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• » Lyn Lewis-Smith

Lyn Lewis-Smith

Chief Executive Officer

Lyn is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Business Events Sydney (BESydney). Previously she held the roles Chief Operating Officer, General Manager Marketing and Director of Sales. Lyn has been with BESydney since late 2002 and brings more than 18 years of experience in sales, marketing and tourism.

Lyn has been instrumental in progressing BESydney’s research into the greater impact and outputs of business events to industry and the economy, guiding the company’s Asia growth strategy and the development of the BESydney Ambassador Program.

Leading the BESydney team, Lyn works closely with more than 35 professionals, including a global network that spans Europe, North America and Asia.

In her role as CEO Lyn will continue to work closely with high-level public and private sector stakeholders, developing and driving the company’s strategic vision, and leading the team responsible for delivering business events that generate economic returns and benefits beyond tourism.

Recently, Lyn’s long-term vision was instrumental in the research project, ‘A Scoping Study of Business Events: Beyond Tourism Benefits’, which BESydney commissioned with the University of Technology Sydney.  The study investigated the legacy impact of business events – the output that goes beyond the tally of tourism receipts – by identifying key areas of impact such as increased opportunities for trade and investment, education and skills development, and innovation and knowledge sharing. This research is now being expanded globally to further qualify and quantify the output from hosting international business, professional and association events in Australia.

In the past eight years BESydney has confirmed more than $2 billion worth of business events for Sydney and New South Wales (NSW), achieving a 70% bid success rate. The team’s efforts have seen Sydney rise internationally as a business events hub. Sydney is now ranked the #10 global business events destination, and holds the #2 position in the Asia Pacific.

Globally recognised for her vision and ability to identify long-term strategic projects, in 2011 Lyn was appointed as the first Chairperson of the Future Convention Cities Initiative (FCCI). FCCI aims to bring together leading convention cities from around the world to help accelerate the strategic development of their business event industry, and to maximise the contribution of business events to economic development in each member destination.

In addition to her role as Chair of FCCI, her other appointments include:

• Board member of AACB
• Chair of the Australian Association of Convention Bureaux (AACB) Marketing Group
• Steering committee member of the Australian Association Project
• Member of the Committee of Management of The Incentive Association
  

Prior to her employment at BESydney, Lyn worked for Kosciusko Thredbo where she was instrumental in establishing operations and marketing of the $6 million Australian Institute of Sport/Thredbo Alpine Training Centre. The centre was developed as a training centre for athletes in preparation for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.