Live The Life
CLICK HERE to check out a great video of the wrestling event, which featured an estimated 4,000 athletes!
This event featured:
50 mats
323 teams
4,800 wrestlers
It has been a busy weekend at the VBCC!
CLICK HERE to check out the great coverage by Meetings Today writer Jeff Heilman. It ran both in print and online. Meetings Today magazine has 56,263 unique monthly visitors and a print circulation of 55,151.
Congratulations to Sports Marketing National Sales Manager, Dani Timm, for being named to the US Sports Congress Advisory Board. We are proud of Dani for being recognized as an sports tourism industry leader. Way to go, Dani!
When the CVB was invited to participate in a press conference in the lead up to the Memorial Day weekend, the PR Unit jumped at the chance to highlight our city as THE beach destination of choice for this huge travel weekend. In addition to sharing details about several major events scheduled across the city, Teresa Diaz, with the Communications Team, took the opportunity to announce the fantastic news that MSN.com ranked Virginia Beach at the top of the list for “Best Beach Destinations for Memorial Day Weekend.” Representatives from the AAA Richmond office, VDOT and the Virginia State Police shared safe driving tips and road construction/alternate route information during the press conference which took place at the New Kent Welcome Center early Wednesday morning and was covered by several Richmond news stations.
This past week, Brande Rumpf, Executive Assistant to the Director, was accepted into the Master’s Program for the annual International Association of Administrative Professional’s Leadership Summit, which will take place in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida this summer. The Master’s Program will consist of fifty professionals from across the world that will come together to collaborate, learn and network. The program creates unique opportunities in addition to reviewing case studies, participating in group discussions, and team based problem solving to challenge current knowledge into deeper understanding of issues that face administrative professionals.
Congratulations, Brande!!
City Manager, Dave Hansen, and the Joint Energy Committee set a city-wide goal to reduce the consumption of energy by 1% for FY16. The third quarter reports are in and the city as a whole has actually reduced energy usage by 1.9%, which is awesome news!
Even better, however, is that our CVB team has achieved the following reductions:
Electricity Usage (kWh) – reduced 6.9%
Natural Gas (Therms) – reduced 3.0%
These numbers are fiscal YTD thru March 2016, and show the amazing effort made by our team to conserve energy while at the VICs and VBCC.
Special shout-out to VBCC Sustainability Coordinator, Kimberlee Dobbins, who said it best: “We all have an impact – make it a positive one.”
Keep up the good work, everyone!
DCRT – Departmental Communications Representatives Team
Upcoming Member Conversations
July 28, 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm, Advanced Technology Center (ATC)
Anyone can attend as long as there is room, register through Karen Kephart
Topics to include Benefits Update for 2017
FY 16/17 Budget
On July 1, 2016 (effective June 22)
o Horizontal – $2.1M to about 3,000 employees (when senior employees with several years’ experience in their title are earning the same salaries as newly hired employees in the same title)
o Vertical – $850,000 to around 200 employees (when supervisor makes less money than those who report to them
On December 1, 2016
o All FT employees must receive an annual performance evaluation that “meets expectations” in calendar year 2016. No evaluation = no merit increase (until the evaluation is completed)
o Evaluations must be completed AND entered into InSITE no later than November 30, 2016
Misc Updates
We’re number one! CLICK HERE to check out the full list!
MSN.com receives 139,025,413 unique monthly visitors
Last week, former Virginia Governor, Doug Wilder, the first elected African-American governor in the United States, was inducted into the Virginia Legends Walk at the Virginia Beach Resort area. CVB Director, Brad Van Dommelen, took to the stage during the ceremony to congratulate the Governor on this wonderful achievement, and to speak to the importance of historical experiences such as the Virginia Legends Walk in regards to tourism in Virginia Beach, and the state of Virginia as a whole. By offering the opportunity to explore the great Virginians of both yesterday and today, free of charge, The Virginia Legends Walk aids in the efforts to ensure that everyone who visits Virginia Beach is able to do just that.
Check out some of the new additions to this local-favorite annual event!
* “Ramiro Amarelle Beach Soccer Camp” – first time in the USA for such. On the Oceanfront June 4-9. Amarelle is a beach soccer legend from Spain and the Captain of the FC Barcelona beach soccer team. You can google him to see all his heroics. He will be bring over 6 Barcelona clinicians; then stay on to play with his incoming team in the U.S. OPEN and also serve as the 2016 NASSC “guest celebrity”. Chance for local soccer kids to be mentored by the best in the sport! Hails from the same FC Barcelona club as superstars Messi, Neymar and Suarez…
* USA National Beach Soccer Team tryout June 4/5 Oceanfront – first-time event here, conducted by United States Soccer Federation (USSF); will be held adjacent to Ramiro Amarelle youth camp
* New U.S. OPEN international entries – in addition to FC Barcelona (who won the 2015 OPEN over local 3-time winners HRSC Elite), we have attracted the Costa Rican National Team, a professional entry from Meta, Colombia, Team Canada from Toronto and Team Pugg consisting of top athletes from several countries. Also, the Florida Beach Soccer FC Brazilian veterans who have won the OPEN twice…
– NASSC will stage a U.S. OPEN players welcoming reception on Thursday, June 9 at Peabody’s Night Club, during which the official “draw” will occur for placement in the several competitive brackets.
– Peabody’s will also serve as the viewing site Saturday evening for a “COPA AMERICA” professional match between the USA and Paraguay.
* New Title Sponsor! Our title sponsor this year is a civic and sports-minded consortium of four organizations led by Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group and including London Bridge Trading (LBT), Il Giardino Ristorante and 37 North Restaurant. LBT is also serving as the Presenting Sponsor of the U.S. OPEN.
* New NASSC Presenting Sponsor – the City of Virginia Beach has joined the NASSC as Presenting Sponsor of the Festival itself
* New video sport – thanks to Studio Center and Perfect Event Rentals, NASSC will feature first-time live video and streaming coverage of its “U.S. OPEN” pro division
* Shannon Lane, Miss Virginia 2015, will be with us, the 3rd consecutive Miss VA to participate as a celeb. While here, she’ll be speaking to the local Special Olympics group June 11 at 4 PM on the sand
* NASSC will again present its highly popular “SideKick” beach venues including coed football, lacrosse, sand hockey, wrestling, All-volley futbol and new attractions “Spikeball”, involving 2v2 competition using a mini-trampoline, and “Knockerball” (bubble soccer) coming to the U.S. from overseas
After 23 years of operation, the mission of NASSC remains that of:
– generating revenues to support the development and maintenance of the 75-acre privately operated “Hampton Roads Soccer Complex” in Va Beach; tournament volunteers come from the HRSC-affiliated soccer clubs of Beach FC, the Virginia Rush, the men’s Over-30 Soccer League and the Southeastern Virginia Women’s Soccer Assn
– provide youth and adult athletes the opportunity to enjoy a rapidly developing sport. NASSC remains the largest amateur and pro/am beach soccer festival in existence worldwide
– sport of beach soccer growing rapidly in the USA; when NASSC began in 1994, it was only one of two such competitions in existence. Now there are about 60+
Beach compared to grass soccer:
– faster paced overall; more akin to ice hockey
– more shots on goal: typically average 60 shots per match
– less dribbling due uneven sand surface
– usually played bare-footed; sand socks optional; nice if temps get toasty
– more aerial action – headers and “bicycle” kicks
– less chance for injuries.. sand more forgiving than grass
– more festive atmosphere; termed “salsa on the sand”
– sand viewed as the “great equalizer” in skill and endurance
– and finally, what’s not to like about surf, sun and sand with your soccer?