EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS: Paul Kennedy to exit The Meetings Show

CMW can reveal that The Meetings Show is set to lose another of its leadership team with non-executive chair Paul Kennedy stepping down next year. The news follows event director Steve Knight’s exit in August. Knight’s role was subsequently consolidated under David Chapple, who added the job to his own portfolio, including The Business Travel Show. Andrew Evans, MD of Centaur Live, who had previously been responsible for The Meetings Show, also left last year during a previous round of cutbacks. Steve Newbold, divisional managing director of media and events at show owner Centaur Media, said: “Paul Kennedy will be remaining in his advisory role as non-executive chair of The Meetings Show until June 2018, when the sixth edition of the show will take place in its new format on 27 & 28 at London Olympia. The Meetings Show will continue to work closely with Paul on its exciting growth plan and the team will continue to call upon his extensive industry knowledge and international network until then. On behalf of all the team at Centaur Media, I would like to thank Paul for his immeasurable contribution to founding The Meetings Show and helping to grow the show over the past six years into the leading event for the UK inbound and outbound meetings industry.” Kennedy added: “It has been a pleasure to work with the team at The Meetings Show to develop such an important event for the UK meetings industry. From June 2018, I will be focusing exclusively on my wider consultancy work, including that of Advantage Consultants which I helped to found in early 2017.”