SOLD OUT DT | Try It Before You Buy It: After the Royal Parade and Beyond - 11:30 a.m.

**EVENT IS AT CAPACITY**
Please e-mail rsvp@centralexchange.org for the waitlist


Join us a for a fun and fantastic opportunity to experience one of the high quality programs that Central Exchange provides on a daily basis.
Try It Before You Buy It (TIBYBI) is one of our biggest events of the year showcasing the phenomenal resources that Central Exchange provides its members.

Join CX on March 8 and receive 50% off initiation fees!

Try It Before You Buy It is a fan favorite and a must attend program. Members and non-members may attend at no charge. Bring your friends! Reservations needed by 5:00 p.m. on March 7, 2016. 

After the Royal Parade and Beyond… what’s the next BIG thing for Union Station?

Special Guests: George Guastello, CEO and Michael Tritt, CMO of Union Station. Q & A  lead by Kansas City favorite television host, Nick Haines of KCPT.

Union Station Kansas City is a historical landmark and civic asset renovated and reopened to the public in 1999. It features a science center, national traveling exhibits, the region’s only 3D giant screen movie theater, live theater, shops and restaurants. A bistate cultural sales tax, the first of its kind in the country, funded nearly half of the $250 million renovation. The remaining money was raised through private donations and federal funding. Union Station is a nonprofit 501c3 
organization. 

Current operating costs are funded by general admission and theater ticketing, grants, private donations, commercial space leases and facility rental. The Station receives no public funding. Union Station is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Union Station Kansas City, Inc. also operates the Kansas City Museum in Kansas City’s historic northeast neighborhood.

George M. Guastello, II, PRESIDENT AND CEO - UNION STATION KANSAS CITY, INC.

George Guastello is President and Chief Executive Officer of Union Station Kansas City, a historical landmark and civic asset renovated and reopened to the public in 1999.  He is responsible for operation, management and development/growth of the Station and surrounding property it owns.  Guastello oversees a staff of over 50 and manages an annual budget of $11 million.  The Station features a science center, planetarium, rail museum, national traveling exhibits, one of the region’s largest giant screen 3D movie theaters, live theater, shops, restaurants and offices.  A bi-state cultural sales tax, the first of its kind in the country, funded nearly half of the $250 million renovation.
 
Guastello has amassed noteworthy accomplishments in many endeavors from association management to economic and community development.  He is a respected, results-oriented, area leader with over 25 years of demonstrated organizational impact and success.
 
Prior to joining USKC, Guastello served as President and CEO for the American Royal Association for 6 years, focusing attention on youth and education, celebrating the region’s rich agricultural heritage through competition, education and entertainment, and boasting one of the largest combined livestock, horse show, rodeo, and barbecue competitions in the country. 
 
Previous employment includes Vice President Marketing and Business Strategy, Starlight Theatre Association. While at Starlight, he created awareness for the theatre’s new $10 million stage and achieved all-time high season attendance levels of over a quarter million people coupled with record season ticket subscription sales backed by 28,500 subscribers.  Guastello served as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Development for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. In his position with the Chamber, he rebranded and repositioned the Chamber in conjunction with authoring the first seed capital legislation in the State of Missouri for investment tax credits for Small Business investors.  He was also employed as Assistant Vice President of Commercial Banking at Commerce Bank Kansas City, N.A.
 
Guastello is a member of the UMKC Alumni Governing Board of Directors and Children’s TLC Board of Directors. He has served on the Boards of the Boys & Girls Club, Cristo Rey Kansas City, Rockhurst High School, Kansas City River Trails, KCMO Central Industrial District, and Johnson County Parks and Recreation Theater in the Park.  He currently retains a number of professional memberships in prestigious organizations.
 
Guastello, a native Kansas Citian, earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration in Finance, both from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
 
He has garnered numerous awards, most recently being named the 2015 Non-Profit Professional of the Year from Non-Profit Connect.  Other awards include 2006 Alumni Legacy Achievement Award from the University of Missouri at Kansas City; 2005 Recipient of Hospitality Leadership Award from the Greater Kansas City Hotel Association and the 2003 Brick by Brick Leadership Award from the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City.
 
George and his wife, Betsy, are the parents of two children.


Michael Tritt – Chief Marketing Officer – Union Station Kansas City
 
After a 25-year career in advertising – including 15 years of leading agency offices in Kansas City, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., Michael retired as President of Summit Marketing in July of 2013.  During his career, his teams won dozens of national advertising awards and worked with marquee Brands such as Sprint, Proctor & Gamble, Applebee’s, U.S. Army, The Salvation Army, American Red Cross and others.
 
For Union Station specifically, Michael’s team is charged to manage and build the historic brand, leverage organic equity into new market segments and orchestrate a foundational shift to bring informed, repeatable and measurable strategies to bear across five product/service lines. 
 
Michael considers it a high privilege to put his mark on such a beloved landmark.  A day rarely goes by that Union Station isn’t hosting something special.  In fact, every day it’s easy to see why the Station can make the claim, “Where Kansas City Connects, Creates, Discovers and Celebrates.”

Nick Haines, News Host
KCPT Executive Producer/Public Affairs
 
Nick has headed up KCPT's public affairs division for the past 17 years. He has earned three regional Emmy Awards, most recently for his coverage of mental health issues. He is best known as host of the weekly primetime public affairs program, KANSAS CITY WEEK IN REVIEW. Nick is a former BBC radio news reporter. He was born and raised in Port Talbot, a South Wales steel town that also produced actors Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins. Prior to joining KCPT, Nick served as news director for KANU, the NPR affiliate in Lawrence, KS and was Statehouse Bureau Chief for Kansas Public Radio in Topeka.