Meeting Services Inc.

Dennis Hoffman brings 20 years of design and planning experience to the Equinox Creative team. He is an artist at Program Design and Management. Whether he is negotiating hotel contracts or managing on-site operations, Dennis ensures that the details of every project are carefully planned and executed. His vast knowledge of global travel destinations and meeting facilities offers our customers a wide range of locations and support options. An industry veteran, Dennis is known throughout the industry for his creativity and imagination. For those who desire a unique and memorable experience, he is the rare professional who conjures up creative masterpieces for our guests. Dennis has worked with Fortune 500 companies worldwide, planning some of the most complex and unique programs in the industry. His clients have included General Motors, Smiths Medical, Stratasys, American Medical Systems, Retek, General Electric, GE Capital, AstraZeneca, Smith Kline Beecham, Dr Pepper, Case New Holland, AT&T, Dade Behring, and many, many others.

Ed joined the MSI team in 1984 as a driver and was quickly promoted to the house cable-taper at the Town & Country Hotel. Max Hall then advanced Ed to the Audio Visual Manager's position in 1985, where he stayed until 1991. Ed's next assignment was at MSI's flagship venue, The San Diego Convention Center, where he built on MSI's growing reputation as a first rate production company. In his current position as Director of Sales, Ed uses his considerable skills to guide the MSI brand throughout North America. Ed is also a consultant, helping corporate clients worldwide utilize technology to save time and improve productivity. In his 23 years as an innovator in the AV and production field, Ed has won many awards and become highly acclaimed for his ability to make complex systems work together within any budget. Ed has served on many hospitality industry association and bureau boards and remains one of the most visible advocates for our industry in the USA. In his off time Ed is a military aviation historian and a serious collector of WWII medals. Ed is married with one wife and two beautiful daughters.

Hector joined MSI in 1985 and has held a variety of senior management positions since. He's been the Director of AV Services at the Town & Country Resort for sixteen years. He held the same position at the Bahia Hotel and Catamaran Resort for MSI before heading to the T&C. Hector received his CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) certification in 1995 and has used these skills to grow his department into a model for the industry. Hector's aggressive training program has become the standard for our company with a number of his trainees having received awards for excellence. Many of Hector's hotel clients have become regulars with MSI all over North America...very unusual for a hotel AV operation. This speaks to Hector's insistence on quality equipment and staffing, which has led to extremely successful shows. Hector's been married to Angie for 17 years. He's the father of two, a twelve-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. They make their home in the Allied Gardens/Del Cerro area of San Diego. Hector enjoys chasing golf balls and eating international fusion cuisine. MSI recognizes Hector's twenty-one years of excellent service, which is almost unheard of these days. Unbelievable...thank you!

Matthew graduated from Michigan State University in 1989 and moved to Chicago, where he went to work for Sound & Stagecraft as an entry level AV technician to support and maintain his festive lifestyle.

Tom Bollard has worked in the live entertainment and television industry for twenty-five years as a designer and Technical Director/Production Manager. Trained as a technical director and scenic/lighting designer, Tom has compiled an impressive list of event credits in almost every area of the entertainment industry. Events such as the Super Bowl, the Indianapolis 500, the National Hockey League All-Star Game, the America's Cup, the Olympics, Major League Baseball's All-Star FanFest, The World Series, and mega-speakers events such as Insights and The Bakersfield Business Conference have benefited from Tom's artful design and professional management. Tom joined MSI in 1989 as part of the original San Diego Convention Center team. He developed and organized the first MSI Production Department and his leadership has guided MSI's transition from small audiovisual company to the full service production company it is today. Tom enjoys kayak fishing, mountain bike riding, pubs and his time with Habitat for Humanity and The American Red Cross. Tom has three semi-perfect children; Annie, Dylan and Grace.

Bob Solsbak has been involved in the audio/visual industry for over 20 years. He started out mixing live bands for jazz festivals (something he still does), which led to 8 years at Sea World running audio, video and lighting (4 of those years managing the department). After recording school he was the head engineer for a voice-over recording studio. His forays into technical theatre landed Bob in audio-visual sales and rentals, where he quickly rose to the position of District Manager for Matrix Visual Solutions' San Diego office. Bob joined MSI at the beginning of 2005, and in his current position as Logistics Manager, looks after labor, hiring, show staffing, trucking, and anything else that's thrown at him. No small feat when considering that MSI has over 120 full-time employees and dozens of freelance technicians. Also amazing is that in addition to keeping our staff scheduled, Bob coordinates all our North American trucking. Someone bring Bob a latte.

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John Lawler is the Lighting Department Manager for MSI. John was born and raised in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and attended the University if Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. John moved to San Diego in 2005 and dove into the theatre scene, helping re-open the North Park Theatre and working on productions at The Theatre In Old Town. He recently produced and directed his first play at the Sixth at Penn Theatre. John started out as a lighting technician with MSI but his talent was such that he was promoted almost immediately to the position of Lighting Department Supervisor in 2005. At the close of the 2006, he was promoted to Manager and wants to thank his peers and friends at MSI. John is a key part of the three-person departmental managers team and fully responsible for the success of all lighting operations for MSI. It is an exceedingly important position and everyone here is excited to have a professional of John Lawler's caliber guiding the lighting department.

Since joining MSI in 1996, Kendrik has continually provided the quality leadership that has defined our company. In his current position as the Senior Production Manager, Kendrik is responsible for the team that manages every project that MSI supports. He's also responsible for hiring and maintaining all MSI production managers and helped create, and now oversees, MSI's PM Training Program. Kendrik has years of event experience, working for a number of San Diego's premier production companies in a variety of rolls. As a graduate of the Chula Vista High School for Performing Arts, Kendrik has a love of theatre that has served him well. Because of his theatrical training, Kendrik brings an artful and polished eye to his work. His calm, professional approach to production has made him very popular with our clients as well as his staff and it's this ability to calmly move any project forward towards success that has become his trademark.

Steven has worked in the special event field since college, but it was in junior high school drama classes that he first discovered the pleasant challenge of the production business. Steven worked as a lighting and audio engineer and technician throughout high school and college at UCSD. His wide experience in the entertainment field with both the technical and artist relations portions of the business make him the first call in San Diego to represent both venues and promoters alike. Steven is the San Diego production candidate of choice for large special events and has recently taken charge of San Diego's Street Scene as its Director of Entertainment and Production. His extensive responsibilities at Street Scene include contract review and execution; artist advance; vendor negotiation and advance; event credentials; VIP and guest ticketing; event security; city negotiations; audio, video, and lighting design and implementation; overall event budget management; and operational staff supervision. Steven oversaw Street Scene's recent move from San Diego's Gaslamp District to its new home at Qualcomm Stadium. Steven began his comprehensive career in production on the student tech crew at UCSD, where he was a Political Science major at Revelle College. During his college career, Steven was the house sound engineer for the top concert venue, Iguanas, in Tijuana, Mexico and for the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California; he accompanied a local band as their house sound engineer for a five-week tour of U.S. military bases in Japan. His creativity, diligence, technological knowledge, and interpersonal skills easily awarded him the job as UCSD's University Events Production Manager and Technical Director immediately after graduation in 1993. During his 11-year tenure, he oversaw everything from President Bill Clinton's visit in June 1997 to punk rock shows in all of UCSD's 14 different venues. His responsibilities included annual event budgets, technical CAD drawings, security planning and event safety, contract negotiation, logistical planning and execution, interpretation and adaptation of applicable fire codes, technical crew staffing, general supervision and financial settlement. He also managed a year-round student internship program for production assistants and technicians, as well as over 40 stagehands and riggers. As part of Steven's efforts, he created a web-based special events planning directory and guide for the university that he is now marketing to others in the field. Steven's work with MSI began while in still in college, working around his study schedule. He began as a technician, moved on to be an engineer, and today he is a systems designer for some of MSI's largest projects. Steven has directed the design and soundscaping for Major League Baseball's All Star FanFest for ten years. He is now regularly requested as an audio engineer, project manager, rigger, CAD specialist, etc. by MSI's largest clients, all the while maintaining MSI's technical support and communication services. Steven is married and the proud father of an energetic toddler and a lovable chocolate Lab. He and his family reside in Oceanside, California where they enjoy spending their free time together. Steven's family looks forward to joining him on the road in the future, especially at FanFest.

In Doug's 25 years with MSI, he's worn a lot of hats. Hired in 1982 as an audio-visual technician, Doug was quickly promoted to Director of Audio Visual at the US Grant Hotel, where he earned a reputation for clean, efficient and very successful projects. Doug's leadership and artful management style made him an obvious choice to oversee new properties as MSI expanded its network of hotel operations in the late 1980's. He successfully built talented technical teams and outstanding AV departments at both the Omni and the Sheraton Grand Torrey Pines hotels. MSI's explosive growth in the early 1990's created the need for a more formal approach to managing the quality of services we were sending our clients, so in 1996 Doug was named Director of Quality Control for the entire company.

Lanny got his first taste of "Show-Business" as a part-time camera operator and studio gopher for a local television station in 1972 and joined the Navy two years later, where he spent his enlistment aboard the USS Jason as an Interior Communications Electrician. After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the service in 1978, Lanny was employed at a radio station in San Diego where he spent the next four years as a news writer, producer and assignment editor. From there he was off to Atlanta, where he landed a position as Media Specialist at Emory University Hospital. Then one night in the mid 1980's at a local pub, a new world of opportunities opened up before his bloodshot eyes. Two AV technicians came into the bar to set-up a 6' x 8' Screen, a classic Aqua Star CRT projector and a Tapco sound system. Outside, parked on the street, they set a three-meter KU band satellite dish. After all the heavy lifting was done, Lanny asked them if they were hiring, and to his surprise, they said yes a new career was born. That chance encounter in a bar led to nearly 8 years as an AV guy in both Atlanta and Orlando. Lanny returned to San Diego and joined the MSI team full-time in 1992, and the rest, as they say is history.

Terry Kronick, a past District Sales Manager for the Walt Disney Company for 10 years and 6 years in leisure travel, heads our leisure division and is a Destination Specialist for many areas of the world. She specializes in cruises, Disney vacations, family vacations, and honeymoons. Her vast travel experience allows her great knowledge to some of the world's wonderful destinations. Terry also works with Groups, Meeting Services and Special Events. She is well known and respected in her field. Terry has a degree in Business & Marketing.

In her capacity as Project Manager, Sandi will be coordinating the telecourse product line and assisting in the development, and implementation of marketing plans for Partners. Prior to joining the Partners staff, Sandi worked in the field of Human Resources for over 15 years. Her background includes project work for various companies in the industries of finance, Internet software, engineering, and consulting. She is currently the Administrator for the Westmoreland Human Resources Association, as well as a youth leader, treasurer, and board member for a non-profit organization in her community.