The South Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau’s new CEO Phil Taillon hopes to get Lake County to think bigger and change perceptions about the Region.
The Hammond-based SSCVA, which is responsible for driving tourism to Indiana’s second most populous county along the shores of Lake Michigan, tapped Taillon to succeed former Crown Point Mayor David Uran as CEO.
Taillon, Hammond’s chief of staff and former assistant vice president at First Midwest Bank, is tasked with steering Lake County’s $1 billion a year tourism industry.
“Overall, I want to think bigger for Lake County,” he said. “We’ve long been defined by other people’s perceptions of us. We have to change that and decide what we want to be in the future.”
The community for instance can capitalize more on the recent elevation of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to the Indiana Dunes National Park.
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“There are so many grants and opportunities for additional dollars in the parks system. We have to try to get as many of those dollars as we can,” he said. “The Indiana Dunes draws around 4.5 million people a year and is one of the state’s top attractions. When people are coming here to visit the dunes, they stay overnight, go to restaurants and small businesses and we need to capitalize off that traffic. It’s a financial opportunity.”
Taillon said he is coming to the position without an agenda and will set goals as soon as he gets in and has time to do an assessment.
“As soon as I get in there, I will evaluate where we’re at as an organization and a team,” he said. “I want to have the right team in place for the future. I want to start looking at our brand. We’re the marketing arm for Lake County. We need to understand who we are, what we’re good at, the challenges we have and where we want to be in the future. I want to think big about new initiatives and programs for the future of Lake County.”
Taillon, who was the runner-up when Uran was hired to replace longtime SSCVA CEO Speros Batistatos, said it’s the only job he’s applied for in 25 years, having been recruited or promoted into his other roles.
“I’ve always been interested in being involved at a high level in Northwest Indiana. Previously, it was just with the city of Hammond,” he said. “My energy, my creativity, my collaboration skills and my huge network of colleagues and in some cases friends have put me in a great position to be successful in this particular role. I’m a high-energy, people-oriented person who can bring people together and get things done. I always thought my strength were specialized to align with those organization.”
He views the SSCVA as a unifying force in Lake County. He thinks it can partners with organizations to the Northwest Indiana Forum, Regional Development Authority and Northwest Indiana Realtors Association to move Lake County forward.
“We can have a large impact on Lake County,” he said.
The SSCVA for instance can take a leadership role in bringing a convention center that would benefit all of Lake County, Taillon said.
“We can work with elected officials in all the communities to move this very important initiative forward,” he said. “It would be the most important project in this area in many years and affect every single community in Northwest Indiana. It would draw people from all over the Midwest and Chicago specifically.”
A 125,000-square-foot to 200,000-square-foot convention center would have the potential to bring back some of tourism business lost when the Radisson at Star Plaza closed and be “10 times as large,” he said.
“The tourism it would create would be beyond anything we currently have to offer,” he said. “We have some amazing attractions and they would benefit from an event center of this size. It would create a prime opportunity.”
An independent group would run the convention center, but the SSCVA could help book conventions, conferences, expos and other gatherings. Taillon said he’d be open to consumer-oriented events for the local market like car or boat shows.
“We need to look at any and all opportunities to make that space a success,” he said.
Taillon will start on June 10 and then take a deep dive into how the SSCVA now operates. He plans to meet with all the staff, elected officials and other stakeholders before deciding on a direction to pursue.
“I think overall we’re doing really well, especially since COVID,” he said. We came back in Indiana before Chicagoland and we’re able to accommodate visitors and sporting events Chicago couldn’t. Our occupancy rates have grown in our hotels and we have more hotel rooms in the area. We’re doing a pretty good job but there’s lot of opportunity. Tourism creates jobs and brings money that recirculates over and over in the economy. Tourism contributes to the success of an area. Some people who buy houses here often first come to visit because of an event or attraction. It’s integral for adding population in the future. We also need to add attractions to help with younger people who finish degrees here and move away. We need to get younger generations to like and work here.”
The SSCVA needs to work with communities to draw more visitors to facilities like the Hammond Sportsplex and the sports facilities in Crown Point, he said.
“We’ve had a lot of success with whatever facilities we’ve built,” he said. “There are opportunities for growth. We need to work with those communities and build off the current success. The demand is still out there.’
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