Questex

NEW YORK (Feb. 12, 2014) ─ Questex Hospitality + Travel has named Jill Birkett event director, responsible for the company's leisure events portfolio including Luxury Travel Exchange International (LTX).

The 2014 LTX, to be held Dec. 9-11 at The Palazzo® Las Vegas, brings fully vetted, top-producing advisors of luxury and premium niche travel together with leading suppliers for three full days of one-to-one meetings, interactive networking and educational programming. The successful 2013 program hosted more than 5,000 one-to-one meetings among 900 professional travel advisors and 300 luxury travel suppliers.

"Jill comes to Questex with more than 20 years of expertise creating, managing, selling and organizing trade shows for global brands," said Marilyn McHugh, Questex Hospitality + Travel vice president of global events. "Having previously worked with Jill, I can attest to the strength of her dynamic leadership and management capabilities. She will be a tremendous asset directing an event that drives measureable results for our delegates and furthers our commitment to millennial travel advisors."

During the last five years, Birkett was business director of the Beauty & Wellness Industry division of UBM plc, a global events marketing and communications services company based in London, responsible for managing a business-to-business event that connects global suppliers with major global brands including Revlon, Estee Lauder and Chanel, among others.

Prior to that, she was vice president and general partner of Unicomm LLC, a Milford, Conn., business-to-business communications company specializing in trade shows and conferences, responsible for managing four to five Travel & Adventure Shows annually that were attended by more than 100,000 consumers and 2,000 travel agents.

She was vice president of operations, USA, for Advanstar Communications, for two years before becoming chief operating officer of b-there Corp., a Web-based group air and hotel booking tool, which she served for three years.

From 1986 to 1997, Birkett was vice president of Expocan Management Associates of Fairfield, Conn., where she managed operations and logistics for 12 trade shows and conferences that generated $45 million in annual sales. Previously, she held sales positions with Marriott hotels and was a trip manager for S&H Motivation and Travel, where she worked on incentive programs for Goodyear, Ford, Xerox and other major U.S. corporations.

She earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Ind., and lives in Stamford, Conn.

About Questex

Questex brings people together in the markets that help people live better: travel, hospitality and wellness; the industries that help people live longer: life science and healthcare; and the technologies that enable and fuel these new experiences. We live in the experience economy – connecting our ecosystem through live events, surrounded by data insights and digital communities. We deliver experience and real results. It happens here. For more information on Questex, visit questex.com. Stay connected to Questex on LinkedIn.

Evy Apostolatos
RDR PR LLC
973-452-7208
Questex