Black Meetings & Tourism presented their yearly Apex Awards for Distinguished Service during the highly successful 8th Annual Travel Professionals of Color (TPOC) Conference at the Sheraton Nassau Beach Hotel in April. The Awards are annually presented by BM&T magazine to a select number of individuals who have made outstanding contributions in their particular fields of endeavor that have positively impacted travel and tourism.
This year’s recipients included: Elliot Ferguson, president & CEO of Destination DC; Hank Harris, president, CEO and founder of the National |Black Tourism Bureau and the Gulf Coast African American Visitors Bureau; Velma R. Hart, ASAE Board of Directors chair; Anita Johnson-Patty, GM of communications for the U.S. for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism; Michael D. Munn, chief of staff and director of Business Development for the Boston Convention and Marketing Center; Gary C. Sain, president and CE of the Orlando/Orange County CVB; Premier Ewart F. Brown, MP, of Bermuda; David Bradley, director of Convention Sales at Valley Forge CVB; George J. Brice, vice president of the Nassau Paradise Island Promotion Board; Marcia Bullock, regional director of Groups and Conventions, Worldwide for the Jamaica Tourist Board; and Hazel Adele Simonette Herndon, director of Protocol Hospitality and PR for the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago.
Special presenter Commissioner Tiffany Moore Russell presented the award to Sain, while Frenzella Pertilla and Jerry Butler served as mistress and master of ceremonies. Pertilla is CEO and chief marketing strategist for Global Business Developers and Research Institute, and Butler is Caribbean executive director at the Inter-American Development Bank. Also participating was special guest Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, Minister of Tourism and Aviation for The Bahamas (a past Apex Award recipient himself), and Carole H. Williams, president, CEO and chief creative officer of Carol H. Williams Advertising, who also cosponsored the Apex Awards Dinner.