DMAI Explores European Connection
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/27/2006
The Washington, D.C.-based Destination Marketing Assn. Intl. is hoping to open its first foreign office in Brussels, Belgium.
DMAI Chairman Jon Hutchison, also managing director of the Sydney (Australia) Convention & Visitors Bureau, said, "Our goal is to truly globalize our membership and have representation outside of North America."
The group is considering hiring a Brussels-based association management firm to help run its initiatives, said association spokeswoman Kristen Clemens.
President and CEO Michael Gehrisch said DMAI is considering Brussels because it is the association headquarters capital of Europe.
"It would provide a strategic location and staff to promote and deliver our accreditation, certification, best practices and performance-reporting initiatives to the European community," he said.
Looking ahead, Clemens said DMAI officials would make a recommendation to the board about how to proceed with the new office, with approval possible during the DMAI Annual Convention July 19–22 in Austin, Texas.
The association membership last August voted to change its name from the Intl. Assn. of Convention & Visitor Bureaus.
Also, the group in November bought back the 20-year-old Destinations Showcase that it sold to the now-defunct event management firm PGI in 1996. TBA Global Events, which in 2005 acquired PGI, sold the show to DMAI for an undisclosed amount.
DMAI assumed operations of the one-day show, which brings together CVBs and meeting professionals twice annually in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
