Frankfurt / Main, 21 December 2009. Lutz P. Vogt, Managing Director of the GCB German Convention Bureau informed the board of directors at the ordinary board meeting last Friday in Frankfurt/Main that he would be leaving the GCB on 28 February 2010 thereby ending his secondment to the GCB. As of March 2010 he will take on new responsibilities for his former employer Lufthansa German Airlines having accepted a partial retirement offer.
The executive board unanimously expressed its regrets and thanked Vogt for his long and trustful co-operation. Lutz P. Vogt: “The decision to end my secondment was very hard for me. Even after all these years, the meetings and conventions industry has still lost none of its excitement for me. I enjoyed and appreciated the very friendly and professional co-operation with the members of the GCB very much. I would also like to thank my excellent team without whom I would not have been able to work so successfully.”
Vogt has been Managing Director of the GCB since 2001 and has dedicated himself to marketing Germany nationally and internationally as a destination for meetings and conventions. One of his most important achievements is the establishment of the IMEX trade show in Germany. IMEX is the world’s leading fair for meetings and incentives. Moreover, the GCB has more members than ever before. In 2009 they included over 250 companies.
Vogt will hand over the GCB as an excellently managed and economically healthy organisation. Operational continuity is ensured by his long-standing deputy Anke Pruust. The executive board established a recruitment committee to find a successor.
The GCB board of directors confidently looks ahead to the year 2010: The crisis is not over yet but we seem broken the downward trend. Positive booking figures for IMEX 2010 are a major indicator of this moderate recovery. The GCB shall continue its marketing activities for Germany as a destination for meetings and conventions also under a new management with its professional commitment.
The GCB German Convention Bureau e.V. markets Germany as a destination for conventions, meetings, events and incentives both on a national and international level, and is the place to contact for anybody planning an event in Germany.
Its 259 members include leading hotels, convention centres and destinations, car hire firms, event agencies and service providers of the German meetings and conventions industry. Maritim Hotels, Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH and darmstadtium science and convention centre are Preferred Partners of the GCB. As Strategic Partners, Deutsche Lufthansa, Deutsche Bahn and the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) support the work of the GCB
