Joan Cumming, Los Angeles, CA
Associate
Joan Cumming recently became Director of Marketing at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. Joan Cumming was the Vice President, Marketing and Communications, for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association until July 2007. She oversaw all advertising, marketing, public relations, retail operations and media development for the LA Philharmonic, which presents over 170 concerts at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and over 70 concerts and presentations each summer at the Hollywood Bowl. During her tenure with the Philharmonic (which began in 2000) Ms. Cumming was responsible for all of the communications, public relations, and tickets sales for the 2003 opening of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. She was instrumental in increasing ticket sales at the Hollywood Bowl over 40% since 1999-2000, and overseeing an increase in revenue for winter season Philharmonic sales of over 100%. Ms. Cumming worked as the Managing Director for LaPlaca Cohen, a branding and strategic planning agency specializing in the performing and fine arts. While with LaPlaca Cohen, she helped to develop marketing plans for The Joyce Theatre, The Art Institute of Chicago and the New York Philharmonic as well as organizational strategic plans for the Nashville Symphony, Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA and City Center in New York. Ms. Cumming has worked as the Director of Marketing for the Los Angeles Opera and as the Associate Director of Marketing for Boston Ballet as well as Executive Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Chamber Music Society of Rhode Island. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitor's Bureau and on the Board of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras.
David George, Compton, CA
Associate
David George and his wife Hyra were partners and owners of George and Goldberg Design Associates (now G&G Design), a design and custom fabrication company that creates themed theatrical environments for the entertainment and display industries. They specialize in finding solutions for projects with unique requirements, working from initial conception through finished product. They also are partners in the production company Millrock that produces shows in conjunction with G & G Design.
Both companies, formed by David and Hyra in 1988, employ a staff of over 60 designers, artists and craftsmen on a four-acre campus based in southern California. Projects are diverse and widely dispersed and incorporate structural design and fabrication techniques that are developed to address unique, one of a kind situations. International projects that they produced and/or designed include Boeing Press and Technology Summits (London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, Abu Dhabi and Madrid), Pepsi W2K Millennium Concert (Bombay), Nagano Winter Games (Japan), Yanni Concert Videos (Beijing, Taj Mahal), Volkswagen (Berlin).
Nationally their projects include interactive events, shows, displays and exhibits for WDI, Sonicare, Epcot Center, The Super Bowl, The Getty Center, Mattel and the World Wrestling Federation as well as the design of special events for Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Neil Diamond, Ricky Lee Jones, Yanni and Neil Young. David and Hyra are Executive Producers for the one-man comedy show Straight Up With A Twist, by Paul Stroili and have just completed producing a tour with John Cleese on the west coast.
David is a member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and was nominated for an Emmy award in 1995 for his design of Barbra Streisand's Television Special.
Christina Pappas, Boston, MA
Associate
Christina Pappas is founder of Open the Door, a company which works with travel, tourism and cultural industries on sales, marketing, communications and public relations. With almost twenty year's experience, her background covers a solid career in the hospitality industry - holding the position of Director of Marketing for both the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and the Massachusetts Port Authority. Over the past six years, she has provided marketing, communications, public relations and/or strategic planning services for the Boston Children's Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, the French Library and Cultural Center, and Smart Destinations, a visitor pass program featured by San Francisco, Chicago and Boston.
Chris also works to develop partnerships between cultural organizations, cities and towns to increase visitation and visibility for cultural attractions. Most recently, for the Town of Provincetown, MA and the City of Salem, MA, she developed a strategic plan that identified ways to maximize the resources of the area to increase visitation year-round. She also identified ways for the region's cultural institutions to work more closely with the tourism industry and leverage resources. Both projects required a significant amount of work within the community, speaking with key stakeholders and other organizations in the region to determine the best course of action for both communities.
As Director of International Marketing at the Massachusetts Port Authority, she created and oversaw a cultural tourism position in conjunction with New England Foundation for Arts and the six New England state Cultural Councils. This position was created to help leverage the resources of the region and assist in increasing visitation to performing institutions, as well as museums, festivals, historic homes and other cultural facilities throughout New England.
Chris currently serves as Chair of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities, an advocacy organization for theatres, presenters, museums, and other cultural organizations in the Commonwealth. She also has served on the board of the Travel Industry Association of America and is a member of TIA, Skal, Professional Convention Management Association, Meeting Professionals International, the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, and North America Travel Journalists and the Public Relations Society of America.