New Sales Manager For Skycity Conventions

New Sales Manager For Skycity Conventions

SKYCITY Auckland has appointed Richard Dodds as Sales Manager for Conventions, Incentives and Events. Mr Dodds brings considerable management experience in conference sales to the position. Most recently he was Director of Sales for the Royal Cliff Beach Resort in Thailand where he managed global sales of the resort’s USD $38 million convention centre.

In London he worked for the Copenhagen Convention Bureau as Sales Manager UK and Ireland, responsible for securing conference, incentive and association meetings to Copenhagen city. He was previously Account Manager for World Event Management a global conference and incentive company and worked as Event Marketing Manager for Tourism Rotorua when last in New Zealand.

Mr Dodds says he is pleased to be back in New Zealand after being away for six years and is delighted to be working with SKYCITY Auckland particularly at a time when its new convention centre and five star hotel is due to open.

“SKYCITY is one of the country’s most successful companies and is recognised as being progressive and innovative with an excellent reputation for looking after its staff. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work within SKYCITY.

“It is particularly exciting to be on board with the imminent opening of the new SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre and The SKYCITY Grand Hotel scheduled to open next year. Research has confirmed the need in New Zealand for a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose, convention facility of this kind which will be unparalleled in this country,” says Mr Dodds.

Reporting to Kerry Rice, SKYCITY Entertainment Group General Manager Sales, Mr Dodds is responsible for securing meetings, conference, incentive and other food and beverage business for the complex’s new convention centre as well as on-selling other businesses within the SKYCITY group. His particular focus will be on attracting business from the Wellington and Christchurch markets.

The new 1500 delegate capacity SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre and 5 star SKYCITY Grand Hotel are part of SKYCITY Auckland’s expansion programme which also includes extensions to the main gaming floor, a new gaming floor on Level three of the complex (PLAY Casino and Bar 3 - completed in December 2003) and improvements to Sky Tower facilities including the addition of a new retail store which opened at the base of Sky Tower in July 2003. The new convention centre is due to open in April this year and the hotel, situated above the convention centre, is scheduled to open early in 2005.

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