The 2023 El Dorado County Tourism Summit provided attendees with the latest in tourism trends, social media strategies and changes, customer service tips, crisis communication, and the importance of having your head, heart, and gut aligned in your business. We’re thrilled to have featured the following speakers who represented the highest caliber in their fields.
2023 Presentations
Lynn Carpenter
Vice President of Marketing for Visit California
Lynn oversees all of Visit California’s marketing, including advertising, cooperative promotions, travel trade, web and interactive, and publications.
Lynn steers a marketing budget that has grown from $6 million in 2006 to $131 million today. Under her leadership, Visit California has marketed the state as a place of abundance and opportunity. Lynn has added international offices in China, Mexico, and South Korea – among others – to Visit California’s portfolio, spreading the state’s brand around the globe to grow California’s share of tourism revenues.
Lynn has more than 20 years of professional marketing experience and extensive knowledge of online technology promotions and brand development. She began her career in the technology industry, serving as Vice President of Marketing at Netscape Communications and AOL Time Warner. She crossed the threshold into the travel industry as Executive Director of Marketing and Sales for Mammoth Mountain Resort.
She is a resident of Loomis, where she lives with her husband and two children. They enjoy spending their time outdoors.
Tina Reynolds
President/Founder, Uptown Studios
Holder of the “Big Picture,” Tina brings her extensive design career and connections to this project. Since 1976, Tina has been creating marketing materials that promote behavior change through practices of social marketing and Human-Centered Design. Tina started Uptown Studios in 1992, and she is responsible for all aspects of running it.
In addition to Tina’s extensive experience running Uptown Studios, she has also positioned herself as a great community collaborator. She knows the communities, individuals, and leaders who make great things happen throughout the Sacramento region and is an expert at identifying teams and opportunities for groups to collaborate.
Sandra Hess
Director, Calaveras Winegrape Alliance
Sandra Hess is the director of the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance, an education and marketing association supporting the Calaveras family-run wine region since 1989. She grew up in Arnold and returned to Murphys about four years ago to make this area her forever home. She enjoys exploring the great outdoors, is a mother of two, and Benjamin’s grammy.
Sandra serves on the CVB board and is also the founder of DTC Wine Workshops Consulting Agency. She’s a frequent speaker on direct wine sales best practices at wine industry events across the globe.
Sandra is the past president of Women for WineSense Napa Sonoma. She is considered a thought leader in the direct-to-consumer winery space, has built an award-winning consulting agency and has developed proven methodologies over the past 10 years. Featured in Forbes, Wine Business Monthly, Wines & Vines, Wine Industry Advisor, Wine Industry Network, Market Watch, Silicon Valley Bank on Wine and Regional Winery Association Publications, she is considered a trusted advisor.
Lisa Page
Vice President Communications and Public Relations, Sutter Health
As Sutter Health’s Vice President of Communications and Public Relations, Lisa oversees internal, external, and executive communications for the not-for-profit integrated healthcare system based in Northern California. She collaborates closely with public affairs to promote and guide the organization’s reputation among important stakeholders, including our patients and the community.
Lisa joined Sutter Health in early 2017 from Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm, where she was a senior vice president and oversaw public affairs and crisis management work for numerous public and private sector clients. She counseled several executives through high-profile, high-stakes corporate announcements, consumer recalls, and litigation. While at Edelman, she received the Edelman Culture Award for her “Relentless Pursuit of Excellence” and was named a “40 under 40” winner by the Sacramento Business Journal.
Before that, she served as chief deputy press secretary and deputy communications director for former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, where she was a regular media spokesperson and strategist. She led the state’s communications response through several wildfires and natural disasters.
Jill Osur
Founder and CEO, Teneral Cellars
A former UC Berkeley softball player, Jill Osur still draws on her athletic background to hone her leadership style and overcome obstacles. Deeply moved to elevate women and inspire meaningful change, her values have guided her career—first as a savvy political fundraiser, then in marketing with Special Olympics Northern California & Nevada, and now, as an entrepreneur.
Jill has helped launch numerous consumer product companies and ventures focused on “doing well by doing good.” Previously the co-founder and director of California-based winery group GL Enterprises, Jill founded a digital winery, Teneral Cellars, in 2020. Teneral Cellars is driven by Jill’s belief that wine can be a conduit for change, a force for gender equity and social justice within the wine industry and our culture at large.
Jill is a captivating public speaker who helps female executives and entrepreneurs learn how to strengthen their leadership by tapping into the “head, heart, and gut.” As said by one attendee, Jill “puts a firecracker in the room” with her energizing, moving presence. A champion of female power, Jill coaches audiences and clients to embrace their brilliance, leverage full-capacity thinking, and show up in alignment with their authentic selves.
Jill is a member of the Governor’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Mobility Taskforce, Women Presidents’ Organization, C-Sweet, was a founding board member of the John F. Kennedy University Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and is a current advisory board member for Enterprising Women, Women Business Collaborative, and Hilinski’s Hope Foundation board member, which provides integrative mental wellness programs for student-athletes.
Jody Franklin
Executive Director of Tourism, El Dorado County Visitors Authority
With 15 years of success in the tourism industry as well as 20 years as an entrepreneur, Jody has a proven track record in the dynamic landscape of destination marketing and leadership skills.
Under her leadership, El Dorado County Visitors Authority has seen a huge growth in both its marketing programs and community support. She has developed and implemented several collaborative programs, created & organized events designed to increase off-season room nights, and cultivated and maintained positive relationships with community leaders, industry partners, and city and county officials.
Jody has also expanded strategic alliances and assumed a leadership role on the rural marketing committee of Visit California and the Gold Country Visitors Association.