In this newly-created role, Sue will be responsible for proactively converting more bids for association events for London.

Building on Visit London’s current successes in this key sector, Sue will build relationships with key association meeting planners and decision makers in the market.

Sue has been working for Visit London for the past 12 months as Interim Manager Sales and Convention Services, covering maternity leave.

During this time she has been responsible for delivering the roll out of a new CRM system, as well as leading the restructured Sales and Convention Services team. 

In her new role Sue will report into Visit London’s Commercial Director David Hornby and will manage an Associations team of two.

David Hornby said:

“We are delighted to confirm Sue in this exciting new post. Sue’s knowledge and experience will play a significant role in raising London’s profile in the association and institutional events industry. She will also be invaluable in leading and managing Visit London’s Association team.”

Sue Bertram said:

“This is an immensely exciting time to be part of Visit London’s events sales team and a fantastic opportunity to position London as a key contender for the large national and international association and institutional events.”   

Sue is no stranger to the associations market. During her career, she has won many major bids for some of the UK’s largest convention hotels. 

After graduating in Hotel Management from The University of Aberdeen, she went on to work for Holiday Inns, the Australian Tourist Commission, specialist motivation agency the Grass Roots Group, Metropole Hotels (Lonhro), Millennium Hotels and Reed Travel Exhibitions.

In 2001 Sue moved into the world of I.T with Docucorp, an American based software company, with the brief to spearhead their ambitious expansion programme in Europe and Asia Pacific.

However she missed the travel industry and returned to it on a freelance basis in January 2004.  Clients have included RTE, MCI UK, The B+B Collection and Visit London.

Visit London’s marketing activity and sales achievements have escalated over the past two years. Sales missions and familiarisation trips have contributed to raising London’s profile in key markets; confirmed business last year topped £77million, up from £43million the previous year.

The association and not-for-profit sector is an increasingly valuable market for London.  Forthcoming events in the capital include:

• The World Congress on Ultrasound and Obstetrics in Gynecology (3-7 September 2006, Hilton London Metropole, 1000 delegates)
• XX1V Congress of the ESCRS (9-13 September 2006, ExCeL London, 5000 delegates)
• Congress 2006 (17-20 September 2006, The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, 1000 delegates)
• ITS World Congress (8-12 October 2006, ExCeL London, 5000 delegates)

These four events alone represent over £12million in economic benefit to the capital.  Other recent wins for London include the 2011 WorldSkills Competition (ExCeL London, 45,000 delegates) and the 8th European Congress on Menopause and Andropause 2009 (ExCeL London, 2500 delegates).

Winning the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games has thrust London into the spotlight and represents a huge opportunity for the capital.  In addition new developments such as ExCeL London have increased London’s attractiveness to conference and event organisers.