Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Co.—the destination marketing organization for New York City—has been named co-chair of the Meetings Mean Business coalition. He joins Trina Camacho-London, vice president of global group sales, Hyatt Hotels Corp., in the role.
Meetings Mean Business is an advocacy organization that promotes the value of face-to-face events. Conceived after the cascade of meeting cancellations in the years after the financial crisis of 2008, the coalition has worked to validate the meetings industry’s place in building organizations and creating jobs. It has supported and communicated the Events Industry Council’s work with Oxford Economics to measure the economic significance of the meetings industry, worked to educate elected officials and business leaders about that $2.53 trillion in global economic impact, and led the growth of Global Meetings Industry Day, a meetings advocacy event across six continents. (The next GMID is April 14, 2020.)
The list of industry leaders who have taken on the job of co-chairing the Meetings Mean Business coalition is an impressive one. Dixon begins his co-chair role on January 2, 2020, when Julie Coker Graham, president and CEO, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, steps down. And in addition to Coker Graham and Camacho-London, co-chairs have included:
• Larry Luteran, executive vice president and chief sales officer, Freeman AV (then with Hilton Worldwide),
• David Peckinpaugh, president, Maritz Global Events,
• Michael Dominguez, president and CEO, Associated Luxury Hotels International (then with MGM International),
• Richard Harper, executive vice president, HelmsBriscoe, and
• Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO, Meeting Professionals International.
