Upper management for Reed Exhibitions’ The Americas Meetings and Events Exhibition is in transition. Steve Knight, who served as project director for the Baltimore-based AIBTM in 2011, its inaugural year, and had worked for Reed since 2005, is now exhibition director for the new The Meetings Show UK.
Until Reed hires Knight’s replacement, Graeme Barnett will serve as AIBTM’s interim event director and work out of offices in Norwalk, Conn., for the show coming up June 19–21. Barnett is event director for EIBTM, the European event in Reed’s IBTM meetings and incentives portfolio. While Barnett is working on AIBTM, Mandy Torrens, the IBTM head of marketing and buyer programs, will fill his EIBTM role.
At The Meetings Show UK, Knight will be managing another startup. In mid-March, Centaur Exhibitions announced the new meetings industry show. Centaur plans to launch in July 2013 with 1,000 hosted buyers at Olympia, West London. Commenting on his appointment, Knight said, “Centaur’s decision to launch a hosted-buyer-led meetings show has come at the perfect time for an industry looking to achieve maximum value from marketing, meeting, and education budgets and time.”
