William Pate, CEO and President of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, joins Mark for a talk about Atlanta, the hospitality industry, and how social media helps them bring visitors to the city and frequenting their member businesses.  William has held positions leading Career Sports & Entertainment, Bellsouth, MCI and others.  He has won various awards including Atlanta Magazine's 2019 Most Influential Leaders and Georgia Trend's 2019 Notable Georgians.  The City has hosted the 2019 LIII Super Bowl, 2018 College Football Championship, the SEC Football Championship every December, and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl--among others.  In 2020, Atlanta will host the NCAA Final Four for Men's Basketball. 

Highlights of the talk:

1. 3:30, William talks about what the ACVB does...
2. 4:57: how did William's sports promotion background help him at the Bureau.
3. 11:50: When has Atlanta had to deal with negative news on social media?
4. 14:00: William talks about trolling his competitors to get ideas and how they watch conventioneers for feedback.  How does the ACVB attempt to attract folks to downtown on the weekend?
5. 21:30: Why does William NOT post much on social media?  Will he post more often?  How Mark lost this argument...!
6. 26:37: How important is a consistent frequency on social media?
7. 31:17: William talks about how certain businesses should use their "social media pulpit".
8. 36:54: How did Atlanta organizing 10,000 volunteers for the Super Bowl?  Congrats to Amy Patterson, VP of Operations of the Host Committee for making this happen.

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