Mady Keup, MBA (Open), DIP(CIM), BA(University of Newcastle upon Tyne)

A destination marketing professional with two decades of experience in the areas of meetings and events, as well as leisure tourism, Mady worked for more than 12 years with the British Tourist Authority (now VisitBritain) in management positions in London, Madrid, Lisbon and Berlin. Other career highlights include 5 years as Head of the London Convention Bureau (now VisitLondon) and a stint as Chief Executive of the British-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in Lisbon.

Mady currently lectures at SKEMA Business School, one of France’s Grandes Ecoles, where she is Course Director for the Master of Science programme in Strategic Event Management and Tourism Management. SKEMA Business School has campuses in France (Nice, Paris, Lille), China (near Shanghai), Morocco (Casablanca) and in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Mady’s speaking engagements have taken her to leisure tourism and business event related seminars and conferences in Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Poland, France, Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Serbia, Dubai, Tajikistan and the USA. She is a trainer for Destination Sales Training in Europe and the Middle East on behalf of Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) and is an MPI (Meeting Professionals International) accredited trainer.

Consultancy and research projects include:

o Athens Convention Bureau Strategy and Operations Consultancyo European Travel Commission and World Tourism Organization,

Handbook on Tourism Destination Branding o Nice Tourist Office: repositioning of the destinationo Tourism Ireland European Market Reviewo Use of web 2.0 tools in event marketing

Mady speaks 6 languages fluently (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and her native Luxembourgish). She is a University of Newcastle upon Tyne honours graduate, holds a Diploma of Marketing by the Chartered Institute of Marketing and added an Open University MBA to her qualifications in 2004. Mady is a former Chair of the British Association of Conference Destinations (2002-2003), and a member of MPI, DMAI and SITE (Society of Incentive & Travel Executives).