Lewis-Smith has been at the helm of BESydney since 2012 and has been with the organisation for 22 years in total.
Addressing industry at BESydney’s drinks following its annual general meeting yesterday, Lewis-Smith credited her “incredibly team” as the “driving force for my long tenure” at the strategic event bidding organisation.
With Lewis-Smith to stay in the role until June 2025, after choosing not to renew her contract, her focus is still very much on her tasks at hand at BESydney.
“I’ve still got eight months and it is business as usual,” she said.
“I want to say how incredibly excited I am about the direction that we’re taking and the collaboration across this city with all [our] partners.
“We’re in an incredibly strong position. We have around $400 million worth of confirmed events from next year into the forward calendar and there are $600 million worth of bids with decisions pending.
“That’s nearly a billion dollars’ worth of business.
“We see huge opportunity with Western Sydney International [Airport] coming onboard.
“The visitor economy strategy recommendations had business events front and centre for the first time and we’re looking forward to working with government on the new strategy and what growth looks like for our city with Western Sydney International opening,” she said.
At BESydney’s AGM yesterday, the organisation revealed a strong set of results, having notched up 69 national and international event wins over the last financial year that are expected to draw 61,000 delegates and be worth an estimated $217 million in spend for New South Wales.
Another 69 events that BESydney had a hand in bringing to the city were delivered over the financial year, attracting 51,000 delegates and generating an estimated $216 million in spending.
Out to 2030, BESydney has worked to secure 58 global and national business events for an anticipated 101,000 delegates who are expected to spend $401 million in the local economy.
During the AGM, two members of the industry joined the BESydney board – Nathan Cox from Accor and Michael Magafa from Encore Event Technologies. The pair replace Emma Bowyer from ICMS Australasia who wrapped up her three-year term and Marcus Hanna who was with Sofitel, MGallery and Emblems, but has not left Accor and resigned from the board in August.
The chair of the BESydney board, Professor Mary O’Kane AC, had plenty of praise for Lewis-Smith when announcing her departure yesterday.
“I’d like to be the first to thank her for her incredible stewardship of this great organisation. She’s led Business Events Sydney with vision, with passion, with integrity over the past 12 years and the business and the business events industry globally [are] the better for this.
“Having given us this very long notice, it does ensure a smooth transition which…is incredibly important for a knowledge organisation, that we can pass over all that knowledge, all those learnings that she’s acquired over the 12 years and more.”
The BESydney board will begin the recruitment process for a new CEO shortly.
