Dianne Binger of the Salt Lake CVB Dies

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 4/11/2005

Dianne Nelson Binger, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, died March 23 of cancer. She was 54 years old.

Binger had been bureau president since 2001, her term spanning the Olympic Winter Games of 2002. She started with the Salt Lake bureau in 1987 as a convention sales director. In 1993, she was promoted to vice president of convention sales and to senior vice president in 1998.

Before joining the Salt Lake convention bureau, Binger worked for Sheraton Hotels in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. She started her hospitality career at Alta's Rustler Lodge in Alta, Utah.

A memorial service for Binger was held March 30 at the Salt Palace Convention Center. There, Cliff Doner, acting CVB president, described Binger as "kind, caring, compassionate, graceful, sophisticated and elegant. Anyone who knew her professionally would tell you she worked hard, and those who knew her personally would tell you Dianne played hard too."