On Thursday, Feb. 12, Villanova School of Business Unitas hosted its Spotlight Speaker Series event for Black History Month in Bartley Hall’s PwC Auditorium. This event brought in Visit Philadelphia’s President and CEO, Angela Val, and focused on inclusive branding.
The Spotlight Speaker series is an event hosted by VSB Unitas during Heritage Months, such as Black History Month, to ignite curiosity, promote dialogue and create a dynamic space for enhancing cultural competence,” according to VSB’s website.
Dominic Taylor, a senior in VSB, introduced Val and Visit Philadelphia.
“Ms. Val is the President and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, greater Philadelphia’s official nonprofit leisure tourism marketing agency,” Taylor said. “It leads efforts to build its image, drive tourism and strengthen the local economy. She has more than two decades of experience in investment marketing and has a central role in displaying Philadelphia as a welcoming and inclusive city through innovative branding.”
Val noted the overall goals that Visit Philadelphia has as a marketing agency.
“Our goal is to get the people to come here, to pick this place,” Val said. “If you haven’t been to Philadelphia, we want you to come in 2026. If you haven’t been here in a while, we want you to come back.”
Val was then asked specifically about the agency’s role in celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary, among other big events occurring in the city during 2026.
“We want to put our best foot forward to give us an opportunity to use this moment as a starting point and not an ending point for what can happen with Philadelphia,” Val said.
Then, Val was asked about what she wants people to take away from these events about the city of Philadelphia. She stated that these events have and hopefully will continue to bring in more people and really “change how people see us.”
Val was also asked about the National Park Service’s removal of exhibits discussing slavery in Philadelphia.
“For us not to acknowledge these people and tell their stories along with all of the other stories was not authentic to us,” Val said. “We are a Quaker city, right? Where it’s a city of tolerance and understanding, where we make room for each other, everyone.”
She hopes to reprint and replace the panels, but said that this is not possible currently due to lawsuits. However, in the interim, people have taken action.
“And the thing that warms my heart is that there are folks now,” Val said. “Somebody has written out every word from those panels, and people in Philadelphia take turns reading the panels out on the weekends so that people know what the story is.”
Val also talked about Visit Philly’s work to both welcome and share stories from diverse communities, such as the LGBTQ+ community
“We were the first city to invite the LGBTQ community to spend their tourism dollars here,” Val said.
Val also spoke about campaigns to rein in more diverse audiences and encourage them to be proud of their backgrounds.
“Twenty-five percent of our marketing budget goes to what we say are diverse audiences, and right now, we are doing an Indivisible campaign where we want people to understand that who you are as an American is also who you are from your ethnicity and your race,” Val said.
Near the end of her talk, Val elaborated on her perspective as to how Black History Month should be celebrated
“Putting an ad on a website that says Happy Black History Month doesn’t mean anything,” Val said. “It is just lip service. You have to, throughout the year, address these communities. Understand that there are differences. We don’t have to all be the same or like the same thing. It’s fine.”
To end the conversation, Val stated her overarching goal for Visit Philadelphia
“So I want [it] to be [a place] to be yourself,” Val said. “That you can feel comfortable in your own skin, no matter who you are.”
VSB Unitas will host its next Spotlight Speaker Series in Bartley Hall’s PwC Auditorium on March 12.
