Westminster Venue Collection are pleased to announce they have appointed a new Chair of the Board of Directors, Barbara Wutte.

Following the start of Westminster Venue Collection’s new membership year, the Board of Directors and members came together for their Annual General Meeting at the beautiful Inner Temple last month.

Kindly hosted by Stacey Barber and her team on 20th September 2022, the meeting provided a great opportunity to give members an update on the recent news and exciting initiatives planned for the organisation’s coming membership year.

It was announced that Barbara Wutte, Head of Conferences at The Royal Society, will take over from Rachel Azzopardi who has been Chair of Westminster Venue Collection for the past four years.

Rachel was warmly thanked for her hard work and dedication, especially through the pandemic, and the Collection wish her well for her next ventures.

During her time on the Board, Barbara Wutte has been a key figure in the membership’s vision and growth, so her appointment came as a natural transition following Rachel Azzopardi’s resignation as Chair.

This year, the Board have decided to appoint a new position of Vice Chair for the organisation. To allow contingency planning, it was also agreed that the role of Vice Chair will then become Chair after a year of tenure.

The new position of Vice Chair will be held by Paul Martins, New Business Development Manager at Make Venues Broadway House, who has championed the collective using successful case studies. The next Vice Chair will then be elected in turn at the next AGM.

Progressively, WVC has launched a new Member Engagement and Events Committee, consisting of Kay Davies of the Houses of Parliament, Marina Papadopoulou of Church House Westminster and Jonathan Chohan of One Great George Street.

Rhiannon Thomas of Central Hall Westminster will head up plans for The Meetings Show and Thomas Mauch of the QEII Centre will continue to direct IT and website development.

Barbara Wutte, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Westminster Venue Collection says: “Member engagement is our top priority. The new WVC vision must be to increase the number of members and to strengthen our brand. This will allow us to market all our member venues with further activity nationally and then beyond”.

The WVC Board encourages venues in the Westminster region who would like to be represented to join this prestigious collection and help shape an exciting new chapter into 2023.