Airy Garrigosa: Barcelona, the coolest city in Europe

Airy Garrigosa has been an active ECM member since 2007 and the creation of ECM through the merger of the former European Federation of Conference Towns (EFCT) and European Cities Tourism (ECT) organisations. Currently she is an ECM board member and is chairing the “Client Oriented Activities” action group which oversees a variety of convention events and workshop such as Mercado or Meet Europe.

Airy studied Hotel Management at the Ëcole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland. At the beginning of her professional career, she worked for twelve years in management positions in the hotel industry in Spain. In 1983 she was appointed to start up from scratch the Barcelona Convention Bureau, as a department of the Barcelona Tourist Board. Since then, she has served as its Director. Based on this experience, she has developed a thorough knowledge of the convention business and has lectured extensively on this subject. Airy has also lent her expertise to help numerous convention bureaux elsewhere establish themelves in Spain and in other countries around the world.

Over the years she has served in different Industry Associations, including not only ECM but also ICCA, MPI (Meeting Professionals Intl.) and SITE (Society of Incentive Travel Executives).