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by R.V. Baugus

Poe returns to Dallas to help distinguish the city’s convention and meeting offerings from its competitors. Any edge that one destination city gets over another means additional thousands of dollars spent at hotels, restaurants, clubs, rental car agencies and more, so the importance of having someone like Poe who has earned the respect and admiration of his peers to guide such an effort is pretty much a no-brainer. Poe is also someone who deals well with change, an inevitable part of the business.

“I enjoy this industry because there is a lack of routine,” says Poe. “No one day is necessarily the same as the previous day. The only constancy is change. I like the variety and diversity of activities, challenges and opportunities.”

To borrow from an old television commercial, when Frank Poe speaks, people listen. But listen carefully, for Poe’s soothing voice comes across softly but confidently and his words are spoken in careful, well-thought-out tones. His is the calm in an often swirling tempest of an industry where the pace is fast and the stakes are high. His is the voice of reason, of assurance, of understanding and of leadership.

Driven To Excel
Those traits of being in control of any given situation came rather early to Poe since his education prepared him to be a teacher. Born in Bloomington, California, and raised in East Texas and the Dallas area, Poe attended East Texas State University (now Texas A&M-Commerce), where he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and history.

While attending college, Poe worked part-time at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium (a portion of the Dallas Convention Center complex) as a janitor and parking attendant. The hook had been set, and when the job market for educators proved iffy in the late 1970s, Poe took the bait and said goodbye to the world of books and hello to the world of bookings. He went on to become a payroll and accounts payable clerk and an event coordinator while at the DCC.

Poe left Dallas only briefly in 1979 to become the director of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, before returning (the first time) to Dallas in 1980 as manager of the convention center. 

Entrenched in Dallas, Poe’s career was clearly on the upswing. His professional growth skyrocketed at that time as local industry veterans like Jerry Barshop, Jack Beckman, Mike Garner and Wil Caudell provided counsel and support. By 1991, Poe had added the title of director of convention and event services to his portfolio. It also meant additional responsibilities as Poe added the Dallas Farmer’s Market, WRR (city-owned) Classical Radio, the office of cultural affairs and Reunion Arena to his duties.

Poe provided fiscal control of an annual budget in excess of $43 million and oversaw 158 employees. It was during this time that the City of Dallas and the Dallas Convention Center consistently ranked in the top three major convention cities in the United States. The meteoric rise continued when in 1994 Poe was  named director of the City of Dallas – event facilities/ cultural affairs. The responsibilities again grew as Poe controlled an annual budget in excess of $51 million and more than 300 employees, with management and administrative responsibilities for WRR, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Majestic Theater, Fair Park Music Hall and the South Dallas Cultural Center.

Serving so many customers can be daunting and even intimidating, but by this time Poe’s leadership cloth had been woven and he met his challenges with aplomb.

“I have always believed in openness, flexibility and a sense of fairness with an understanding that you don’t always possess the best ‘wisdom,’ and then being pliable enough to buy and support your customers’ goal or vision,” says Poe.

Poe admits that those same traits served him well at that time in working with political bodies and adds that “you also must be grounded in your belief of right/wrong/truth and know that all glory is fleeting.”

And he kept his sense of balance and perspective thanks to a quote from Don Carter, the first owner of the Dallas Mavericks: “Things are never as good or bad as they seem.”

But Things Are Good
It would be easy to imagine Poe never leaving Dallas, but in 1997 he pulled up his roots and moved to Birmingham, where he was named executive director and chief executive for the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Authority, which included the convention center and the 770-room Sheraton Birmingham Hotel.

It was a move that afforded Poe greater independence in a smaller market. Whereas in Dallas the convention center was run as part of a city department, in Birmingham Poe’s operation was under an independent authority.

“I was really stretched by the autonomy (in Birmingham),” says Poe. “In other words, the relationships with agencies were certainly present, yet the level of independence tested me to a level I had not experienced in the past. To that end there was a lot of self-reliance, of knowing whether you can meet the challenges associated with operating in an entrepreneurial environment.”

Poe says that the access to opportunities such as hotel/ office building management presented some interesting challenges as well. “Birmingham offered the focus of a board and staff to achieve the goal of being the best complex we could be within the resources available and to make an impact on our community,” he says.

Consider that impact felt as the convention center thrived under Poe’s management. In all, Poe provided direction to the convention complex, a state-of-the-art medical forum conference center and office building, a 19,000-seat arena and a 3,000- seat concert hall.

It was also during Poe’s time in Birmingham that he would become president of IAAM in 2000-01. Poe had been an IAAM member since 1979 and a natural to one day assume the mantle of president.

“I got so much out of my presidential year that I am not certain I could narrow it to a single item,” says Poe. “It was actually a difficult year for our Association. There was a leadership change at headquarters, questioning the wisdom of building our world headquarters office, the financial challenges, Foundation funding challenges and the role of IAAM on the world stage. All of these challenges were under my theme of setting new horizons … and I’m not sure I set any.”

In fact, Poe had set new horizons, and there were brilliant rainbows on the other side as he guided and steadied the ship during trying times. But as Poe was surrendering the presidential gavel to Lionel Dubay in July 2001, no one could be prepared for what would take place about 45 days later.

Finding That Role On The World Stage
On September 11, 2001, terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, crashing airplanes into both structures. All of a sudden there was a real and exposed vulnerability that was felt, and certainly it applied to the public assembly facility industry.

"Immediately following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States our members were anxious for information on what new controls and processes were being instituted and how their initiatives compared to others within the industry. We knew we had  to act quickly to meet their needs as well as the needs of our customers and therefore created the IAAM Safety and Security Task Force (SSTF) that was comprised of numerous representatives from industry associations and organizations. We also knew we needed someone with extraordinary tenacity and leadership abilities to chair the SSTF and considered Frank Poe the perfect choice,” says Dubay.

While the task force addressed issues relative to terrorist- type activities, it also reviewed security, safety, health and crisis management practices in general as they related to IAAM venues.

“This was important to establish IAAM as the premier association with the new Department of Homeland Security office,” says Poe. “We also established IAAM as the premier association for safety/security guidance among our sister organizations like IAEM, ASAE and PCMA.”

Poe helped oversee a press conference in November 1991 in San Diego during the International Crowd Management Conference that drew national media. As Best Practices were developed for venues, the SSTF would later evolve into IAAM’s Academy for Venue Safety and Security, which will be holding its second meeting in the summer. Yet another creation as an offshoot of the SSTF was the Center for Venue Management Studies.

Heeding The Call
It is now December 2004 and Frank Poe is back in Dallas, back to a facility where 25 years before he parked cars. While many things about the city and the facility are the same, there is also much that has changed. The facility has undergone numerous expansions to where it now juts out over a portion of the Reunion Arena parking lot. And the competition for business in the convention center industry is more intense than ever. 

Poe is back to compete for his piece of the pie. While he is confident the work will get done, in his understated fashion Poe prefers to call attention to others rather than himself. “I prefer to shy away from drawing attention,” he says. “I strive to support others in achieving their objectives and to the extent they see success, I consider that I have done my job.”

Yet through it all, through the turbulent and unsettling times, that steady resolve and clear voice you hear still belongs to Frank Poe. It is telling you to remain calm and that things will work out. And you trust and you believe, for the track record has proven itself.

R.V. Baugus is editor of Facility Manager magazine.

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