Business Tourism Breakfast Briefing

Speaker Biographies

Moderator - Kurt Janson is Policy Director at the Tourism Alliance, the umbrella trade association for the tourism and hospitality sector. It brings together almost 50 industry associations, collectively representing almost 200,000 businesses in the UK.

The Alliance exists to work with and lobby government on all key issues relevant to the growth and development of tourism and its contribution to the economy, and Kurt himself has an impressive track record in national and regional tourism strategy.

Sir John Butterfill has been Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West since 1983. He is a former Parliamentary Private Secretary to Cecil Parkinson as both Secretary of State for Energy and Secretary of State for Transport and to Brian Mawhinney at the Northern Ireland Office. Sir John currently serves as Treasurer on the influential Conservative 1922 Committee. He is also one of the longest serving members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Tourism. Sir John's constituency contains Bournemouth Town Centre, the Bournemouth International Centre and Bournemouth Pier.

Michael Hirst is Chairman of the Business Tourism Partnership. He s also a Director of the Tourism Alliance and has served on the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport’s Tourism Advisory Group - representing business tourism interests at Government consultation meetings. A former Board Member of the Hilton Group, Michael is a Fellow of the Hotel & Catering Management Association and was appointed OBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2004 for his service to the tourism industry.

Joss Croft is Head of Business Visits and Events, VisitBritain. He returned to take up this post in 2006, having been Manager of VisitBritain’s presence in Spain and Portugal, where he helped to increase Spain’s position from 6th to 5th most important source market for visits to Britain. In his current role, Joss leads the positioning and marketing of Britain as the destination of choice for all business travel and events.

Nigel Cooper is a main Board Director of marketing services group Motivcom plc. He is also Managing Director of leading events agencies P&MM Travel and sister company Archer Young. In 2004 Nigel was elected to the Board of Eventia’s forerunner, the Incentive Travel & Meetings Association, becoming its Chairman a year later. He led the Board in the ITMA’s successful merger with the Corporate Events Association at the end of 2005 and remains Chairman of the new body.

Trevor Foley is Group Chief Executive of the Events Industry Alliance. He has worked in publishing and exhibitions media since 1987. He joined the Association of Exhibition Organisers in 1998 and has grown the association dynamically since that time – adding the Association of Event Venues and the Association of Exhibition Contractors to create the umbrella body, the Events Industry Alliance in 2005.

With an impressive career in the hotel industry, Tom Hulton became Secretary General of the International Hotel Association in Paris before joining the International Congress and Convention Association 1994 as CEO based in Amsterdam. In 2002 he returned to the UK to set up his own consultancy. Tom currently works with international exhibition IMEX as Director of International Relations and has also developed the IMEX Future Leaders’ Forum.

Robert Wright is Managing Director of hospitality public relations and marketing agency Davies Tanner. Among its portfolio of events industry clients, Davies Tanner is currently implementing a PR strategy for International Confex, the UK-based exhibition for the global events industry. Of particular relevance to this morning’s discussions, Davies Tanner is responsible for placing the annual National Meetings Week campaign firmly in the public eye.