Team spirit drives the journey toward success at digital travel marketing org Tempest

Years of coaching collegiate field hockey prepared Chelsea Cipriani for her leadership of the fast-paced moving parts that make up Tempest, a multi-faceted destination organization agency that engages with more than 200 locations across the country. Destination orgs are tourism bureaus that aim to draw people to their region to visit, work and live. Tempest helps these orgs via its cloud-based CRM and marketing services.

“As an athlete, you have a goal, and you collectively decide on your goal with your team members. You have to compromise with each other and meet each other where you are,” said Cipriani, VP of platforms at Tempest. “I learned how to motivate and get people on the same page toward the common goal.”

Cipriani received a communications degree from Wake Forest University, where she played D1 field hockey and was a member of the 2004 team that won the NCAA National Championship. After graduating in 2008, Cipriani coached at several institutions, including St. Joseph’s University and the University of Delaware.

In 2018, Cipriani started at Center City-based Tempest as the client success director. Her role evolved into her current position when she saw areas where Tempest could improve, and used her skillset to implement those changes. As VP of platforms, Cipriani leads daily scrums to track the progress of the projects that Tempest’s CRM, integrated marketing services and web development teams are focused on.

Her role at Tempest has cultivated Cipriani’s tactical proficiencies, such as product roadmap oversight, ticket management, and overall project planning and prioritization. She said she’s also built a speciality in forming client relationships “by learning their business practices, understanding their needs, and advocating for them through our product enhancements and prioritization.”

Above all, Cipriani enjoys motivating the people around her, especially her coworkers.

“I do have a passion for helping to develop people and their skills, and helping them achieve their goals,” she said. “I think that adds to my abilities as an employee at Tempest.”

Below, Cipriani shares a bit about what it’s like to work at Tempest.

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What’s one of your favorite memories at Tempest?

Pre-COVID, I got to play ping pong against Gritty at our office’s grand opening.

What’s one of Tempest’s accomplishments that you’re proud of?

While the pandemic was happening, we really had the ability to help out the local businesses near the destination organizations we work with. Our clients utilized iDSS Cyclone, our cloud-based CRM, in conjunction with their Tempest websites to update the communities on the status of restaurants and businesses. They were also able to share their COVID protocols.

That was really nice because we were able to see our product in action during COVID. It was satisfying to be a part of, especially since restaurants and the tourism industry were so hard hit over the last year and a half.

What are you looking forward to at Tempest?

We are currently focusing on supporting our clients as tourism, travel, meetings are building back up and collectively gearing up for our annual Tourism Academy user conference, which will be held in Philadelphia this year.