But this event was different because we didn’t have a traditional client like a meeting planner, and sometimes, that lack of a formal structure makes it a little more challenging. The good news is that we had done several memorial services this year, and we had familiarity with the family, so really it was a matter of someone making the decision that it was going to be at the convention center.
How much notice did you have?
About a week
You run a lot of complex events that seem to go off without a hitch. When you wake up the morning of one of those events, what’s going through your head?
Oddly enough, at that point the heavy lifting is done for our team. We spend a tremendous amount of time planning so that we’re not nervous on game day.
Since you run popular events through your job, what do you do for fun?
There’s a lot of overlap in my job in terms of personal and professional, but I’m a huge sports fan. I play as much basketball and golf as my body will permit. I’m also becoming a foodie, and that’s attributed to the restaurants we have downtown. I live downtown, and I love being downtown and enjoying the city.
As an up-and-coming foodie, where do you recommend for dinner?
I’ve been frequenting the whole 14th Street corridor recently.
What’s the trajectory of Events DC?
The sky is the limit. You’ve got a lot of amenities coming into play that we’ve never had before.
— Alan Blinder
