January 2018 - Monthly Education Program: Industry Outlook: Philadelphia!

Join MPI PHL for our Boss's Night and January monthly program, a meetings industry update with Julie Coker Graham, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) where she oversees all of the organization’s departments and operational duties.

Julie Coker Graham is the President and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) where she oversees the organization’s efforts to promote and sell Philadelphia as a top destination for meetings, conventions, overseas travelers and group tour visitors.

As President & CEO, Coker Graham oversaw the PHLCVB’s role in the 2017 NFL Draft and the 2016 Democratic National Convention, which together had a combined economic impact of $325 million for Philadelphia.

Previously, Coker Graham served as the PHLCVB’s Executive Vice President of Convention Sales and managed a staff of 25 sales and services professionals responsible for selling the expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center and Philadelphia’s hotel package to customers across the country. Coker Graham joined the PHLCVB after serving as General Manager for the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing, where she oversaw all operational aspects of the 350-room hotel. A 21-year Hyatt veteran, she began her career there in 1989 as a corporate management trainee at Hyatt Regency Columbus. Throughout her more than two decades with Hyatt, she rose through the ranks in a variety of positions, including assistant front office manager, front office manager, hotel assistant manager, assistant executive housekeeper and general manager.

Coker Graham serves on a number of boards, including the Executive Committees for U.S. Travel Association and Destinations International. In January of 2018, she will begin her tenure as co-chair for U.S. Travel’s Meetings Mean Business Coalition and will begin serving as the Secretary-Treasurer for International Association of Exhibitions and Events Executive Committee (IAEE). In Philadelphia, she is a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Independence Visitor Center Corporation, Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, Center City District (and the CCD Foundation) and the Global Philadelphia Association. She is also on the Philadelphia International Airport Advisory Committee and the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Committee, and she co-chairs the Mayor’s Shared Spaces Initiative to combat homelessness. In 2016, Coker Graham served as the chair of Mayor Jim Kenney’s transition team for the Democratic National Convention.

In addition, Coker Graham is a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of Links, Incorporated. She was the 2017 United Negro College Fund Mayor’s Ball Honoree for Civic Leadership, and was named one of the Network Journal’s 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business. She also received the Cradle of Liberty Good Scout Award by the Boy Scouts of America Cradle of Liberty Council and was the recipient of the 2011 John Wanamaker Award (Individual Award) given by the YMCA of Philadelphia and Vicinity.

Coker Graham is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI, where she received a bachelor of science in Hospitality Management and graduated Magna Cum Laude.