The Meetings Industry Association (MIA) celebrated a year of progress and strategic focus at its 36th Annual General Meeting, hosted at Excel London, 25 February.
Opening the AGM, MIA chair Andrew Mosley highlighted strengthened member engagement, enhanced industry insights and committed governance among the association’s achievements.
He reflected on the steps taken over the past year to strengthen the association’s structure and ensure it continues to respond to evolving member needs, particularly around people and performance. The association’s board and taskforce had developed a clear, shared strategic vision, he said, positioning the MIA to be “more agile, more focused, and better equipped to serve members and represent the industry.”
Mosley commended Shonali Devereaux’s continued leadership, describing it as “a positive step forward, bringing fresh perspective, strategic focus and a collaborative approach to supporting MIA members.”
Devereaux, appointed as CEO at the end of 2024, said: “Our members are at the centre of everything we do.”
She added that 135 new members had joined across venues, agencies, suppliers and academic institutions, bringing total association membership to 721.
Devereaux discussed the evolution of the MIA’s Insights programme, which now delivers twice-yearly deep-dive reports focused on people and performance, helping to shape the association’s guidance, training and advocacy activity. “These insights are designed not simply to observe the market, but to actively inform our work,” she said.
Devereaux noted the insights had been used to expand professional development and member engagement over the past year, informing over 30 training events as well as its Connect Days and Connect Dinners programme. Among these events was the joint ESG Summit with Beam, which took place in September, with the CEO highlighting collaboration as “a defining theme of 2025”.
The MIA said it remained proactive in raising the profile of business events with government. This included discussions with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on SIC code reform, supporting the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and positioning the sector more clearly within economic and policy narratives, which the MIA CEO described as “vital to ensuring our members’ voices are heard and the value of business events is recognised at the highest levels.”
Concluding the AGM was the appointment of the mia board for 2026/2027, with Andrew Mosley of Andrew Mosley Hospitality remaining as chair following his appointment last year.
Other board members for 2026/27 include:
- Alison Hogberg, Countrywide Hotels
- Barry Cope, ACC Liverpool
- Charles Sargeant, Whittlebury Hall
- Jason Gutteridge, Venue Directory
- Jessica Southworth, Hotel Football
- Jon Kelly, Meet & Potato
- Justine Meek, Warwick Conferences
- Manju Goel, Park Plaza Hotel Group
- Nicky Harding, Meet Devon
- Robert Kenward, Jigsaw Talent Solutions
- Samantha Van Leeuwen, PwC
- Sarah Franczak, Central Hall Venues
- Sharon Bannister, Hotel & Travel Solutions