Page 56 - July 2017 inLeague and Conference Program

Conference Speakers Continued

with LHAT since 2005.

Spencer Pratt joined Peerspace in 2014 and launched the Los Angeles market when Peerspace was still an
iPhone only app. Since then, he’s helped grow both sides of the marketplace, ultimately specializing in the host
portion of the business. Currently, Pratt oversees local supply operations in the Greater LA area and in Austin,
Texas. He is an LA native with a passion for all of the cultural underpinnings the city has to offer.

Adam Qualter is the Crew Chief at Centre in the Square, a 2000 seat performing arts center in Kitchener,
Ontario. Centre in the Square opened in 1980 and is now an older facility, not yet appreciated as historic
but still dealing with many of the same issues. With the second largest stage in Canada, Centre in the Square
entertains a very broad notion of what can be "staged". Prior to Centre in the Square, Adam was the Producer
and Instructor for the Theatre Program at Wilfrid Laurier University and taught courses in lighting, stagecraft
and dramatic literature for the Theatre Program at Fanshawe College. He also spent ten seasons as a
member of the stage crew at the Stratford Festival. Adam was an active member of the Canadian Institute
of Theatre Technology, serving the Ontario Section as co-chair of both the Health and Safety Committee and
the Programming Committee. He was a member of the City of Kitchener's CulturePlan, helping to develop a
citywide Strategic Cultural Masterplan and was appointed to The Region of Waterloo History Museum Feasibility
Study. Currently Adam is a volunteer with the annual Downtown Kitchener Blues Festival.

Julie Ragland, Development Director of the Rialto Theatre in downtown Tucson, Arizona, has over 15 years of
experience working in the non-profit field, with over 10 of those in fundraising and membership development.
Julie has worked at various local and national non-profits, including the historic Fox Tucson Theatre, and
since joining the staff of the historic non-profit Rialto Theatre, has helped grow membership by 64% and has
successfully launched a $1.5 million capital campaign project.

Jere Righter is the artistic director of the Croswell Opera House, the oldest theater in Michigan and one of the
oldest continuously operating theaters in the United States. Before coming to the Croswell, she served as vice
president for advancement at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, and as a major gifts officer at the
University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. She led the Croswell through its recent successful capital
campaign, which raised more than $8 million between 2014 and 2016.

Wynn J. Salisch, CCM, ETA CPP, MBKS is the founder and Principal of the merchant payments firm Casablanca
Ventures LLC. A veteran leisure industry professional with over a half century of experience in show business
– from onstage, backstage and front of house to venture development and corporate management – plus
payments and hospitality, he’s directed over 1,000 theatre and food & beverage operations worldwide,
helped build the Clearview Cinemas theatre circuit and design New York’s Angelika Film Center, and
created successful hospitality destinations, among many other credits. He teaches payment processing and
cybersecurity for trade associations nationwide, studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and with
Tony Award-winning lighting designer Jean Rosenthal, and is a graduate of The School of Hotel Administration
at Cornell University. Wynn has been awarded the Electronic Transaction Association’s Certified Payments
Professional designation (earned by less than 1% of the payments industry) and is a Partner on the U.S. Secret
Service Electronic Crimes Task Force and a member of the International Cinema Technology Association, British
Kinematograph Sound & Television Society, Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers, League of Historic American
Theatres, the boards of directors of the Asian American International Film Festival and La MaMa E.T.C., and
the advisory board of the Provincetown International Film Festival, and was given honorary memberships in
the Cinema Projectionists Union of Iceland and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision - the New Zealand Archive of
Film, Television and Sound. Casablanca was started 15 years ago as a payments industry merchant advocate
to rescue friends and associates from fast-talking merchant services salespeople claiming to offer savings
but leaving them with hidden high costs, confusing fees, and poor service. The company provides analysis,
education and solutions in payments and data security and works with dozens of top-notch providers around
the world to find the best solutions for their clients’ specific needs with maximum savings, service and security.
With its origins in hospitality, the company is completely focused on giving its clients exceptional customer
service, which has resulted in the highest client loyalty rate in the payments industry. Casablanca’s help is
always completely free and without obligation.

Michael Schnoering, FAIA is a founding partner at Mills + Schnoering Architects, LLC, one of the most well-
known firms in the arenas of Historic Preservation, particularly on cultural projects. He has worked on a number

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