ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

AJ Arnett

A hotel junkie at heart, AJ Arnett gravitated toward a career in hospitality with her first front desk job in college. Before joining Visit Phoenix, AJ worked with Hyatt Hotels & Resorts in the Dallas and Chicago markets. This year, AJ will celebrate her 10th anniversary with Visit Phoenix. AJ has worn many hats in her time with Visit Phoenix, most recently as Director of National Accounts on the citywide team selling downtown Phoenix hotels and the convention center. In 2018, AJ worked with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee to coordinate the requirements of the hotel package as part of our bid to win the 2023 Super Bowl. She worked in a similar fashion with the Arizona hotel community to execute the College Football Playoff in 2016 and the NCAA Men’s Final Four in 2017.

Erik Dorr

Danielle Dutsch

Danielle Dutch, is the lead at the City of Glendale’s Convention & Visitors Bureau, where she oversees Visit Glendale’s advertising, public relations, national sales, digital marketing, and websites. She and her team, work with Glendale’s tourism industry partners to maximize revenue through effective sales and marketing initiatives.

Prior to joining Visit Glendale, she was Director of Marketing at the Redondo Beach, California Visitors Bureau, where she led the launch of numerous marketing initiatives in one of Los Angeles, best beach towns.

Before her work in Los Angeles, Danielle was the Interactive Media Manager for Visit Phoenix creating their first website and digital media.

A graduate of the City University of New York, with a Masters in Business from the University of Phoenix, Danielle spent many years living abroad in South East Asia, in Laos. She has one daughter and will begin PhD studies at Grand Canyon University this Spring.

Kyle Hedstrom

Kyle Hedstrom has been in the Arizona Major Events world for the last 9 years, and holds the distinction of being the only person to have worked on all three major Arizona events: Super Bowl XLIX, 2015 CFP Champ Game and the 2017 Final Four . Under his current role he is responsible for all Host Committee finance, tourism and government relations, economic impact reporting, and managing the relationship with the NFL.

Hedstrom was one of the original members of the previous Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee in 2012, and focused on the Partnerships and Activation team, which was responsible for successfully reaching the $30M fundraising goal. Following Super Bowl XLIX, Hedstrom joined the Arizona Organizing Committee to work on the 2016 CFP Champ Game and was once again an integral part of the sales efforts, resulting in $14M raised. In 2016, he joined the Phoenix Local Organizing Committee where he worked to develop and customize partnership materials, manage partnership engagement and activation, and oversee the successful activation of Final Four assets for all partners, yielding another $14M.

Hedstrom is originally from Irvine, California and graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in economics. He pursued a career in public accounting and consulting in California before moving to Arizona. He is a proud husband and father to 3 little ones.