NASHVILLE, TN — Deana Ivey, who has been with the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp for 21 years, has been elevated to the newly created position of Executive Vice President. She will retain the role of Chief Marketing Officer.
“Deana was both the logical choice and the perfect fit for this important new position,” said Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. “After 21 years, there isn’t anything she hasn’t seen or done within our organization. Her knowledge, experience, reputation and productivity are outstanding.”
The NCVC Board of Directors recommended creation of the position to assist Spyridon in overseeing and coordinating the organization’s sales and marketing efforts. As executive vice president, Ivey will more closely work with Spyridon in handling the growing demands on the organization as the city’s tourism and convention business continues to boom, visitation and hotel room sales keep setting records and more events come to Nashville. The city’s tourism industry is at an all-time high with 14.8 million visitors in FY 2018 and $6 billion in direct visitor spending.
“Working for this organization and promoting Nashville to the world as a destination is an honor and a privilege,” Ivey said. “I appreciate having the confidence of Butch and the board in taking on this expanded role and look forward to many more years of selling Music City.”
Ivey started with the NCVC as its first Director of International Marketing in 1997. In her role as Chief Marketing Officer, she oversees Advertising and Promotions, Research, Special Events, Strategic Partnerships, Creative Services, Visitor Services (including Digital Marketing/Social Media), Convention Services, Membership and Public Relations. She has also spent the last 15 years leading Nashville in branding itself around the world as Music City.
She has played a key role in several successful marketing initiatives, including being a part of the creation and production of Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th; Music City Midnight: New Year’s Eve in Nashville; Music City Walk of Fame; Music City Connection: Heroes Behind the Hits, a songwriter radio show on Sirius XM; and as one of the producers of two award-winning NCVC documentaries: For the Love of Music and It All Begins With A Song.
“A project particularly meaningful to me was co-creating Music City Keeps On Playin’ — a benefit concert and telethon for flood relief in 2010. It raised more than $2 million,” Ivey said. “It exemplified Nashville’s big heart in a time of crisis and how quickly this organization can respond to a need and make a difference.”
Before her work in Nashville, Ivey served the tourism industry in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tenn. for 10 years, including Executive Director at the Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce, which was a division of the Gatlinburg Visitors and Convention Bureau.
Ivey graduated with a Communications degree and a minor in Marketing from Western Kentucky University. She has undertaken graduate work at Chisholm Institute in Melbourne, Australia and at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She is a graduate of Leadership Music, 2015 and serves on the T.J. Martell Foundation Southern Region Board of Governors and the Rhythms of the South Board of Directors. The Nashville Business Journal named Ivey as a 2015 Women in Music City Award recipient, and Nashville Lifestyles included Ivey on their 2014 list of Women in Business.
