This conference took place on 29th November 2006. You can still order the presentations from the day here.

Chairs and speakers include:

• Bernard Donoghue
  Head of Government and Public Affairs, VisitBritain
• Joanna Baker
  Director of Marketing and Public Affairs, Edinburgh International Festival
• Drusilla Moody
  Tourism and Visitor Services Manager, Portsmouth City Council
• Malcolm Gallagher
  Director, BizVision and Fellow, Chartered Institute of Marketing
• Victoria Selman
  Director, SEMS Consultancy and Fellow, Chartered Institute of Marketing
• Andrew Smith
  Senior Lecturer, University of Westminster
• Olga Murtagh
  Tourism Development Manager, Belfast City Council

Profiles

Bernard Donoghue - Head of Government and Public Affairs, VisitBritain

He has overall responsibility for the Government agency's public affairs and manages the relationship and accountability of the organisation to all of the UK's political institutions, including the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. He also has particular responsibility for liaison with, and advice to the Royal Households. Since 2004 he has had responsibility for VisitBritain's support for the successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid.

Bernard is Deputy Chair of TIER, the Tourism Industry Emergency Response Group, which manages communications, liaises with the industry and advises Government in the event of crises affecting the tourism industry notably Foot and Mouth disease, the events of September 11th, SARS, 2005 London bombings and avian flu.

Prior to his role at VisitBritain (and its predecessor body the British Tourist Authority), Bernard held a number of policy, campaigning and communications positions in the House of Commons and House of Lords, for the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, the National AIDS Trust, disability organisations, and for the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Bernard, 37, is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA), Member of the Tourism Society (MTS), Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR), and lives in London.

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Joanna Baker - Director of Marketing and Public Affairs,
Edinburgh International Festival

Joanna Baker joined the Edinburgh International Festival in 1992 as its first Marketing and Public Affairs Director. She was appointed as Managing Director in October this year. Before 1992 she worked with Welsh National Opera, Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and the Royal National Theatre. Appointed to the Scottish Arts Council in 2000, Joanna Baker chaired its Dance Committee from 2000 - 2004 and served as Vice Chair of Council from October 2005 until the conclusion of her term of office in September this year.

She is currently a member of a cross-sector steering group overseeing the development and implementation of a city brand for Edinburgh. Previous voluntary commitments include serving as a member of the Scottish Ballet Board (1998 - 2000), and on the Scottish Office Arts and Tourism Task Force (1995 - 1998).

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Drusilla Moody - Tourism and Visitor Services Manager,
Portsmouth City Council

Drusilla Moody joined Portsmouth City Council in 1988 band is now Tourism, Visitor Services and Events Manager for Portsmouth. Prior to the opening of Gunwharf Quays in 2001 she worked with their marketing team on attracting events to the new waterfront destination hosting the start and finish of the 'Times Clipper Race' in 2000/2001 and 'Tall Ships' in 2002. In recent years PCC and Gunwharf Quays have had a successful partnership working together on bids for 'EDS Challenge' and 'Global Challenge' round the world race start and finish in 2004/2005 winning the News Business Excellence Award 'Team of the Year'.

In 2004 we extended the partnership to include the Historic Dockyard and successfully won for the city the only UK stopover of the 'Volvo Round the World Race'. In 2005 she Project lead the 'T200' and 'Fleet Review' celebrations working closely with the Navy. PCC has created a dedicated conference team to manage all events in the city including Civic ceremonies, 'Great South Run' and we will be looking to attract more events to the city in the future.

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Malcolm Gallagher - Director, BizVision and Fellow, Chartered Institute of Marketing

Malcolm Gallagher is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and a director of Northumberland-based BizVision Ltd. He has nearly 40 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality sector from helping Thomson Holidays establish its world-wide brand in the 1970's through to his current activity of helping tourism destinations and hospitality providers maximise their potential.

A leading international motivational speaker, with clients such as H.M. Revenue & Customs, Malcolm's acclaimed online SpotLearn Tourism and Hospitality modules are being used worldwide by over 1,000 organisations. He is the marketing adviser to the British Food Trust establishing food as a tourism product and is behind major UK initiatives ranging from the Hospitality South East Show and the Great British Kitchen venue in the North West , both bringing regeneration gains. In partnership with Business Link, he is helping European countries maximise their City of Culture status and is currently working with the Learning & Skills Council in London to help businesses be ready to compete for the contracts that will come from the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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Victoria Selman - Director, SEMS Consultancy and Fellow, Chartered Institute of Marketing

Victoria Selman is the Founder and Chairman of SEMS Consultancy - an internet marketing consultancy based in London. She is a leading expert on web marketing and has a proven track record of developing powerful online marketing strategies that translate into positive results for both the public and private sector.

Victoria ensures that SEMS Consultancy remains at the forefront of current thinking by monitoring search engine ranking patterns on a daily basis and by continuously researching, testing and developing new internet marketing techniques.

Victoria also has considerable experience of traditional marketing based on her role as brand development and strategy manager at Unilever where she worked with a number of household names such as Persil, Domestos and Comfort.

She has an MA from Oxford University and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing with whom she is currently writing a book about search engine marketing.

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Andrew Smith - Senior Lecturer, University of Westminster

Dr. Andrew Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism at the University of Westminster. Prior to this position he lectured at The University of Kent and Sheffield Hallam University. He has written various academic papers and book chapters about tourism, cities and regeneration; particularly on the image effects associated with flagship projects.

Andrew was involved in the evaluation of the Legacy Programme associated with Manchester's 2002 Commonwealth Games. Recently, he was appointed to the scientific committee of the Sport and Tourism Destinations Global Network for Regional Development.

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Olga Murtagh - Tourism Development Manager, Belfast City Council

Olga Murtagh is the tourism development manager with Belfast city council. Her remit involves the strategic development and marketing of Belfast as a short break and conference destination. Olga has been responsible for overseeing the development of the Belfast visitor and convention bureau, a successful partnership between the private sector the city council and the northern Ireland tourist board.

Olga was responsible for developing a cultural tourism strategy entitled developing Belfasts opportunity. One of the features of it's action plan is the development of community tourism to enable visitors to gain an authentic experience of Belfast.

Olga has sixteen years experience working in tourism development in the public and voluntary sectors.

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