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Join Chad Netherland from Gatlinburg CVB and Gray Destination Marketing for a behind-the-scenes look at how one destination transformed a single storytelling investment into an evergreen content strategy through long-form video, national distribution and strategic content repurposing. Learn how thinking like a publisher, not just an advertiser, can help destinations extend the life of every marketing dollar while creating authentic stories that inspire travelers long after a campaign ends.

Takeaways:

• Shift from an advertiser mindset to a publisher mindset.
• Build content that delivers value long after the paid campaign ends. 
• Maximize every storytelling investment through strategic distribution and repurposing.
• Measure success beyond impressions by creating lasting destination assets.

Every vendor claims to deliver the best performance, and every one of them has a deck that proves it. So how does a DMO know who's actually driving results?

This session walks through how to design an honest, head-to-head media test so you can evaluate partners based on performance instead of taking their word for it. It's practical, a little provocative and entirely on the side of the buyer. Best of all, you don't need to be a media buyer to use these principles. Whether you're a CEO, CMO, marketing manager or board member, you'll leave knowing the questions to ask and how to separate great storytelling from great performance.

Takeaways:

• A repeatable head-to-head testing blueprint you can apply with any vendor and at any budget level.
• How to identify attribution overlap and understand why two vendors can both claim to "win" the same campaign.
• A practical vendor audit checklist, including the questions every media partner should be prepared to answer.

The Matador AI Council is a forum for 50+ DMO CEOs to define AI leadership strategy through the lens of change management and organizational culture. This session begins with two Council members describing how they’re leading AI transformation across their organizations to drive new business outcomes. Then we’ll shift to a peer-to-peer roundtable conversation for participants to share their best practices for successfully implementing AI platforms and processes.  

Takeaways:

• How CEO and leadership AI fluency drive success more than anything.
• How agents increase the ROI for AI beyond micro-productivity hacks.
• How organization design is catching up to the technology.
• How to ensure governance overkill doesn’t suppress adoption.

This live, roundtable-style session brings the popular CMO Jam format to the ESTO stage. We'll tackle the most urgent challenges facing today’s tourism CMOs—sourced directly from the audience in advance and during the session. Expect candid conversation, tactical insight, and real-world examples. Attendees will walk away with peer-driven solutions, scalable strategies, and a pulse on what’s working across all destination sizes.

Takeaways:

• Proven Strategies From the Field: Learn what’s working (and what’s not) from real destination marketing leaders across the country.
• Solutions for Current Challenges: Walk away with relevant, peer-sourced insights on the most urgent issues facing marketers today.
• Scalable Ideas for Any DMO: Gain actionable takeaways that can be applied regardless of your destination’s size or structure.

Destination marketing works best when states and local DMOs are aligned — but in reality, competing priorities, funding structures, brand ownership and political dynamics often create friction behind the scenes.

This hybrid session will begin with a candid conversation exploring where collaboration actually works, what commonly breaks alignment and how destination organizations can better navigate shared goals around tourism growth, air service, major events, advocacy and destination positioning.

The second half of the session will shift into peer discussion at their tables, giving attendees the opportunity to openly share challenges, compare approaches and exchange practical strategies for building stronger state and local partnerships in increasingly complex environments.

Takeaways: 

• Identify the most common sources of tension between state and local destination organizations — and what causes alignment to break down
• Explore governance, funding and collaboration models that support stronger partnerships around branding, advocacy, air service and major events
• Exchange practical peer-driven strategies for building trust, clarifying roles and creating more effective long-term collaboration between state and local organizations