GREAT BEND CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
The Great Bend Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) is located inside the front of the Great Bend Events Center at 3111 10th Street. The CVB staff books and bids on big events and conventions for the Events Center and for Great Bend in general. The Events Center is designated as a Kansas Travel Information Center which partners with State Travel & Tourism, a resource for the State of Kansas tourism opportunities.
In 2021, the City opened the newly renovated back area as breakout rooms, extra office space and these breakout rooms have open wonderful doors of opportunity to new and bigger conferences for our area. In 2022, the front bathrooms were remodeled, a better security system put in place and for 2024 we will work on better lighting, new back area conference tables, and landscaping.
The Director of the CVB is Christina Hayes, she is also the Community coordinator for the City. CVB staff is located at the office in the Events Center and that includes Angie Hicks and Amanda Gaddis, Visitor Services Representatives; and Larami Parsons, Administrative Assistant is located at City Hall. The CVB is 100% funded by Transient Guest Tax from hotel stays, 1% of that Transient Guest Tax helps fund the Events Center building along with revenue from events held there. The CVB in coordination with the Great Bend City Council strive to make the Events Center a premier event location for our area to improve the quality of life for Great Bend residents!
The staff works to promote Great Bend in various ways. Hayes’ goals include getting Great Bend’s attractions, events, fun things to do and places to stay information out to a bigger audience in the state, recruitment of new conventions, tournaments and more meetings into town. They continue to provide a hospitality program for hotels, gas stations, businesses and doctors’ offices so the front lines of our community know what’s happening in town and they can promote a positive image to those visiting here. The Be Our Guest Academy officially started in January for Great Bend to help front lines with customer service and to know what great things we have here in Great Bend!
Every two years the CVB produces a new Visitor Guide for Great Bend, this is also distributed across the state to market and promote the Events Center as the premier location in this area, as they work to bring people to visit and move to our wonderful town!
CVB Board Members
Chairperson:
Allene Owen,
Vice Chair:
Mark Mingenback
Members:
Lacey Scholfield
Jan Westfall
Jolene Biggs
Kyle Walters
Krista Osborne
Toyia Roblyer
Cory & Katie Zimmerman
Chris Umphres
Curtis Wolf
Brooke Haulmark
Non-voting members:
Mayor Cody Schmidt
Interim Administrator – Logan Burns
Megan Barfield
Sara Hayden
Shawna Schafer
Christina Hayes