Visit Seattle has welcomed two new faces to their growing team. Chris Connelly joins the organization as senior director of sales and Jared Dionne as the new public relations manager for MICE media.
Connelly will oversee the day-to-day activities of the convention sales team and brings with him 11 years of experience as a dedicated hospitality sales professional after a number of roles at Hyatt properties in Chicago, San Francisco and San Diego.
Most recently, Connelly was the area director of group and transient sales at Hyatt’s three downtown Seattle locations: the Hyatt Regency, the Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Olive 8.
“After 11 years as a hospitality sales professional, I’m excited to bring my experience and skills to Visit Seattle as a senior director of sales,” Connelly said of his new role in a Visit Seattle press release. “I’ve had the privilege of working extensively with the Visit Seattle team in my current role and can’t wait to join what is already an organization of intelligent and deeply passionate professionals.”
Jared Dionne joins Visit Seattle as the public relations manager for meetings and conventions press, where he will work alongside publications, the Seattle Convention Center and Visit Seattle leadership to convey the importance of meetings as economic drivers and methods of genuine connection.
Dionne brings more than a decade of journalism and public relations experience to the Visit Seattle team. He was previously the senior director of publicity at London-based record label Mute, where he led campaigns for artists such as New Order, M83 and Fever Ray.
“I am thrilled to be a part of this wickedly talented Visit Seattle team. The knowledge, passion and commitment my colleagues display for the city is inspiring,” Dionne said. “Choosing to call this place ‘home’ was an easy decision. It is an exciting time to be working in the meetings and conventions sphere. Seattle Convention Center recently opened the Summit building, a Waterfront reimagining is under way and we have an incredible lineup of creative, innovation-driven meetings on the calendar.”
This information is based on a press release from Visit Seattle.
Read about more recent moves and appointments in the hospitality industry.
