Changes at BCEC
The centre’s director of events and customer services, Shaun Mitchell, and BCEC’s director of sales, Alison Gardiner, have had their roles expanded as the venue gears up for its role in the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Mitchell will become the second in charge to BCEC’s general manager Kym Guesdon, taking on responsibility for managing and optimising the business mix, the level of business and the centre’s spaces.
As part of BCEC’s growth strategy, Gardiner will become head director of sales, strategy and partnerships. The strategy aims to benefit Brisbane’s business events sector as a whole.
Guesdon says the changes will allow BCEC to fully capitalise on the opportunities offered to the venue by Brisbane’s status as an Olympic host city.
“Strong collaboration is critical, with state government, our universities and business, all united in a common goal,” she said.
“The combined focus of 2032 and beyond, will be a key accelerator in our future achievements. Utilising the depth of experience, skills, and collective knowledge we have in our leadership team makes absolute sense.”
Gardiner says the Olympic host city status is already delivering returns across Brisbane.
“We are seeing what BCEC is calling ‘the first wave of legacy’, said Gardiner.
“BCEC has been leveraging the messaging of Brisbane as an Olympic host city in future conference bids, presentations, and conversations. Nationally, there is a sense of momentum about Brisbane, and the international market is coming to understand Brisbane’s strong convention offering.
“As the government-owned venue charged with securing key international and national business events for Brisbane, BCEC is committed to working with city partners to secure an enhanced legacy of strategic outcomes for Brisbane.”
Meanwhile Mitchell’s role will see that the continuing high demand the centre is expecting, can be met by the team and the venue spaces, while still delivering high standards of customer service.
BESydney takes on social impact talent
As part of its commitment to social impact, BESydney has taken on sustainability specialist Tina Demetriou to drive a social impact agenda from the bidding stage right through an event’s lifecycle in Sydney.
Demetriou has a strong sustainability and events background, having worked as a sustainable events consultant for almost 20 years.
In her role with BESydney, she will expand Sydney’s business events social impact ecosystem and work with the client engagement team and BESydney’s global clients to develop shared impact intentions and action plans for each event. The role will have a strong focus on measurement.
Last month, BESydney launched its new strategic agenda, focussed on social impact, in which it aims to help international organisers begin a major social change journey when they hold their events in Sydney.
Demetriou joins the team today as BESydney and some of its members undertake social impact workshops with #MEET4IMPACT’s co-founder and CEO, Genevieve Leclerc, and senior social impact consultant, Jessica Vandy, who are in Sydney this week.
Also in October, BESydney won the first social impact award from the Global Destination Sustainability Movement and #MEET4IMPACT.
“We are so looking forward to taking our Social Impact agenda to the next level with Tina on board,” said BESydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith.
“We are loving the journey with Genevieve and her team taking us from foundational theory to the world’s latest thinking and giving us the tools to tailor our unique way of working. Now, with Tina’s arrival, we move to the fun part of putting it all into action! And of course, it wouldn’t be BESydney if we weren’t underpinning all this with a strategic measurement framework for tracking our business event beyond tourism impact over time.”
