Visit Wichita has added Kelli Elmore as Sports Event Manager to its sports sales team. Other members of the team include Brian Hargrove, executive director of sports development, and Josh Howell, sports sales manager.
“I am extremely excited to work with the incredible team at Visit Wichita to help bring sporting events to the city,” said Elmore. “Born and raised in Wichita, I have so much pride for the city and all of the growth over the years, making it an even better place to live and grow my family. I love that I get to be a part of a team who shares my desire to make Wichita an outstanding sports city.”
Hosting sporting events and promoting the city as a Midwest sports destination is important to Visit Wichita and the team works together to bring more and new, transformational sporting events, sports conventions and sports meetings to Wichita – all of which increase local economic impact. In her role, Kelli will help organize and operate sporting events hosted by Visit Wichita and will contribute to the team’s efforts of bringing sporting events to the city.
“It is a thrilling time in Wichita for sports, and it’s exciting to add Kelli to this team to attract even more sporting events to the city and ensure they run smoothly,” said Brian Hargrove, executive director of sports development at Visit Wichita. “We already have 15 sporting events coming to Wichita in 2020. These events, such as U.S. Figure Skating Midwestern and Pacific Coast Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships and the ECHL All-Star Classic, will bring more than $15 million in economic impact to Wichita.”
Prior to joining Visit Wichita, Elmore was the Assistant Commissioner of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, serving as the conference sports information director, supervising all associated activities and managing the various awards programs in the KCAC. She also functioned as the event manager for conference championships.
Elmore also has experience working for Kansas Athletics, the Wichita Open and Wichita State Athletics. While at Kansas Athletics, Elmore worked as a student assistant in the media relations department as the women's golf contact. She helped run the 2012 Big 12 Women's Golf Championships at Lawrence Country Club and wrote numerous press releases and game recaps for football, men's and women's basketball and baseball.
During her time with the Wichita Open, Elmore helped plan and run several events as well as enhancing the tournament's social media presence and its website. She also helped coordinate volunteers, volunteer information and played a role in the revamping of tickets, invitations and handbooks for the tournament.
Elmore received a Bachelor of Science in Education with an emphasis in Sport Management and a Business minor from the University of Kansas in 2012 before earning her master's degree in Sport Management from Wichita State in 2014.
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About Visit Wichita
Visit Wichita markets the Greater Wichita area and advocates for the city as a destination, increasing travel and tourism as a key economic driver for the city, county, region and state. Visit Wichita is led by president and CEO Susie Santo, and in 2018 travel and tourism contributed more than $1.1 billion in economic impact to the greater Wichita area.