Newport rocks

Alicia Robinson

The latest addition to the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors

Bureau is a Midwestern import, and she isn’t sorry trading snow for

sun and sand.

As the bureau’s new corporate sales manager, Monica Smith, 30, has

a goal of attracting corporate meetings to Newport Beach. While her

position isn’t new, she’ll focus more on bringing in business from

outside California.

Smith relocated here in July from Cleveland, where her husband and

two sons are still living until they sell the family’s home. For now,

she’s renting a room from an Irvine family with children the same age

as her boys. Her husband, Andre, plans to study film in graduate

school in California.

In an effort to get to know the community’s selling points, Smith

has been sampling the best it has to offer -- dining out, going on

harbor cruises and visiting the beach.

“We saw two things that I said, ‘This would be awesome to sell,’”

Smith said. “One was Crystal Cove State Park. The other was Fashion

Island.”

Smith worked for a conference and visitors bureau in Cleveland,

she has a degree in hotel administration from Cornell University and

varied experience in hospitality sales for hotels and large

convention centers. That multifaceted experience set Smith apart from

other applicants for the corporate sales manager spot, said Marta

Hayden, executive director of the Newport Beach Conference and

Visitors Bureau.

“People would have the expertise in maybe one arena,” Hayden said.

“She knew the total package.”

Having worked in the hospitality industry, Smith said she already

has built up contacts that transfer to her new position. The

challenge of the job is balancing two sets of clients, the meeting

planners on one side and the businesses served by the bureau, she

said.

“In our business, it really is about developing relationships,”

Smith said. “We’re selling services that people don’t necessarily

see.”

People in Newport Beach have been very welcoming, Smith said, and

there are other benefits, too.

“I can’t get over the fact that it has not rained in the time that

I’ve been here,” she said. “The snow I can give up.”