Story by James Leigh
Photos by Donald Cross
Alexis Hampo may be young, but the special events manager for Visit Hot Springs is not one to let something like age get in the way of doing her job.
A graduate of Fountain Lake High School, Hampo is no stranger to the world of concerts and conventions, having gone to local events like JazzFest and BluesFest for as long as she can remember.
"Wanting to get involved in art and events was something that I was a part of from a pretty early age," she said. "My mom, actually, she started The Springs magazine, and so she used to do tons of live events. So I would go to really early JazzFests, really early BluesFests, all through the early 2000s, so I grew up in live events. And so immediately, volunteering and just being around crowds and energy, music, dancing, all of that just really, really called to me."
Hampo went to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she studied mass communications with a focus in strategic communications, and having worked with VHS Marketing Director Bill Solleder when he was in charge of Low Key Arts, the opportunity arose for her to work with him after graduating.
"I'd actually done some paid work for Bill stage managing and stuff like that, just really similar to what I'm doing now for a lot of the Low Key Arts events," she recalled. "Then the job became available in 2019, which I just jumped on immediately. I think there's something to be said -- somehow Bill knew that I loved events, and it was something that I just, I wanted to be in that kind of world. And so I'm really, really grateful that it's led me to here and that I get to work in events all the time because I love it."
The biggest part of what Hampo does on a daily basis is working with others, which is one of "a billion things that I love" about the job.
"I've always been a pretty social person," she said. "So the fact that a big part of my job is just calling, texting, emailing people, sending Facebook messages and be like, 'Hey, let's work together on this,' I think it really brings me into the community, which I love. I get to work with local artists, local vendors, bands, all different types of people, sanitation department. People from every part of town and even outside of town I get to communicate with and work to bring really beautiful moments to Hot Springs."
Hampo said those moments are things such as seeing a father and daughter dance together, "really heartwarming events that really you can only see at live events."
"If you're at tub races and you see a dad picking up their daughter and like holding them in the air so they can see better, those are really human moments that you can really only experience through live events," she said. "So I love working with people. I love working in the community, and I love building up Hot Springs and bringing cool stuff, just cool things to do to Hot Springs and making it just a more rad place. But there's some really, really special heartwarming moments that I love getting glimpses of that I think are really pivotal to events."
Embracing the history of Hot Springs helps make events like the Stueart Pennington World Championship Running of the Tubs a success, Hampo said.
"What makes an event special is the history, and it's what part of that town's culture you get to use to do your events," she said. "So you think about the World Championship Running of the Tubs. That's a quirky odd, silly event, and it only makes sense here. It only makes sense in Hot Springs because it's based on 'We bathe the world' -- our line and the truth, the history of downtown Hot Springs. The World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade, that's something we get to celebrate and that's something that's special and unique to Hot Springs because it celebrates something that's unique to Hot Springs. We've got Bridge Street; nobody else in the world has a 98-foot (working) street."
While most people might think Hampo's job is just dealing with coming up with events, she said there are two distinct parts to it -- logistics and creativity.
"There's two sides of it," she said. "You've got 'OK, what's the schedule? When are people arriving? What does setup look like? How are we going to move these tables? Where are trash cans going? When are barricades being moved? Let's move some barricades.' So you've got this planning ahead aspect, ... and then on the flip side, you've got these spurts of creativity. And our whole department, our whole Visit Hot Springs universe does a really good job. We all kind of contribute. If we hear one good idea down the hall, 'Hey, can I run with that?'"
Hampo said the struggle is making sure those two sides of the job stay balanced.
"It can be kind of hard not getting bogged down with 'Got to make sure security's here. Got to make sure everybody gets here on time. Got to make sure our schedule is promoted. Make sure all of our messaging is the same. Are there any spelling errors?'" she said.
"So there's emails and calls and texts, and then there's the text that's 'Hey, I just had a great idea, and it's weird, and it's bizarre, and I think it fits Hot Springs.' But that's how all great things start. So that I think is a really cool balance of event planning. Yes, you're dealing with timing and logistics and schedules, and a lot of moving parts, and then there's these flashes of brilliance coming from whatever inspiration it might be. And you get to have that, not artistry, but that creative burst, where it's like, 'How can we make this happen?'"
There is also a struggle for Hampo to find a way to bridge the gap between younger and older eventgoers.
"That is something that I am working on every day," she said. "I think, slowly, steadily and like with a good honest heart, making sure you let the people who have started these events, built these events and made Hot Springs really the booming tourist town that it is now, and you make sure that they are in the loop. You don't just go behind their backs and say, 'I'm doing this thing that because I'm a young person.' No. You say, 'This is an amazing thing,' but the people who have been doing it, they're tired. So many people have been doing these events and been a huge part of the start and the formation and the creativity -- I'm just the next steppingstone."
Having grown up around local events, Hampo said sometimes she has become an extension of her mother, which has grown into an ongoing joke between the two.
"Mom and I have this ongoing joke where she's like, 'I used to be Diana, and now I'm just Alexis' mom,'" she said. "And I can't tell if she actually loves or hates it. It's a good joke; people love the joke. But I still get 'Oh, you're Diana's daughter,' all the time constantly, which she's the most beautiful, amazing person on the planet, so I'm in good company."
Hampo said that has also helped create a familiarity with people instead of having to start at the beginning.
"A lot of the people I'm still actively working with now, they knew me when I was 4 years old running around in a park or doing a little dance to JazzFest, BluesFest, whatever the live event was," she said. "So it makes it, probably, more communal. And it really, I think, helps build the community in a really familial way. So I'm not you know, 'I'm this brand new lady in a blazer coming to do things.' It's 'Oh, that's Alexis. She's been here. I've known her for a billion years.' So I think maybe it's just like a level of comfort and familiarity that probably benefits."
While it seems her job might be never-ending, Hampo has plenty of hobbies outside of work -- from gardening to cooking to playing baseball.
"I am currently on a punk rock baseball team that I've been on for a couple of years, probably since 2021," she said. "It's a really casual, everybody's welcomed kind (of thing). ... I'd never played baseball before then, but I've gotten really into baseball. I just had practice (recently), and I got some really good contact hits. I'm going to hit the scoreboard and go over the fence one of these days."
Visit Hot Springs Special Events Manager Alexis Hampo, center, works to keep the peace between Hot Springs police Sgt. Jarret Cantrell, left, and Hot Springs Fire Department driver Allen Goines while promoting the upcoming Stueart Pennington World Championship Running of the Tubs. (The Sentinel-Record/File photo)
Visit Hot Springs Special Events Manager Alexis Hampo discusses what attendees can expect at Spa-Con Season 7, which opens Friday at Hot Springs Convention Center. (The Sentinel-Record/File photo)
