Annette Mitchell, professional conference organiser (PCO), is the founder of Phoenix Conference & Event Management.  Her experience of conference/event management spans 18 years across a broad variety of sectors.

She started off her professional life at the sharp end of the property sector, developing her business, negotiation and client facing skills. She then moved into marketing and event management roles in education and the not-for-profit sector and gained the Chartered Institute of Marketing advanced marketing certificate. During this time she dealt with all aspects of developing, marketing and delivering a wide variety of conferences and exhibitions with the emphasis on setting clear and realistic objectives and return on investment.

After leaving the Chamber of Commerce, she set up Phoenix Marketing Services in 1998 with the aim of helping small and medium sized enterprises to develop cost effective marketing strategies and tactics to improve their profitability and help to grow their businesses.

A number of her clients and previous contacts were keen to generate new sales leads and partnerships, communicate with and improve client retention through the medium of ‘live events’ and thus the inspiration for and ‘birth’ of Phoenix Conference & Event Management.

Annette has now been an independent professional conference organiser for over 6 years with an impressive and loyal client list. She recently won a tender to become an approved supplier for Central Office of Information and has since been engaged to project plan and deliver conferences for, among others, Department of Health, Department for International Development and Department for Media Culture and Sports.

She works on projects in London and nationwide, with a small team of other professionals and a skilled administrator.