Pat Hoey still a son of Auburn, and a showman, to the core
By Rod Lee
On the morning of June 11th Patrick J. “Pat” Hoey was standing in an open loading doorway at the DCU Center in Worcester, as larger-than-life a presence as ever.
Mr. Hoey is a native son of the town of Auburn who first came to prominence as an all-conference football player at Auburn High School and then Nichols College, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. An outgoing man with a big personality, he achieved his first marketing successes as a territory sales manager for Burroughs Corp., where, he says, he reached 140% of sales quotas and learned the techniques of sales training.
Upon joining what is now the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, he took on the role of building membership and increased the Chamber’s ranks by 440% during the Bill Short era, from 900 to 4000. He also began producing the Chamber’s New England Business Expo, selling the event out ten years in a row.
Much has changed in the thirty-nine years since. For one thing Mr. Hoey, who is president of Auburn-based Pat Hoey Productions (a division of Sales Development Associates), is leaning more on the skills of his eldest daughter Marlena K. Eastty, who recently returned to the company as vice president.
“She started with us cleaning offices, then answering phones and then it was ʽdad can I sell the flower show?’” Mr. Hoey said with pride in his voice after leading a visitor through the labyrinth corridors of the DCU Center to an office from which the two of them were overseeing setup for the next day’s Northeast Security Systems Contractors Expo.
Ms. Eastty possesses much of her father’s charm and confidence. A graduate of Worcester State University, she comes back to Pat Hoey Productions after a stint at director of operations for the UMass Medical School. In that capacity and at a young age, she coordinated the school’s national health-policy conference, which took her to cities like Baltimore, Atlanta, Houston and, this spring, Las Vegas. In Houston, when floods generated by Hurricane Harvey threatened the conference, Mr. Hoey asked her “what’s your Plan B? Plan C?” Smiling broadly, he said “Marlena pulled it off!”
She is pleased to be part of the firm again. “We have a lot of good projects going on,” she said. “We’re excited.”
Mr. Hoey is looking forward to having Ms. Eastty, whose technological savvy exceeds his own, at his side in adding to the roster of events and shows his company has produced. The list is far-ranging, from the grand opening of Worcester’s Centrum Centre to the Mass Plastics Trade Show in Fitchburg, NCAA “March Madness” at the DCU Center, the MetroWest Business Expo in Framingham, the Boston Home Show in Boston and the Middlesex County Home Show in Marlborough.
“It’s a virtual world,” he said, in acknowledgement that Ms. Eastty will be at the forefront of a more mobile company; and focusing attention not so much on consumer shows as was the case in the past but on “B-to-B” events like the Northeast Security Systems Contractors Expo.
“I’m just a token figurehead,” he said. In other words, Ms. Eastty is the future of Pat Hoey Productions, he hinted.
Meanwhile, it is obvious that Mr. Hoey, who was attired in a shirt open at the neck as is his custom, has not lost his touch. “We did (the Contractors Expo) in Marlborough last year,” he said. In moving the event to the DCU Center, “we wanted more action…booths, networking, education. We wanted to give it more flair. It’s a one-day show but it will include a pub crawl and a golf tournament the next day.”
He is used to overcoming hurdles. When the second year of the New England Business Expo was turned over to a private company, halfway along, Mr. Hoey said, “Bill Short and Kevin Condron said to me ‘Pat we’re in trouble.’ Mr. Hoey saved the event. The third year, he said, “Bill Short said ʽwe want you to do this’ and I said ʽI don’t want to worry about this’ but I did it for them. They dragged me into it. Sure enough, we sold it out eight years in a row, a two-and-half-day show.”
Productions is “a very competitive field,” Mr. Hoey said. “Everyone thinks they can do it. It looks easy but you are dealing with a lot of people and a budget, goals and objectives, attendance.”
“I never wanted to get into the show business,” Mr. Hoey said.
But here he is, still going strong even though he only manages “a few shows a year” for the DCU Center. Also, his once-thriving relationship with the Worcester Regional Chamber, typified by his launch of the organization’s Business after Hours and The Breakfast Club events, is “nonexistent” these days. He does not elaborate on how this came to be except to say “once upon a time you belonged to the Chamber, you went to church on Sunday and you read the newspaper.”
One of eight children whose family had “no money,” he remains town of Auburn-faithful through and through. A fan, too, of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce and Auburn Town Manager Julie Jacobson. The Auburn Chamber, he said, “gives out so much money. That’s what a small Chamber does.”
With that, he was back on the floor, asking one exhibitor if he needed more space, another, on the phone “how late do you want to load in.”
His philosophy is, “we’ll take care of you.”
Because that’s what he does.
Source: http://theyankeexpress.com/content/pat-hoey-still-son-auburn-and-showman-core-0