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Jerry PrestonJerry Preston is the President of the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, a position he assumed in 1996. Prior to moving to Flint, Preston was the President of the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. In Ann Arbor, Preston separated the Bureau from the Chamber creating a new entity serving all of Washtenaw County. By working with the hospitality industry throughout the county, focusing efforts on the attraction of overnight visitors, the county's hospitality was the benefactor of a more than 10% increase of new dollars brought into the County. One of the events which will continue to generate this impact in 1995 is another football weekend. Preston and the staff at the Ann Arbor Bureau worked with the University of Michigan to obtain the Pigskin Classic which will attract another 100,000 visitors to the Ann Arbor this fall. Prior to Ann Arbor, Preston was the President of the Quincy, Illinois
Convention and Visitors Bureau, an organization he created in 1984. The
Quincy Bureau was responsible for promoting the City of Quincy and the
three counties adjacent to the City as a destination for overnight visitors.
During his tenure in Quincy, Preston, through the Bureau, created and marketed
such events as the World Free Fall Convention, which attracted some 3000
skydivers who set the existing world free fall record of 144 skydivers
in a diamond formation; the Masters International Shooting Championships,
which, along with several other shooting competitions has made the small
town of Barry, Illinois the shooting Capital of the World; and he developed
the relationship between Quincy and its sister City in Herford, Germany,
bringing several thousand relatives and decedents of
Preston created the Bureau when he was Executive Director of Uptown
Quincy Incorporated, a downtown development group which was responsible
for encouraging the development of a new Holiday Inn-Holidome in the Central
Business District across the street from the existing hotels. Preston also
created a special services taxing district to stabilize the funding of
Prior to work in the Public Service sector, Preston was the National Sales Manager for Harris Corporation, Broadcast Products Division, a world manufacturer of equipment for radio and television broadcasters. Preston also held various positions at RCA, and was involved in broadcasting in New Hampshire, New York, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Preston is a licensed commercial pilot, a certified broadcast engineer and holds certification in Bureau operations, Convention Marketing, and Sales and Marketing from the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus. Preston is the Master of Golden Rule Lodge #159 Free and Accepted Masons
of Ann Arbor, Member of the Board of Directors of the Washtenaw County
Chapter of the American Heart Association and serves as secretary of the
Board of
He is the Past President of the Illinois Tour and Travel Council; Past Chairman of the Illinois Regional Tourism Councils; Past President of the Illinois Council of Convention and Visitors Bureaus; Past Chairman of the Quincy Metropolitan Exhibition Hall, Auditorium, and Office Building Authority; Past Commissioner of the Quincy Park District; and Past Master of Herman Lodge #39 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. While in Illinois, Preston lived for fourteen years in a seventy foot house boat he designed and had constructed. The boat had nearly 2000 square feet of living space and was Preston's full time residence on the Mississippi River. |
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