The Association of Event Venues (AEV) held its annual board meeting at Manchester Central on Thursday September 13, 2018, and has announced that Jeremy Rees, chief executive, ExCeL London (pictured left), is to step down as chair of the AEV Board, and Dan Thurlow, director of exhibition sales, SEC and the current vice-chair (pictured right), will take his place. Max Bull, executive director of venue sales, BDC will replace Thurlow as vice-chair.

The board also welcomed two new members, Brian Dobson, head of sales & events, Harrogate Convention Centre, joining the board in place of his colleague, Simon Kent, who is leaving after 7 years. Landsec PLC, which joined the AEV in March 2018, will be represented on the board by new member Clive Johnson, Landsec’s group head of health,safety and security.

Speaking after the meeting, Thurlow thanked the outgoing chair for his service, saying, “I’m sure I speak for the whole board when I say we are tremendously grateful to Jeremy for his tenure as chair. Over the last two years under Jeremy’s leadership, the AEV has helped venues draw inspiration from outside the industry more than ever, and helped create valuable networking opportunities allowing members to engage, share with and learn from their peers.”

Relinquishing the chair, Rees remarked, “The AEV is a superb association, and it has been a privilege to chair the board guiding its development and growth over the last two years. Dan has been an indispensable vice-chair, and I look forward to seeing the new directions the board will take with his guidance. I’m particularly grateful to the AEV secretariat for their unstinting and largely unseen work throughout the year. They make the association run smoothly, bring new members into the fold, manage the many working groups and have made a huge success of our annual conferences.”

Rachel Parker, AEV director, joined the thanks to Rees and welcomed Thurlow to the role, saying, “On behalf of the association I would like to thank Jeremy for the huge amounts of time and energy he has devoted to the AEV, in the pursuit of a stronger, better industry. His expertise and strategic foresight have been great assets to the board. Dan has proven his abilities as vice-chair and will bring his own style and ideas to the role, and I look forward to working with both him and Max Bull as vice-chair to realise the board’s ambitions for the future.”

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.