Taking a Shot at Tourism Made Twiggs Dyer a Community Star

Allyson Twiggs Dyer was a successful tourism official with the city of Fayetteville when she was chosen as a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 2007 Forty Under 40 class.

Nearly five years later, her career is still thriving — just in a different location.

Dyer, who also married in 2008, was director of the Fayetteville Convention & Visitors Bureau from 2002 to 2010. In October of that year, she resigned after accepting an offer from Raymond Burns, the president and CEO of the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, to become director of the Rogers Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“It was tough,” Dyer said of leaving her job in Fayetteville. “But there are opportunities in your career that you absolutely cannot pass up. This was one of those opportunities for me.”

The two jobs are similar, Dyer said, in that both bureaus market their respective cities to tourists.

But where Fayetteville focused on the leisure market — weekend visitors and travelers to Arkansas Razorback football games or other special events — Rogers focuses on the convention and conference market with the presence of the John Q. Hammons Center.

“We look at the leisure market, too,” Dyer said. “It’s just when you have a convention center, that’s your business.”

Dyer said the chance to contribute for both the chamber and the visitors bureau was an appealing factor in making the move to Rogers.

Her first few years in Fayetteville, her office was in the chamber of commerce building. It was hard not to “catch the chamber bug” being in the presence of then-chamber president Bill Ramsey, she said.

“Fayetteville is a stand-alone business bureau and here it’s a chamber business bureau,” Dyer said. “When I was considering this job, that was a real win-win for me to be able to do both kinds of work.”

Dyer said her biggest piece of advice to anyone starting down a career path is to embrace education and each opportunity that presents itself.

Dyer was a star player on a state championship basketball team at Gentry High School in the late 1980s and lettered four years at the University of Arkansas. Graduating with a broadcast journalism degree, she was convinced she would become the next Robin Roberts, the former ESPN sportscaster turned “Good Morning America” co-anchor.

“If you had told me in college I would be in the tourism and chamber industry, I wouldn’t have thought that,” she said. “I would have been in sports. But it’s such a perfect fit I’m glad it happened.

“You never know what opportunities are going to be presented to you. Get a degree, no matter what’s in, and get out and meet as many people as you can.”

Dyer will continue to split her time between Benton and Washington counties in one respect. She still maintains a home in Fayetteville with her husband and 14-year-old son, though they’ll likely move to Rogers after his graduation from Fayetteville High School.

“I feel like I get the best of both worlds,” she said. “My son is in their wonderful school system but my work home is here in Rogers, and I’m learning all about this incredible community and its great school system.”

Away from work, Dyer is a former board member of Pagnozzi Charities and is still passionate about the group’s efforts. She also sits on the board of directors of the Razorback “A” Club, an organization composed of those who lettered at the UA in men’s and women’s athletics.

Dyer is also a board member for Main Street Rogers and the Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association, which promotes a regional approach in its marketing efforts.

“In tourism, that’s even more important here because the visitor has no idea where the (city limits) are,” she said. “They aren’t worried about what city their money is spent in. They want to have a nice time.”

As for how she spends her free time, sports continue to be a big part of Dyer’s life, particularly the fortunes of her beloved Razorbacks and the New York Yankees.

“My son jokes I’m the only mom he knows that when he walks in their house there’s always sports on,” she said. “It’s just been a big part of my life for so long.”

Dyer spends much of her time watching the sports endeavors of her son, a budding two-sport star at Woodland Junior High in Fayetteville.

“He did finally beat me in H-O-R-S-E this year and he’s pretty proud of that fact,” Dyer said. “But it was after many, many games because I can still shoot pretty well.”