New leadership team in Adelaide looks to drive New Year opportunities

Adelaide Venue Management has announced the promotion of Simon Burgess to general manager of its Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC). For the past five years, Burgess has worked as director – convention and exhibition sales at the ACC. He has been instrumental in increasing levels of business to match the new capacity of the ACC throughout its two-stage A$397m (US$316m) redevelopment. Burgess has also held a range of senior management roles working in hotels, destination marketing and tour operation, where he gained extensive experience in North American, Caribbean, European and Asian markets. Immediately before he joined the ACC, Burgess was assistant vice-president of global sales at Dusit International. “It’s an exciting time for Adelaide,” says Burgess. “We have a great legacy in terms of our new facilities from our recent expansion; this combined with the continued rejuvenation of the Adelaide Riverbank means the city is well-poised to be an even more attractive business events destination moving forward.” The senior team has another promotion with Erryn Dryga moving from a business development position to senior sales manager – conventions and exhibitions. Dryga joined the ACC team in 2012 and has since been developing key industry relationships which has resulted in increased national conference business. Previously, Dryga worked at the SeaLink Travel Group, one of South Australia’s largest tourism operators. In her new role, she will be responsible for driving Asia Pacific and other international conference business in to Adelaide, as well as leading the company’s convention and exhibition sales team. 2018 follows on from a milestone 2017 for the Adelaide Convention Centre, which not only saw the company celebrate its 30^th year in business with the completion of its redevelopment, but also play host to Adelaide’s largest ever business event, the International Astronautical Congress. The momentum continues with another busy calendar for 2018. In coming months ACC will welcome three of the event industry’s most prestigious national events: the Australian Tourism Exchange (15-19 April); the Accelerate 2018 MEA National Conference (6-8 May); and the AuSAE Conference and Exhibition (ACE) 2018 – Ignite your Thinking (28-30 May). Photo image: Simon Casson Photographer, courtesy of Adelaide Convention Centre