Neil Brownlee, the Head of Business Events at VisitScotland, has been appointed as a Director of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) following its gathering in Nashville (US), last week.

Mr Brownlee, who has been with VisitScotland for 10 years, is the only UK-based member of the panel of board directors and officers, which represents the interests of what it claims is the largest network of meetings planners in the world.

His appointment was first announced in August last year and he was confirmed in post at the recent Convening Leaders conference – the 62nd PCMA annual meeting – which featured a keynote from retired US four-star General Stanley McChrystal.

Claire Smith, CMP, Vancouver Convention Centre’s vice president of sales and marketing, was confirmed as the first-ever supplier and non-U.S.-based Chair of the PCMA Board of Directors; other appointees included: Carolyn Pund, CMP, CMM, senior manager, global SMM and event business operations at Cisco Systems Inc., Kathleen Ratcliffe, president, Explore St. Louis; Megan Tate, CMM, DES, vice president, meeting and events planning manager, Wells Fargo Bank; and Christine Trimmer, executive director, International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Mr Brownlee will attend his first board meeting in Chicago in March and will serve a three-year term.