Bob

Kollar
Vice President of Special
Events
Bob Kollar got involved with Visit
Park City and the tourism industry by
networking through the Olympics in
2002. He was on the local organizing
committee for the Olympics and
served a role that had him working in
business affairs in Park City. Visit
Park City later hired Bob Kollar as the
Vice President of Special events to
meet with event organizers,
negotiate agreements to bring them
to Park City, and work with them on
event planning.

Visit Park City

Gabby Olsen
Miri Gubler

Visit Park City

Foundations of Tourism

A travel guide to the

tourism/business networking events

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Summary of the Interview

Throughout our interview with Bob Kollar, we discussed multiple aspects to a career in special
events. We learned about the education/skill requirements and the advantages/disadvantages to a
position in special events. We also learned about the primary target market in Park City and how
Visit Park City plans, organizes, and funds special events to drive that target market to their resorts.

What We Learned
Park City is primarily a tourism-based
economy. So most of the members of the
chamber of commerce are tourism based
businesses. Park Citys economy thrives on the
overnight visitors. Visit Park City administers a
special event grant (funded by lodging taxes)
where they provide financial assistance to
event organizers to fund special events that
drive overnight visitors. Although they look for
events primarily to drive overnight travelers,
they focus on the local community as well. Visit
Park City holds special events for the locals
such as the 4th of July parade and fireworks.
Visit Park City tries to hold enough events that
are valuable to the local community as well as
the business community.

Future Career
A career in future events would never get
dull. It changes every day, there are many
different events that are held in Park City
throughout the year. You would need to be
able to work with different types of people
because events are always changing. A
career in special events could be tiring. Visit
Park City has 350 event days per year. The
hours are fairly long; its not a 9 to 5 job.
You could be working late hours,
weekends, and holidays planning events a
year in advance. This interview also showed
us that getting involved in the tourism
business is a lot of networking. A career in
special events prefers an undergraduate
degree, but focuses more on the skill-set
you have to offer.