[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Hi, and welcome to Inside Louisville, where we introduce you to the people, places and things that make up Kentucky's largest city.

This week, meet David Beck, CEO of Kentucky Venues, a state agency governed by the Kentucky State Fair Board.

Kentucky Venues runs the Kentucky International Convention Center and the Kentucky Exposition Center.

These venues are the bread and butter of Louisville's tourism industry, bringing in close to 5 million visitors from more than 80 countries every year, with an estimated statewide economic impact of $438 million.

[MUSIC] The Kentucky Expo Center is in the middle of the biggest expansion and renovation in its history, and David Beck is still thinking big when it comes to the future.

[MUSIC] David Beck is CEO of Kentucky Venues.

Thank you so much for being here.

We're so glad to have you.

Now.

You started as CEO in 2018, just on the heels of a major renovation at the International Convention Center, and then you're now in the midst of a major renovation of the Expo Center, which I want to talk about both of those extensively.

But I really want to start with your background and growing up in Lyon County.

Yes.

And you said you attended the state fair.

And so this this role is kind of full circle for you in a way.

>> It is the it's a young person growing up in Lyon County, Eddyville, the county seat there in western Kentucky, being active in agriculture, farming, FFA we visited State fair, had a chance to compete at the State Fair as a state officer.

I got to work the booth during the State Fair.

Got to come in early and see behind the scenes as they were setting it up and I was at all the type of facility it was and all that went into it.

So yes, it is.

I think back to those days many times.

>> And so but this is sort of a second career for you because you were with Kentucky Farm Bureau for a very long time.

Tell me about your journey to being in this role that you're in now.

>> Well, I was a Kentucky Farm Bureau for 41.5 years.

That's a long time.

I graduated on Saturday and started on Monday, and over the years had a lot of different opportunities in DC and other parts of the country, and I considered several of those, but wound up staying in Kentucky.

I'm a Kentucky native.

I want to raise my family here, and I knew it was time for me to, to, to retire.

And I had a good friend here in Louisville, a banker that said, David, one of these days you're going to retire.

If your health is good, find you something to keep you busy.

He said, a lot of my friends didn't and they're not around anymore.

So I really started considering this when they made the offer.

It took me a while to decide.

More like public service.

What can we do?

And I recognized the facilities were important to our community and I got into the role.

I even realized more the impact they have, and it was an opportunity to be engaged.

When they offered me to become president and CEO, these two facilities, I knew it was going to be a challenge.

I have been around state government a while, so I realized a lot of how agencies function.

But I believe you have to take care of your facilities and your people, or you can't take care of your client and your guest.

And we had major, major needs in our facilities to upgrade them.

I came in on July 1st.

We opened KIC renovation in 18 of August.

I had a chance to see all that come together, and I realized the impact that it had.

And I said, what can we do more?

So I'm very blessed.

Have a great board.

My board's very diversified people from around the state.

Very smart, good business people, agriculture people, professionals in different careers.

We had a shared vision.

What can we do to get these facilities ready for the next generation?

And that's been our focus.

And the General Assembly has been so supportive.

We compete for business all around the world, so I'm the largest trade shows.

Events in the world are held in our facilities, and the General Assembly saw the opportunity for us to do that.

They paved the way.

They changed the law to allow us more flexibility so we can compete with the private sector around the world, around the country.

And I also provide the revenue to make the investments.

As a taxpayer.

I'm very pleased they didn't just they didn't just write a check.

We presented a business plan and the leadership of the General Assembly Appropriations Committee, they went through it line by line, and they saw a return on investment.

So they decided out of two budget sessions to fund phase one and phase two.

So we could really make a difference for the future.

That excites me to see that happening.

You got to take care of those facilities and they've made an investment to do that.

I believe we're showing the results of that too.

We're growing the business.

Last year we had 64 new clients that the Kentucky nationals entered downtown.

They broke records two months out of the year.

We've broken records at the Kentucky Exposition Center out by the airport.

In fact, the KEC was named the busiest convention center in North America in 2025.

So who would have thought that here in Kentucky, in Louisville, Kentucky, we've been recognized as having the busiest convention center of anyone else all the larger around the country?

Kentucky stacks up.

We can compete.

>> Yeah.

I don't think a lot of people realize that to the types of the cities we're competing with for some of these conventions, what do you think we can offer here in Louisville that helps us compete with some of those other markets and who are our biggest competition?

>> Well, I look at where we are geographically around the country, easy to get in and out.

We've got a great airport driving distance in many parts of the major cities that we try to serve.

I remember being in Chicago in a meeting room of a hotel with a site selection committee.

It was down to two locations, New Orleans and Louisville, Kentucky, and I'm so proud of our team.

We got the business.

We've gotten business from other cities.

We've had clients that have moved here from other cities.

We don't bat a thousand.

We we lose them occasionally, but the new facility is going to help us keep the business we now have and grow it.

Last year we had well over 80 different countries represented on our property.

We know of year before that about 110.

We have every state in the nation come to our facilities.

The.

That's pretty impressive when you see that we can serve every county, every state in the nation and a good part of the world here.

So it's economic development.

Many people.

Their first time to Louisville, Kentucky.

The first time the Commonwealth Kentucky may be attending an event here.

I tell you, you don't do it by yourself.

We've got a wonderful staff, team, people with experience.

We have a lot of new people with new ideas and a vision.

We have a lot of tenured people, well, a lot of institutional knowledge.

To me, that's a great that's a great blend to try to solve problems and prepare for the future.

I tell our staff often it's okay to do things differently than we did yesterday, but why we do them doesn't change the purpose of serving that client, serving tourism, serving economic development, serving agriculture is our core, and we'll continue to maintain that focus as our number one priority.

>> I think a lot of people also don't realize the impact, as you mentioned, that that tourism here in Louisville not only has on Louisville but in the entire state.

Explain why that's beneficial to everyone in Kentucky.

>> Well, it is, and we have advocates in the General Assembly, different leaders in the position, the president of the Senate, the speaker of the House, the chairman of the committee has come from Northern Kentucky and from Western Kentucky.

There's support around the state because they realize how these facilities serve their communities.

I often refer to our facilities as being the largest classroom in the Commonwealth.

Kentucky.

As a young person, I came to Louisville, Kentucky, and it was educational for me to compete and be an exposition center.

I'm kind of jealous.

I want to see the next generation have those same opportunities, but adults learn, too.

When you come to a trade show, an event, a meeting, you expose yourself to things you may not have thought about.

You may have a creative idea that hasn't been developed, maybe a startup company.

You may see something that may inspire that enthusiasm or that passion to take it to the next level.

So it is very educational.

Besides, we host a lot of graduations in our facilities.

I think we held 35 last year, so technically it is one of the largest classrooms, but it's more than just a classroom.

It's a way for people to hopefully try to achieve their dreams and do that.

>> And talk a little bit more about the economic impact, though, how those dollars generated here in our city help impact communities across Kentucky.

>> Well, it does.

You know, in Frankfort, people talk about the economic impact of tourism, the Commonwealth being between 14 and $15 billion.

About a third of that comes from Louisville.

They have 120 counties.

About a third of that comes from one.

And I look at our two facilities, major operation here.

You take the top 15 or 16 events here in Louisville, an annual basis.

15 of those are in our facilities.

The number one is the Derby, but we assist them in parking.

And I use that as an example because no one does it by themselves.

We have wonderful hotels and we're going to see some new ones.

We're excited about those announcements this spring and being able to see some growth that we need.

Our clients talk about need for more space, all of our attractions and museums, the entertainment that we have in our community, in the Commonwealth, the Bourbon Trail from around the state, all that comes together.

So I'm seeing in my role being here now, we've always had good communication, but now I'm seeing a higher level of coordination as we sit at the table and try to recruit business.

We depend on everyone coming forward and what they can do.

Our chief of staff, our marketing team, they work closely with the Louisville Tourism, the Louisville Sports Commission, all the different attractions.

We're in constant contact with our hotels and our association.

Just try.

How can we do it better?

Have a client advisory committee.

We listen to them.

I have ideas myself, has ideas.

But if that idea needs to meet their needs, see, we have about 280 290 events a year.

We've got existing clients that have been here for a number of years.

We want to keep them.

We want to help them grow and expand.

Here in Louisville, Kentucky.

It's the same time we're recruiting, you know, the festival since September.

Bourbon Beyond Louder than Life.

We had two events in between those two weekends that most people don't realize.

So the goal is to fill that calendar, bring people to Louisville, bring people to Kentucky, grow the tax base, provide jobs.

Our new facility, we're building that first building about 350,000ft S. That's equivalent to six football fields, just what that's going to do.

But see, when Kit was being renovated, when I first came in, it had been closed for two years.

We're keeping KEC open during the construction, so that's challenging.

Lay down area construction, noise, parking, but our team's able to make that work.

There's probably close to 4000 different trade people that will come through our property just working on that building.

So besides the economic development from tourism, just the investment itself is bringing jobs to Louisville, employing Kentucky people to fill those roles.

So it's important.

It has an impact, a real domino effect throughout the community as well as the Commonwealth.

>> Yeah.

I want you to talk a little bit more about those renovations.

What can we expect?

What's it going to look like and what is going into that?

And how are you keeping the doors open during it?

>> Well, it's a challenge for our team.

I'm proud of the staff team works hard to coordinate that.

Every little bit of space in our property is on the calendar.

If David Beck needs a room, I've got to sign up for it too.

If you don't, you'll make a mistake because you got to use every square foot of that property.

We have one point 2,000,000ft S now of indoor climate controlled contiguous space.

So we use it.

But also the outside is used as well, not just for parking.

We have major events that use the outside of those facilities.

So it's got to be coordinated.

Everybody's got to be documented.

And how can we do it better.

And our team is constantly looking at that.

And how do we make that work.

It's challenging, but it works.

And I appreciate the passion and dedication our people have for the renovations itself.

Many people have a Freedom Hall story horse show, a concert, a basketball game, one of the final four years ago.

One of the things we're excited about is the the new seating in Freedom Hall.

New seating in Freedom Hall, new lighting, scoreboard heating and cooling being upgraded.

Next project is going to be the restrooms, so we want to get Freedom Hall.

It's a. It's an icon.

It's.

Everybody has their Freedom Hall story.

Yeah.

You know, I've seen presidents United States speech there.

Muhammad Ali fought there.

Elvis Presley sang there.

Billy Graham had one of his crusades in Freedom Hall.

So you look at all the history in Freedom Hall, you know, the structure is great.

It just needs to be updated.

And then I look around the property and how we've dealt with Wi-Fi internet connection.

To meet those expectations.

We renovated the gates to make it easier to get on and off the property, with wayfinding making it easier.

Two things critical to guess parking, getting in in a timely fashion, and food and beverage.

We're also restructuring our food and beverage Bell increase enhance that service as well.

So the space is important too to renovate the space.

That first building, 350,000ft S. We've got to build a building before we can tear one down.

So once we get the keys to that, hopefully in December of 26, we're already on track with that.

We're ahead of schedule.

Hopefully it continues.

We're already selling for 27 are reselling it, but once we get the keys to that, we'll tear the one down in front of it, the old West Hall area, and replace it with about a 250,000ft S. So we're managing the construction based on the needs of our clients and how we can function.

I often say we're not afraid of competition, but I don't want our clients shopping.

So we got to have a place to keep our current company here and make sure it's working well for them.

So it's pretty exciting to see that all come together.

You take the National Farm Machinery Show.

That's a show that we own.

The fair board owns Caldwell.

Kentucky owns that.

Over 300,000 people coming through those doors in a four day period.

That's huge.

To be able to accommodate 75 to 80,000 people a day is pretty amazing.

But it works.

And I can tell you and give you just an example, that one show, every square foot is taken, every square foot is leased to an exhibitor.

We have a waiting list of 928 exhibitors wanting to get in.

So when we get the new building in December 26th, February 27th, we can fill that building.

So that's a good return on investment to allow that show to grow that many people would love to have in their State.

>> Yeah, and I know we just had a, there was just a recently an announcement of one of the trade shows that's now splitting their time between Louisville and Orlando.

And some of the things cited was the lack of international flights at the airport and lack of hotels, which will be remedied a little bit very soon.

But is that something that you've heard from other clients, and what does Louisville still need to be able to keep, as you mentioned, and attract some of these larger shows?

>> We have a client advisory committee, and also I try to communicate with every client as they come in, as we're booking them, as we schedule the contracts, as we have them on our properties, and then do a follow up when they leave.

What can we do to improve our our service for you?

Pretty much every client talks about needing more hotel rooms, more space.

And we knew it was coming, just didn't know exactly when.

And all the different steps and boxes have to be checked to make it work financially.

But everybody recognizes, as in Frankfurt and the mayor's office and Metro Council, the hotels, they recognize, that's a growth area and it's real.

We need the additional hotels.

So we welcome that.

That's going to take the pressure off.

But we still need more than what's been announced now.

The group that's been here at Expo, great group.

They even put an office here in this town.

They have they're committed to Louisville.

But I think another way to look at that is it put us on the national scope.

They're competing with Orlando.

Everybody knows about Orlando like McCormick center, Chicago and Las Vegas and New Orleans and all these major cities with facilities larger than ours.

They recognizing to rotate between the two.

So that's another example of us competing with one another.

Top facilities in North America that we're in the same league they are.

So it's not saying goodbye, it's saying we're still going to partner.

We're going to work with you and my my conversation with Chris Goodman to work with is I want to earn your business.

I want to keep your business.

And he's committed to it.

So we have clients using properties, both properties at the same time.

And so we need the hotels, we need the airport, we need the restaurants, we need entertainment.

So that's why we're looking at new transportation opportunity to connect our two facilities.

And we're hopeful that we'll be able to start that planning process this year and have a plan for moving forward with that.

>> Yeah, let's talk about that.

I mean, this was when it was first proposed a couple of years ago at Tunnel along I-65.

Everybody was like, what in the world is this?

It is an outside of the box kind of thought.

Is, is that still on the table?

>> It is the we have three phases of renovations.

Phase one, the first building, phase two.

The other phase three included concepts of planning to see whether or not it's justified.

I have visited other cities.

I've been looking at it for over three years now and I think it is doable.

I've been in this town for many years and we've talked about light rail.

Light rail has value, has benefit.

But I'm told that if we restart tomorrow, it would take 8 to 10 years.

It might cost 3 to $4 billion to do it.

Three different companies interested in this process, it can probably be done in 24 months, something around $275 million.

So it's worth exploring.

What I want to do is make sure it's just not a dream.

It's a plan that we know factually.

If it's something we need to be doing and where should we put it?

Between the International Convention Center, one of our properties, our two garages to the Exposition center, just a little over three miles.

So if you went down Third Street parallel with Third Street or Third Street, you're a little over three miles.

I see it being beneficial for the airport.

I see it being beneficial for University of Louisville Churchill Downs, which has two locations kind of across the street from us and both of our facilities.

And so I think a lot in our community would see transportation is important.

It is for government services, it is for workforce development.

It's good for medical services, it's good for entertainment, it's good for tourism, it's good for economic development.

And that would be another factor that would not just be used for tourism, not just between our two properties.

My goal would be that it be something the public could use.

If you've got your convention badge, you could probably ride it three, but otherwise it could be a connector.

Your office here downtown.

If you got a flight, just leave your vehicle here, take the tunnel out to the airport and you're there in 5 or 6 minutes and don't have to park and save resources and doing that in time.

And, and people between our two properties.

Now we have to depend on bussing, getting them back in work.

And that works pretty well.

I have an office in both buildings.

I gotta always navigate.

Which way am I going back down 65 Third how am I going to get back to the two properties?

Because one accident and then we'll be experiencing later on this year with I-65 being closed for the bridge, repairs the overpasses, and we need that.

Safety is first and foremost, you got to have a safe road system.

So we welcome we need that.

But that's going to disrupt traffic flows here in this community.

I think that will even call attention to a higher level degree, how this other connector could be beneficial to us.

>> What's your vision of what that looks like?

Is it a rail system?

>> It's an underground.

The cities I visited use it.

It's an underground which reduces the maintenance cost.

It's not as expensive as people think about that.

Even in the three years, 3 to 4, we've been looking at it.

The technology has improved substantially and it would be vehicles on the ground that would be electric vehicles driver.

They will drive themselves and you'd get in, go and get in and out your luggage or whatever you're carrying or just it's a passenger.

So it's not that complicated.

There's videos that show it.

We had talked about putting a smaller tunnel under Phillips Lane at KEC, just as a demonstration project, to show how quick it can be done and the benefits of doing that.

>> Are you still thinking about doing that?

>> We're still looking at what the possibilities are.

The goal we are now is to start the planning process here, and a lot of people are interested in it.

A lot of our government leaders locally, statewide and in DC think, let's try, let's look at it.

And I said, okay, it's a good concept.

Let's get a good solid study.

And I've seen studies that have great value, and I've seen studies that were done in two weeks.

I want a thorough study so this doesn't fall on its face.

I'll make sure we do it the right way.

What I think might work, where I think it might need to go.

The study will give us that direction and guidance on how it should be done.

>> Yeah, very, very interesting thoughts.

So I want to know more about how these hotel announcements are going to impact you all.

And you mentioned to you feel the need for more than just these hotels that have have been announced.

>> I think success, pardon me, breeds success.

People will see making investments in doing this that will cause others to maybe get your pencil or sharper.

And how can we do the same thing?

The demand is there.

I trust our clients.

Our numbers show we need more hotel facilities.

I am so pleased to see these two opportunities for our community.

They're needed and I appreciate all those from investors to public officials have been involved from Frankfurt and our mayor and others Mitchell supporting this concept.

It will it will be a life changer in this whole game of doing this.

And they'll have meeting space in addition to us.

And we welcome that.

I tell our team often every event doesn't have to be in our building if it's in our community, the Commonwealth benefits for it.

And so we want the client to be where they can be best served.

And so it's going to it's going to be a game changer for our community.

We're already competing above our size with a lot of cities and communities.

When you look at the business we have and where it's coming from and the opportunity for those to grow all aspects of it, Louisville is on the cutting edge of some really remarkable things, in my opinion.

>> When you talk about all of the collaboration between being a state agency and being run by the state fair board, is that ever a hindrance in getting things across the finish line, as government can sort of move slowly sometimes, as opposed to being part of the private sector where a lot of these other cities do have facilities that are part of the private sector.

>> Yes, the.

And that's why the Kentucky State Fair Board, we have one of the best state fairs in the country, put us up against it.

And I've visited many from Alaska to others.

I've been to the State fair, I see them.

We've got one of the best.

And I believe that just not my bias.

But we have that.

But a lot of people think about the state Fair board Kentucky State Fairgrounds.

So we operate under our marketing name of Kentucky venues that may cause someone to give us a second look because they're not familiar just with that name.

We think that helped us open a lot of doors for us to do that.

We have six shows that we own and operate Kentucky State Fair, which includes the World Championship Horse Show, which is second to none.

It's amazing.

And in addition to that, we have the North American International Livestock Exposition, largest purebred livestock show in the world, and it has a championship rodeo.

And then the National Farm Machinery Show, the largest farm show indoor show in the world right here in Louisville, Kentucky.

And the championship tractor pull that will be able to sell out every night and Saturday afternoon as well.

So we have some first class operations so people can see us manage those facilities ourselves.

But I tell our staff we have some of the best meeting planners in the world that lease our space.

Let's learn from them.

What can we do better?

One of the things that comes up with clients, and I'm not afraid to discuss that, and that is safety and security.

In this day and time which we live, we have to do our best job we can to have the safest places for our guests, our clients, our staff.

And so a lot of instances done on safety and security.

Every agency, a federal government that has any involvement with safety and security, it's a state level, local level and federal level, have used our facilities.

And C Kentucky Exposition Center is also a key part of our community in this region.

On emergency response during Covid, we had a hospital built in case they needed it.

Supplies were stored there that most people don't realize were there.

Food distribution, all those things.

Our facilities get utilized so it gets be able to maintain that.

So it's recognized as facilities that's capable of dealing with the.

Some people would say the impossible.

And so if you've got the right team, if you've got the right facilities, if you've got the passion and desire and got a roadmap, you can get to the finish line with it.

So I'm proud of our team and these facilities.

>> You can watch and share this episode anytime.

It's streaming online at ket.org, Johnny Nash, Louisville.

Plus, follow us on social media.

You can see more of the photos of the renovations underway at the Kentucky Expo Center, and much more.

You can find us on Instagram at k e t n LOU.

Thanks for spending a little time getting to know Louisville.

I hope we'll see you here next time.

Until then, make it a great week.