Meet Debbie Garcia
In an industry long driven by travel-heavy processes, fragmented communication, and relentless urgency, Debbie Garcia is quietly redefining what progress really looks like. Based in Nashville, she is the founder and CEO of virsitour, a virtual event sourcing and planning platform built to make work easier, decisions smarter, and lives more balanced. Debbie is not a founder who arrived with a pitch deck and a theory. She arrived with decades of lived experience across media, hospitality, event planning, sales, event technologya, nd with a deep understanding of how the industry actually functions on the ground. Virsitour reflects that reality. It connects destinations, hotels, venues, and event services with decision-ready planners before the cold call, and before time and energy are wasted on misalignment.
At the heart of Debbie’s work is a belief that feels increasingly radical in high-performance industries: success should not come at the cost of burnout. Technology should serve people, not overwhelm them. And leadership, at its best, should be practical, empathetic, and grounded in real life.
Early Roots: Creativity, Independence, and Refusing to Fit One Mold
Debbie Garcia was born in Queens, New York, and raised on Long Island, but from an early age, she resisted being defined by a single identity. She gravitated toward theater, media, and performance, living comfortably at the intersection of creative and analytical worlds. She was the cheerleader who also played drums in the band, performed in school musicals, and wore combat boots, not to stand out, but because she never felt compelled to fit neatly into one box. That independent streak shaped how she would later approach leadership and problem-solving. Debbie attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, earning a degree in Communications with a focus on radio, television, and film. Her early career took her straight into the fast-paced media landscape of Manhattan, where she worked as a producer, editor, engineer, and reporter across major radio and broadcast networks.
For more than a decade, she operated behind the scenes and on air, producing national content, managing live broadcasts, and learning how to tell clear, compelling stories under pressure. Those years honed her technical precision, communication skills, and calm decisiveness capabilities that would later become cornerstones of her leadership style. In 2003, an opportunity brought Debbie to Nashville. That move marked the beginning of a new chapter, one that would eventually lead her into the heart of the hospitality and events industry.
Learning the Industry from the Inside Out
Debbie’s ascent in the events world was shaped by range, not linear progression. She worked across hotel brands, venues, catering operations, destination sourcing, and third-party event planning. She held roles in conference services, catering sales, national accounts, and business development, gaining firsthand insight into the challenges planners and suppliers face every day. She saw planners struggling with tight timelines, limited budgets, and the expectation to make major decisions after whirlwind site visits. She watched suppliers invest enormous effort responding to RFPs that were never a true fit, and she experienced the inefficiencies of fragmented systems.
Later, leadership roles at event technology startups expanded her perspective even further. Debbie understood the promise of tech, but she also recognized its limitations when built without deep industry fluency. Too often, tools were designed to look innovative rather than function intuitively within real workflows.
Through it all, one belief stayed constant: just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the right way.
The Turning Point: When the Industry Stopped and Clarity Began
That friction came into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the meetings and events industry shut down almost overnight, Debbie lost her job and her sourcing-based commission income. At the same time, her clients still needed support. They were being asked to make high-stakes decisions without traveling or seeing spaces in person, and there was no effective system in place to help them do that.
Reflecting on that moment, Debbie has shared, “A week after being laid off from a tech startup at the start of the pandemic, I found myself at home with two young kids, grieving the loss of my income and professional identity.”
What began as a crisis quickly became clarity. She recognized that the industry relied too heavily on outdated, travel-dependent processes that no longer made sense for people or the planet. Virsitour was not born from a business plan drafted in a vacuum. Debbie reflects, “Virsitour was born from necessity, but built with intention.” The idea emerged directly from lived experience, grounded in real needs rather than theoretical solutions.
Virsitour: Technology Built for Real Life
In April 2020, Debbie founded Virsitour, stepping into the role of CEO with a clear purpose. The platform was designed to connect destinations, hotels, venues, and event services with decision-ready planners before the RFP, before the cold call, and before wasted time. The platform allows planners to virtually step inside venues anywhere in the world through immersive site tours and walkthrough videos offering clarity without unnecessary travel. Real-time specifications and side-by-side comparisons help planners evaluate options confidently.
For Debbie, these features were not innovations for their own sake. They were responses to problems she had lived through herself. Debbie built the platform with a simple question in mind: Does this actually make someone’s job easier? If the answer was no, it didn’t belong. Her leadership style reflects that same practicality. She leads with empathy, transparency, and an insistence that work should make life easier, not harder.
She has explained her motivation simply, saying, “I built Virsitour because I knew the industry needed something better, and now we’re helping planners and suppliers find the right fit faster.”
Leadership Grounded in Empathy and Integrity
Debbie leads with empathy, practicality, and transparency. She believes work should support life, not consume it and that long-term success requires systems designed for how people actually operate, not how they are expected to perform. Her leadership philosophy emphasizes trust, flexibility, and sustainability, particularly for women navigating demanding industries.
She is vocal about challenging outdated norms that reward burnout and constant urgency, and she is intentional about building tools and cultures that respect real lives. Beyond virsitour, Debbie serves in leadership and advisory roles within industry organizations, contributes thoughtful commentary through her writing, and continues to invest in her own growth as she pursues an Executive MBA.
Recognition and Industry Honors
The difference Debbie has made across the industry hasn’t stayed behind the scenes. Over the years, Garcia has been recognized as a Meetings Today Trendsetter, a Women in Travel & Hospitality Game Changer, an Eventex Influential Event Tech Pro, and a Smart Women in Meetings Innovator. She is a Hall of Fame inductee, a Planner of the Year honoree, a recipient of the MPI President’s Award, and a finalist for Nashville Tech Council Startup of the Year. She has also earned multiple Founder Live wins at both the Nashville and regional levels.
Debbie shares, “The recognition I value most is when someone says, ‘This made my job easier.’”
That sentiment captures the heart of her work. She did not set out to build a tech company. She set out to solve a problem that needed fixing.
A Legacy of Thoughtful Change
Debbie Garcia did not set out to build a tech company. She set out to solve a problem that needed fixing. Her work reflects a deeper commitment to leaving the events industry more thoughtful, more balanced, and more human than she found it. Through virsitour, she is proving that innovation does not have to be loud to be transformative, and that the most meaningful change often comes from listening closely and building intentionally.
“Just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the right way.”
For Debbie Garcia, that belief is not a slogan. It is the foundation of everything she builds.
Looking Ahead: Scaling with Purpose
Debbie’s vision for virsitour is rooted in participation, not optics. Because the platform operates on a commission-based model, success depends on real usage, real bookings, and real collaboration among planners, suppliers, and destinations. She is focused on expanding destination partnerships, onboarding engaged users, and investing in education and consulting initiatives that help industry professionals adopt digital tools with confidence. Her long-term goal is to shift event sourcing toward smarter, more sustainable practices, where virtual evaluation becomes the starting point, not the exception.
Scale, for Debbie, is not about growth at any cost. It is about staying grounded in real needs, real workflows, and real outcomes.
Empowering Lessons from the Path of Debbie Garcia
- “Sustainable success is created when systems reduce friction rather than glorify burnout.”
- “Just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the right way.”
- “The most effective solutions emerge when technology reflects real workflows and real human needs.”
Editorial Note: A Call to Human-Centered Leadership
Debbie Garcia journey is a reminder that the most meaningful leadership is grounded in empathy, clarity, and courage. By building with intention and challenging outdated norms, she is shaping a more sustainable and human future for the events industry. Her journey invites leaders everywhere to rethink not just how we work, but who our work is truly for.
