Organizational consulting for DMOs

Consulting services for destination organizations.

We offer consulting services to destination organizations on AI readiness, policy, benchmarking, and staff capability, led by people who've sat in your seat. We start by listening: surveys, one-on-one interviews, and time with the people who steward your destination every day. Then we recommend only what your organization needs, and we build the skill in-house across marketing, sales, membership, finance, and operations.

The practice
Counsel

Strategic Counsel

New leadership, a new strategic plan, refreshed positioning, or a board that has started asking about AI and wants a real answer. We sit with your team, listen first, and come back with something you can act on.

We start where you are. That usually means a week of conversations with the people who do the work, a read of what your destination already looks like in AI answers, and an honest picture of where the story is thin. Nothing here is a template. Your destination has spent years building a voice, and counsel that ignores it is not worth the retainer.

  • A read of your platform data and your comp set's share of prompt
  • One-on-one interviews across staff, board, and partners
  • A recommendation memo written to be read by a board
  • Board deck and readout sessions at the deeper scopes
  • Standing access while the decisions are being made, not just at the end
Readiness

AI Policy & Readiness

Some organizations need a written policy. Some already have one and need it to be usable. We start with a survey and one-on-one conversations, then recommend only what your organization actually needs.

  • A readiness read drawn from your own employees, not a maturity model
  • An AI policy written for your organization, if the survey says you need one
  • Guidance on your data and where it can and cannot go, in plain language
  • Approved tools and licensing recommendations that start with what you already pay for
  • The gaps named honestly, including the ones nobody wants to raise in a staff meeting
  • A named owner and a stated expiry, so the next person inherits an open field
Measurement

Surveying & Benchmarking

The part of the work that produces a number you can take to your board. We field a baseline, do the work alongside your team, and field it again.

  • Baseline and progress surveys with items repeated verbatim so the comparison is real
  • Task-specific confidence scored against the jobs people actually do
  • The comfortable-user against confident-teacher gap, reported by department
  • Behavioral items, not just self-reported skill
  • Intervals reported with every change, and no measurable change printed when that is the finding
  • The instrument and its scoring handed to you so your team runs the next wave alone
For the whole organization

Capability Building

Everyone in the building is already using AI or about to be, not just marketing. We build the skill across the organization instead of renting it to you forever.

  • Workshops for marketing, sales, membership, finance, operations, and your partner ecosystem
  • Role-specific sessions so each department works on its own use cases
  • Executive and board sessions on governance, risk, and where AI belongs
  • Playbooks your staff keeps and uses after we leave
  • Train-the-trainer at the largest scope
  • 90 days of office hours while the habits set
Project-scoped

Creative & Production

Campaign work, a video series, a documentary, or a launch, quoted per engagement and produced through our Knightstorm Productions partnership.

  • Campaign concepting and creative direction
  • Photo and video production
  • Long-form content writing for a defined project
  • Scoped, quoted, and delivered as a project, not a retainer
How we work together

Our approach to getting your organization AI-ready.

Culture first. We begin with a survey and one-on-one interviews across every part of the organization, because the people who answer visitor calls and steward partner relationships already know where the friction is. From there we recommend, build alongside your team, and measure again. Four phases, roughly six months, and your team is doing the work by the end of it.

Click a phase to see what happens

Map

We listen first. Interviews with every part of the organization, a baseline survey your own staff answers, and an honest look at the tools already in use.

Your leadership's part

One scoping session, one interview, and a named executive sponsor. Roughly three hours of leadership time.

We handle
  • Interviews across every work segment
  • Baseline survey design and fielding
  • Tool and license inventory
Your team handles
  • Executive sponsor named on day one
  • Staff calendar access for interviews
  • Current subscription and vendor list
What we decide together
  • Who signs off on AI decisions while the policy is still interim
  • Which departments are in scope for the first pass
  • Whether partner and member data is inside the review
Phase closes with

A readiness baseline the board can see, with sample size and limits stated.

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Our promise

What your organization walks away with.

Every item is yours in editable form, on software you already license. Scope determines how many of these are in an engagement, never who owns them.

  • Readiness baseline report

    A department-by-department read of where your organization actually is, drawn from your own employees rather than a maturity model.

    Why it mattersA defensible starting number for the board, with sample size and limits stated on the same page.

  • AI use policy

    Working rules staff can read once and apply the same day. Named owner, stated expiry, escalation path. Written only if your readiness read says you need one.

    Why it mattersA signed document that answers the governance question without committing your team to rules nobody can follow.

  • Data guidance

    Where your visitor, partner, and member data can and cannot go, written for a member-funded organization with a board and a community watching.

    Why it mattersA one-page answer when a partner asks where their data went.

  • Approved tools and licensing

    What you already pay for, what is duplicated, what is running on personal cards, and what should be approved next.

    Why it mattersA budget line you can defend, and usually a subscription or two you can cut.

  • Gap review by department

    Where AI touches the work by function, from marketing and sales to membership, finance, and operations, with the gaps named plainly.

    Why it mattersA clear view of which teams need attention first, and which are already fine.

  • Executive and board briefing

    A readout session and deck written to be read by a board, not by a technologist.

    Why it mattersThe ability to answer the AI question in plain language, in the room, without notes.

  • Decision log

    What was settled, by whom, on what date, and what was deliberately left open with the reason.

    Why it mattersAn audit trail if a board member, a partner, or a reporter asks how a decision was made.

  • Progress benchmark

    The same instrument fielded again after the work, with items repeated verbatim and intervals reported.

    Why it mattersProof of movement, or an honest finding that there was none.

What we commit to

The organization owns it

Every prompt, template, procedure, survey instrument, and training material is yours in editable form, running on software you already license. Nothing to keep paying for once the engagement ends.

An employee owns it

Every improvement carries a named employee owner from the day it is built, not at handoff. Nothing depends on us staying.

The next person can change it

Interim rules carry an expiry date. Deferred decisions are documented as deferred, with the reason. Your permanent hire inherits an open field.

The limits are stated up front

Sample size, what a department-level reading can and cannot support, and the difference between change and cause. Stated in the proposal, not discovered in the final report.

Enablement

Giving your team margin.

We build skills and agents that match real job descriptions, so the day-to-day mundane work takes less of the week. The point is margin: time back for the strategic work that shows up in direction and reporting.

Workshops

Working sessions with the team in the room, using your own campaigns, partner lists, and reporting as the material.

Webinars

Remote sessions for staff, partners, or board members, recorded so the people who missed it can catch up.

Deliverables

Every session ends with something usable: a prompt library, a procedure, a template your team can run the next morning.

Evergreen workbooks

Written guides your team keeps and edits. They stay useful after the engagement and after staff turnover.

Agents

Custom agents built for you or built alongside you, mapped to a real job description and the tasks that eat the week.

Skills

How-to guides and reusable skills for the AI platforms you already license, so the team works the same way twice.

Speaking engagements

Emily speaks to boards, partner meetings, annual summits, and staff sessions. It can be a keynote, a partner education session, or a working talk for your team on what AI is doing to destination visibility right now.

Educational first. Your partners and stakeholders leave understanding the shift and what your organization is doing about it, not sitting through a vendor pitch.

Questions we actually get asked

The honest answers.

These come up on almost every first call, usually somewhere around minute eight. Here is what we tell people before they sign anything.

Fractional counsel

A standing seat, not a one-time report.

Some organizations do not need a project. They need someone who knows the destination to be reachable when the question comes up between board meetings.

Standing calls on a monthly or bi-weekly cadence

Async counsel between calls, on the decisions that will not wait

Continuity across leadership changes, plan cycles, and budget season

Consulting stands on its own.

You do not have to subscribe to the platform to work with us. Plenty of destinations start with counsel, decide what they want measured later, and some never subscribe at all. The engagement is judged on whether your organization is better at this when it ends.

Start here

Talk it through before you scope it.

Thirty minutes on where your organization is, what your board is asking, and which piece of this is worth doing first. No deck required on your end.

Book a discovery callDownload the capability deck

The deck is sent by email, usually the same day.

Bring the question your board asked.

Thirty minutes on what your organization is actually facing, and an honest read on whether counsel, capability building, or measurement is the right first move.

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