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If you want to throw a party that people will never forget, Hendersonville resident Rhonda Marko is the person to make it happen. I’m talking about blocking off First Avenue in Nashville, dancing at Riverfront Park to a live band playing on a barge floating in the Cumberland River, eating, drinking and dancing at the Wildhorse Saloon, B.B. King’s Blues Club and Coyote Ugly with all your friends kind of party. I’m talking about having dinner on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium or in the Ring of Honor at the Country Music Hall of Fame, or renting the entire General Jackson Showboat kind of party. I’m talking about an event you will never forget.
 Marko provides these types of events for her clients through her event specialist and destination management company, Destination Nashville. And she does it quite well as noted by her recently winning a 2012 Women of Influence honor given by the Nashville Business Journal. Marko was the nominee chosen by all six judges making her the only finalist named in the CEO or President category and the winner in her category.
“I am very honored by this nomination,” Marko said in a recent interview. “From what I understand, six judges review the nominations and choose a finalist. At the upcoming luncheon a winner is chosen from all of the finalists. All six judges chose me as the finalist. What an honor.”
This year’s group of honorees were nominated in nine categories by their peers and reviewed by a six-person panel of judges as deserving recognition for their leadership and contributions to the community. They will be profiled in the Feb. 10 edition of the Nashville Business Journal and will be honored during a Feb. 9 luncheon.
Destination Nashville, a Nashville based destination management company is a professional services company possessing extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources, specializing in the design and implementation of events, activities, tours, transportation, team building, program logistics and much more. Destination management firms like Marko’s work with clients to help them achieve their business goals and objectives for meetings, events and conventions. Most of Destination Nashville’s clients are corporations or associations who are holding meetings or conventions in Nashville. Since the client is usually based somewhere else, they need a local company to make the arrangements and produce their program.
“We work with our clients to determine their meeting goals and objectives, make suggestions to help them reach those goals creatively and, ultimately, make the necessary arrangements to make it all happen successfully,” Marko said.
Marko has a unique approach to people and destination management and a vision for Destination Nashville to be a dynamic company that combines extraordinary creative ability with careful attention to detail. Her early career includes hotel convention services coupled with nine years with three of the country’s leading Destination Management companies. After being “reorganized” out of a job in 1994, she was encouraged to start Destination Nashville by members of the local hospitality community.
“I took $5,000 out of savings and opened a business account,” she said. “My first $20 was spent for a business license and the next $1,000 was spent on a laser printer.”
“I started making phone calls and booked an event on my first day,” she recalled. “The first prospective customer I spoke with asked me to send collateral material. I didn’t have anything so my second phone call was to order brochure quality paper to be shipped to me overnight. I printed out my first brochure the next day and sent it out.”
That was 18 years ago. Presently, Destination Nashville is a $7 - $9 million company which employs 19 full-time and over 150 part-time employees and has operated profitably every year, without any outside lenders or investors since the original $5,000 investment.”
After starting Destination Nashville, Marko was unable to find computer software that accommodated the DMC segment of the Hospitality Industry so she took matters into her own hands. “I taught myself The Visual Basic programming language, and created my own signature DMC database, MarkoSoft,which I share at no cost with fellow DMCs,” she said. “Today, MarkoSoft remains one of the most highly regarded computer software programs for DMCs and is used by over 25 companies worldwide, to which many credit the success of their own businesses.”
 Home base for the company has been the corporate office in Goodlettsville. Seven years ago, Marko’s company won the contract as the preferred destination management company for Gaylord Opryland Resort requiring her to open a second location at the resort. Her contract with Gaylord was just renewed for another five years. She recently opened her third location downtown near the new Music City Center. Earlier this month, the Hilton Nashville Downtown Hotel and Nashville Union Station Hotel selected Destination Nashville as its preferred business partner to provide destination management services for its corporate and convention clients.
Marko, a Hendersonville resident since 1994, has utilized almost every dinner venue in Middle Tennessee, including all those mentioned earlier in this article. Did you hear about the massive events and receptions at Gaylord Opryland to celebrate the resort’s re-opening after suffering serious damage in the 2010 floods? That was Marko.
An avid supporter of continuing education, Marko holds her Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), Certified Meeting Manager (CMM) and Destination Management Certified Professional (DMCP) designations.
She may have been surpriswed by her most recent honor, but it isn’t because her success hasn’t already garnered many accolades and achievements, including:
§ 2009 Destination Management Professional of the Year by the Association of Destination Management Executives
§ 2008 President of Association of Destination Management Executives
§ Nashville business Journal’s list of “25 Largest Woman Owned Business in Nashville” – 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
§ APEX Commissioner of Transportation and Special Events – 2004 to 2010
§ Two Time Global Events Partners “Partner of the Year” 2008 & 1999
§ “Top 25 Destination Management Companies” by Special Event Magazine – 2007, 2006, 2005, &2004
§ Certified Woman Owned Business through WBENC – 2004 to Present
§ Named “Nashville’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council in 2007
§ DMC Network President 2005
§ Co-author of chapters on Pricing, Marketing and Risk Management in the second edition of the “Guide to Destination Management,” ADME textbook
§ Editor of the Convention Industry Council’s 8th edition Manual - Transportation Chapter
§ Nashville “Future 50” Company in 1998
Editor’s Note – I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rhonda Marko since 1999 when I joined Nashville SKAL, the local chapter of a worldwide hospitality and tourism professional organization. I’m proud of her accomplishments and thought I knew her pretty well. I learned much more about her while working on this article. I uncovered the following paragraph, written by Rhonda, which tells me volumes about how she developed her work ethic and determination. It also calls for another interview. ~Randy Cline
”My first mentor(s) started early - my parents who are both holocaust survivors. They arrived at the United States through Ellis Island in 1949, with little but the clothes on their backs. Through a “you can achieve anything you really want attitude,” hard work and perseverance, they founded a small construction business that grew to a successful business that lives on today.”
by Randy Cline |
