Jason LaVanture
VP/ Founder
Meet Jason LaVanture! Jason finished school in 1999 with a business degree, a private pilot’s license, and a burning desire to make a difference in the world. He saw the need for a greener home shopping experience, as well as digital marketing partners for real estate agents, so Jason began developing the RTV virtual tour software system. Several months into his endeavor he met Doug Knorr, owner of Knorr Marketing, a Traverse City ad agency and web development company.
Present day, Jason is the Vice President of RTV, Inc which maintains the largest network of independent virtual reality photographers in the world. RTV has sold several thousand of their virtual tour software kits, has created over two thousand jobs in the USA, and RTV’s virtual tour photographers service over sixty thousand real estate agents worldwide.
In late 2008 Jason was challenged to “walk the talk” and start up an RTV providership of his own in the small town of Traverse City. He accepted the challenge and BlueLaVaMedia came to fruition. Employer of three,
BlueLaVaMedia is amongst the top fifty RTV providerships in the world and in a three year span has already published over 700 virtual tours. Jason takes the vast information that he learns from running his own successful RTV providership and hosts a talk show for his virtual tour photographers twice a month called The FORMULA so he can share the secrets of success with the network of providers.
Jason brings over twelve years of internet savvy and expertise to the table and wears many hats at RTV including sales, marketing, product development, and head money spender. Jason loves assisting his virtual tour photographers and making the RTV network the strongest network of independent photographers in the world.
Douglas Knorr
Chairman / CEO
Doug’s enthusiasm and zest for life has guided his professional career in medical technology, broadcast advertising, real estate development, and as founder of Knorr Marketing in 1986. Doug’s synergistic approach in a marketing-partnership philosophy bodes well with the clients that list Knorr Marketing as their agency of record.
Considered a “Retail Marketing Activist,” Doug is nationally known for his expertise in branding and the retail furniture industry, with clients throughout the United States. Beginning in 2004, he began writing articles for the NHFA’s Home Furnishings Retailer magazine. He now writes a monthly column for them called, “Turn it Around!” In his column, he has addressed everything from branding to traditional advertising and the Internet to operational accountability.
Mr. Knorr is also Chairman of the Board of Real Tour Vision, Inc. – a world leader in virtual tour software, panoramic virtual tours with providers throughout the U.S. and in 20 foreign countries.
Virtual tours are a powerful sales tool used by the Real Estate industry, travel/lodging industry, colleges & universities, health care institutions, recreation facilities such as golf courses. A variety of corporate businesses also use this tool to enhance sales, training, human resource communications, investor relations, safety programs and security
Torie Hermel
Director of Technical Support / Customer Service
Torie grew up on a small farm in sunny Northern California. She fed the chickens, slopped the hogs, and ran barefoot through tomato fields. She did wonderfully in school and her dream was to become a marine biologist to fulfill her burning desire to save the whales. These hopes were dashed when, upon honest assessment, she admitted she was afraid to swim in the ocean. Her life took a much more mundane course after that. So much for honest assessments!
Somehow she ended up working with computers, doing technical support, and getting certificates, in a nasty shade of blue, signed by Bill Gates HIMSELF. Very impressive! She cut her technical support teeth on Windows 95 and also did hardware support. She once tried to help a woman install a motherboard over the phone, unsuccessfully, and then asked her, “Is there a kid around?”. Her 9 year old son stepped up and the job was completed quickly. Torie also worked for McAfee and did support for Microsoft Word 2000 and Office 2000 installation.
She has happily put Tour Builder 1.0 – 3.0 behind her and LOVES Tour Builder 4.0 online. RTV has changed so much over the years and she is so excited to see what happens next! Torie has been married exactly 16 days longer than she has worked at RTV. The two smartest and most beautiful children in the world call her Mommy. Repeatedly. Torie’s family is the most important thing her life but she takes great pride in saving the world one virtual tour at a time!
Ben Knorr
Director of National Sales / Setup
Ben Knorr was SO busy taking orders for our national accounts, backing up technical support, building lens files, selling a new RTV providership, packing kits to ship out for the day, helping a new RTV provider through the setup process, hosting a webinar on photography, and telling someone how to effectively build a digital SLR camera from old TV parts, that he has not yet provided us a biography.
Please check back here often and should you talk with Ben over the phone (866-947-8687) please urge him to take just a brief moment out of his busy day and get us some information to replace this disclaimer. Thank you! – Staff
Jacque Stephens-Burke
Director of National Accounts / Event Planning
Jacque Burke, the Tour Track Fairy, has been with RTV since 2006. She rides the mighty Tour Track beast with competence and ease as she doles out over $300,000 worth of work to the photographers in the network and over $1,000,000 since Tour Track began.
Jacque, who is also an award winning and published photographer, has been a photography hobbyist since she was 13 when she stole her older brother’s Pentax K1000 and fell in love. In spite of her love of photography she decided to pursue a career in social work, obtaining a Master’s degree from the University of Michigan. After a brief stint as a social worker she came to RTV to head up Tour Track. She loves working with our eccentric and zany photographers.
Although she one day expected to save the world, she is happy to satisfy that need by planning escape routes for her co-workers in case of a zombie apocalypse, and of course, spreading the unicorns and rainbows around the RTV office. Jacque is happily married and mother to three beautiful and smart children who constantly keep her on her toes. She feels very lucky to work for RTV!
Eve Allard
Accounting / Office Administration
Eve was born and raised in the great state of Michigan but has had the opportunity to live many places and accomplish many things. She has two beautiful children that are ages 21 and 17. She joined the military in 1987. She spent the majority of her career driving fuel tankers and she is a Desert Storm Veteran. She lived in Germany, where her eldest child was born, and saw the fall of the Berlin Wall. She even tried to adopt one of the guard dogs that used to walk the perimeter wall.
She spent 9 years in El Paso, Texas but missed the beautiful lakes and outdoors in Northern Michigan so she returned here in 1999. Eve has experience in office management, bookkeeping, retail, sales, and transportation. She made started at RTV in January 2007 and has seen quite a few wonderful things happen here. She is very exciting about the direction of the company and the super new things that are coming this year!
Tom & Tim Barrons
RTV Technology Team
Tom and Tim Barrons are owners of Byte Productions, a Northern Michigan based, family owned web design company and also technology partners for RTV. Byte Productions was founded in 1991 and is operated by brothers Tom and Tim Barrons. Byte began working for RTV in 2005 and each member of Byte’s team brings unique talents and specialties to RTV.
From graphic designers, musicians and writers, to programmers and hard-core techies, the Byte team has been carefully chosen as a technology partner by RTV because of their ability to cover the broadest possible spectrum of creative and technical areas.
Jill Sill
RTV Marketing Support
Jill Sill joined RTV during the summer of 2009. She uses her skills as a former high school teacher and her passion for language and graphic arts to create our Inner Circle marketing pieces, info packs, provider manuals and our RTV newsletters. She loves to ski and spend time at the beach; both are easy to do here in Northern Michigan. Her main goal is to keep RTV connected with you and you connected with potential clients.
Remember, if you would like to have a custom marketing piece made and are an Inner Circle member, simply fill out our suggestion box and we will add your unique idea to our list.
Melissa Vernon
Graphic Designer / Digital Imaging Specialist
Melissa joined the RTV team in March of 2010. She was born and raised in sunny southern California and made her way out to Michigan in the summer of 2007. She has a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts and is completing her Associate’s degree in web and graphic design. She puts her creative skills and photography background to good use as a digital imaging specialist. She takes her job seriously as she braves the snowy blizzards, clone brush in hand, using her Tour Track fairy magic to rid the world of dark, blurry photos.
Melissa has no children, but has 3 dogs that keep her busy and warm in the winter. She has long been an animal lover and even competed in horseback riding competitions and barrel racing while in high school. She was also a softball player for 8 years, which comes in handy when Jason thinks it is funny to throw random objects at her while she is working. She is the “Scooby” to Jacque’s “Shaggy” and often has to use her detective skills to solve Tour Track mysteries. When no logical explanation is offered, she often blames the Nargles.
Aside from the Nargles and random objects flying at her head (Jason!), Melissa enjoys being a member of the RTV team and feels privileged to be part of such a great company. RTV is always working hard to ensure that we offer only the best to our RTV providers. She can’t wait to see what is in store for the company this year.
RTV, Inc
866-947-8687
