John Walker

John Walker’s entire career has been in the hotel, travel and event management industries, starting in hometown Toronto with Skyline Hotels before assignments with Skyline in Ottawa, Jamaica, London (UK) and Panama. In Toronto he spent three years in marketing with Wardair’s. Moving to the UK in 1978, John set up a business travel agency in Oxfordshire before founding Oxford International in 1990. Oxford’s ever-growing team has enjoyed solid growth in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and financial services markets.

John regularly participates on industry advisory boards and has been a board member of Eventia since 2004, heading the Education Committee. He also represents Eventia with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) developing an event management guide for procurement professionals.

John is interested in Eventia’s overall strategic embedives but his priority is education. Over the past year Eventia has tackled some very topical and thorny issues at seminars. John instigated Eventia’s first highly successful Summer Eventia 2006, offering two days of plenary and workshop sessions. In July, the 2008 Summer Eventia attracted 250 industry colleagues to the conference which was held in Manchester. There are plans for a senior level summit early next year and to further develop the link between industry professionals and educators.

Having a solid ‘service industry’ background, running an international event management agency, John feels he is uniquely placed to provide a rounded view of what we should be doing and where Eventia should be going as ‘the voice of our industry’.