‘Everything led to this’: Kendall Williams embraces role with Shelby County tourism, events

Just sitting down and talking with Kendall Williams, it is obvious that she loves her job.

After spending eight years as the director of the Shelby County Schools Education Foundation, she moved into her newly created position as the county’s tourism and events manager at the end of March and is already making an impact.

“Working with SCSEF, that role kept me connected within the community, and I learned things about each city and town in Shelby County,” Williams said. “Even though I lived here for 30 years, there were things I didn’t know before.”

When the tourism and events manager position was officially posted, Williams said she did her research and talked to different county leaders and other tourism managers to find out what the day-to-day operations were.

“Reading the description and thinking about where the position could take Shelby County was really exciting,” she said. “I feel like everything I have done has led me into this position.”

Williams applied, along with 80 other applicants. She went through the two-phase interview process, and after receiving the job offer, she was hired and started a month later.

The three main roles of her position are event planning and recruiting; marketing and branding; and serving as the executive director of Leadership Shelby County, a group she was already involved with.

With Carol Bruser, the former director of LSC, stepping away from the role, the board decided to combine that position with the tourism and events position.

“Having LSC under the county better aligns it with the goals and mission of the organization,” Williams said.

Williams graduated from LSC in 2012, began serving on the board in 2013 and has remained involved since. She said she has been implementing ways to run the program more efficiently.

“In my first year as director, being involved from the selection process to setting up each class day has been eye opening and rewarding to know the full circle of the entire program,” she said.

On the tourism side, Williams said her goal is to appeal to three different types of tourists: residents, who are the greatest ambassadors for the county; leisure travelers, who come for events like concerts at the Shelby County Arts Center’s Black Box Theater or to visit Oak Mountain State Park, the largest state park in Alabama; and those who come for a specific event and come back by choice.

“I began to look at how impactive [this position] could be for our county and how we could make it more of an attractive destination place,” she said. “What I’ve found is that no matter what your interests are, there’s something here for you in Shelby County,” she said.

Shelby County is already host to several large annual events, including the XTERRA triathlon at Oak Mountain State Park. Williams said it was nice to come from the event planning side to being a partner for the event.

“I think having been on the actual event organizer side gave me a unique perspective,” she said. “We don’t just support the event financially, but let them use ATVs to get people around, digital signs to help advertise, the city of Pelham provides police officers. That’s the mentality that has helped drive what we’ve done over the last six months: We just want to be a good partner for these events.”

During a presentation she made at a Shelby County Chamber meeting earlier this year, Williams pointed out some other popular spots in the county that hosts events. The Pelham Racquet Club hosts many tennis tournaments, the Pelham Civic Complex hosts a national qualifier billiards event, many BUSA and club soccer tournaments are hosted in different municipalities and at the 1996 fields on U.S. 280, the 4H Center in Columbiana hosts many corporate events and Lay Lake is on the Alabama Bass Trail and hosts tournaments that bring up to 350 boats a day.

“We also recently joined the Sports ETA (Events and Tourism Association), a national organization that helps match the rights holders/event planners to destinations where their events would be a good fit,” she said.

Williams said tourism is important to the county because the lodging tax that comes from hotels, residual sales tax of people getting gas, eating in restaurants and shopping in local stores brings in money that can be used to invest back into the communities to improve the quality of life for residents and also provide a better visitor experience.

In 2019, the budget numbers from lodging tax numbers was $2,342,305. It took a hit during the pandemic, dropping to $1,757,119 but was back up in 2021 at $2,194,315, coming in at $800,000 over what had been budgeted.

Williams will work to find out why certain events aren’t being held in Shelby County and what could be done to get them here.

“If it’s infrastructure and facilities, maybe we can build the structure or improve existing facilities to perhaps draw in the event next year,” she said. “Part of the job I’m learning is how we can grow to attract those different events?”

One improvement for visitors, as well as residents, is trail maintenance and improvements. A project that recently got underway is the Double Oak Park (at Shelby County 43) and Dunnavant Valley Park (at Shelby County 41). The county bought 750 acres of land for trails that will be used for mountain biking, hiking and running.

“Being in the planning stages has been eye opening,” Williams said, “to think about the front end from the event side when mapping out trails and how we can build those to accommodate and be attractive to new events in the area. I’m learning stuff every day.”

Shelby County will also host several events during the 2022 World Games that begin in July. Four confirmed events will be at Oak Mountain State Park, including wakeboarding, canoe marathon, waterskiing and middle distance orienteering.

“There are lots of details to work out to make it the best fan experience with the actual infrastructure that we have,” Williams said.

If there was a benefit to the pandemic, Williams said it allowed people to look in their own backyard and discover things that had been there all along and they never had a reason to seek it out.

“It helped us to be able to promote the beauty and highlights of Shelby County that people may not have otherwise taken the time to explore,” she said.