ON THE MOVE
PlannersLinderman joins VarietyLee Linderman has joined the Los Angeles-based Variety Group, which includes magazines such as
Daily Variety and
Video Business, as director of events and trade shows. She is responsible for all of Variety’s branded events, which include the Variety Screening Series and events associated with the Berlin, Cannes, Sundance and Toronto film festivals. Previously, Linderman was a consultant, producing events for New Line Cinema and NBC/Universal, and also served as director of sales and marketing for Wolfgang Puck Events.
Cohen is new head of airline associationRoger Cohen has been named as president of the Regional Airline Association, which is managed by Chicago-based SmithBucklin. Based at RAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Cohen is responsible for the association’s events, conventions and operations.
SuppliersMark Barnes has been promoted to the position of director of Northeast sales at the Louisville (Ky.) Convention & Visitors Bureau. He is based in Washington, D.C.
David Burt has been promoted to director of sales and marketing at the 226-room Fairmont Sonoma (Calif.) Mission Inn & Spa.
Marian Hrab has been named director of sales and marketing at the 217-room Loews Annapolis (Md.) Hotel.
Mae Johnson has been appointed sales manager at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
Barrie M. Perks has been named vice president of sales and services at the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Barbara Piagari and
Julie Shkolnik have been appointed directors of sales at the 162-room Viceroy Santa Monica (Calif.).
Michael Lyman has been hired as director of sales and marketing at the JW Marriott Grand Rapids (Mich.), which is set to open this fall with 340 guest rooms.
If you would like notice of a career move considered for inclusion in this column, contact Sarah J.F. Braley, People Page, M&C,500 Plaza Dr., Secaucus, N.J. 07094; fax: (201) 902-2032; e-mail:[email protected] 
“The industry aspects of the show are there only to supplement the
education, never to overshadow it.”
Kent Riffert is associate director,
exposition logistics, for the Washington, D.C.-based American
College of Cardiology (www.acc.org), where he is responsible, with others,
for the operations and logistics for the ACC’s Annual Scientific
Session. The event, with 30,000 attendees, is being held this month
in New Orleans.
Has the ACC always been based
in Washington? No. We recently moved offices from
Bethesda, Md. The college had been on a rural campuslike area
covering 13 acres since the 1970s. Now we all need to commute into
an urban environment, and the change for some has been a little
traumatic.
How did you get into trade
shows? I did an internship at the Consumer Electronics
Association and was offered a full-time position. My other option
at the time was teaching English to the newly formed border patrol
of the former Soviet republic of Estonia. I have since been to the
country, and its capital, Tallinn, is beautiful. The ACC is my
first foray into medical events. My reason for coming here was that
I wanted to learn something new.
How is working for a
health-related association different from your previous
roles? The biggest difference I have seen is that in
scientific conventions, the industry aspects of the show are there
only to supplement the education, never to overshadow it. This is
different from the consumer electronics shows that I worked on,
where there was no such division and I was surrounded by cool
gadgets all the time.