• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Kathryn Smith, Former Conference Director at Penton Media, Joins M2MEDIA360 as Corporate Conference Director

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 07:00 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO, April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kathryn 'Katie' Smith, CMP, former conference director for food retail events at Penton Media, has joined M2MEDIA360 as corporate conference director. In her new position, Smith will immediately take charge of meeting planning and program direction for Cheers magazine's 2010 Cheers Beverage Conference, which is being held January 25-26, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Downtown in Miami, Fla.

The annual Cheers Beverage Conference has attracted widespread attention in recent years as one of the most important events of the year for beverage management and marketing executives at causal theme restaurant chains as well as hotels, theme parks, cruise ship lines, and sports arenas. High-margin beverage sales are particularly important to this business segment, which has been hurt by recession-related tightening of consumer spending. Major wine, beer, and spirits marketers are also drawn to the volume sales potential of this channel, which includes restaurant names such as Chili's, Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, and Applebee's, as well as hotel brands, including Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, and Holiday Inn.

"Events such as the Cheers Beverage Conference tend to do well even in hard times because participants look to these meetings with their peers to provide them with significant information on how to cope with even the most difficult business situations," says Charles Forman, senior vice president and group publisher of the Beverage Information Group, a division of M2MEDIA360. "The most recent Cheers Conference, held just six weeks ago, drew approximately as many attendees as it had a year earlier."

From 2000 to 2008, Smith was the conference director for food retail events at Penton Media in Cleveland, and managed six to nine conferences annually. Immediately before joining M2MEDIA360, Smith served as a senior member of the Questex Media meetings management team and was responsible for a number of events, including this year's Nightclub & Bar Show in Las Vegas.

"Katie's role is a new one at M2MEDIA360 and we were lucky to find someone with her in-depth experience and exceptional reputation to fill this position," says Forman. "Face-to-face marketing has become an increasingly important part of the information business and her job is to take us to the next level in this arena."

For more information, about the Beverage Information Group, Cheers magazine and the 2010 Cheers Beverage Conference, contact Sue Gillerlain at (630) 326-9012 or sgillerlain@m2media360.com.

SOURCE M2MEDIA360

Source: PR Newswire

More News in this Category