About

President and Owner: Karn B. Clark, CMP
Karn has been in the Hospitality industry for over thirty-five years (35), twenty-four (24) of those years have been as a DMC in the Tampa Bay area serving the local corporate and convention market.  Owner of BayArea Destination Management, Inc. Karn started her hospitality career in Minnesota where she was Director of Marketing for Jefferson Tours. After moving to Florida she took the position of Director of Group Travel for AAA Auto Club of South Florida.

 

Karn has served on the Board of the National Tour Association and Hospitality Committee, the State of Florida Division of Tourism Board for the National Tour Association Sightseeing Committee Mid-Florida 1995, the Hospitality Committee for Tampa Super Bowl 1991, the Planning Committee for the 3rd Annual Southeast Heritage Tourism Conference, Co-Chair for the TPA-MPI CMP Study Group for 3 years and is currently serving as a Board member of Tampa Bay and Company.

 

Karn has been a featured speaker at Travel South USA, American Bus Association, Suncoast Travel Industry Association, Alabama Hospitality and Tourism Conference, Louisiana Travel & Promotion Association, Travel Agents International, Action 6, Florida Division of Tourism, the Tampa Hillsborough Country Convention and Visitors Association, Women in Tourism, the Discovery Sun Coast, RCMA and Tampa Bay MPI.

Sales Manager: Kerri Shaw
Kerri brings with her over 12 years of Meetings/Events and Hospitality industry experience. Her dedication to customer service started with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in the Catering Department, soon moving into corporate sales. Her experience in catering, convention services and sales gave her the expertise and knowledge to move into the National Association Market with Hyatt Hotels and ultimately into individual travel sales where she connected with managers and meeting planners of major travel agencies. Kerri served on the local board of the Florida & Business Travel Association (FBTA) and planned monthly meetings and booked guest speakers.  From the hotel industry she moved into the meeting planning division at Price Waterhouse Coopers. Her background and experience provides her the right perspective and tools to understand the client’s needs and working within budget to attain their goals.

 

Our Team: Our key to success is our professional support staff, many of who have worked with us since we opened our doors in 1996.

 

Our Mission

BayArea Destination Management, Inc.’s mission is to always “go beyond Z”, which is to deliver more than what the client expects, in goods and in service; to always remember who the client is and to become each client’s “partner” in order to deliver the end product they desire at the budget required.

 

We deliver...

"...you were wonderful to work with during the pre-planning phase, as well as on-site, for IFPA's conference. Several times you extended yourself way beyond what was expected. The cigar boxes for our closing reception were wonderful, and I had rave reviews about the spouse tour as well.  I expressed my feelings about the stage. I look forward to working with you again." -- International Fresh Cut Produce

 

"I truly do not know where to begin to say thank you for everything you did to make the SGO 39th Annual Meeting such a huge success....your attention to EVERY detail not to mention staying within my budget for all of the events! From the second we started to work together; it was an instant working friendship - which, we both know is the best working relationship one can have.  Thank you for helping me take this meeting to the next level" -- Society Of International Gynecological Oncologists