The ‘billback bugbear’, maximising student placements and raising the HBAA’s profile in the corporate market are key issues to tackle in 2012, according to new Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA) chairman, Chris Peacock.

Peacock, co-founder and managing director of Conference Care, has formerly served as vice-chair and treasurer in the association. He will make his inaugural speech to over 500 members at the HBAA’s Annual Dinner today (13 January) at the Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. He told meetpie.com that he would continue to drive HBAA’s reputation as a “powerhouse for best practice”, targeting three key issues in 2012.

“Finance issues in our industry are a real bugbear between clients, agents and venues in terms of billback, credit and payment solutions. The plan is to hold a financial forum in late spring to get finance people from agencies together to discuss the issues. Then we’ll set up a working party. We currently have a Billback Code of Conduct but this will hopefully strengthen the processes within that.”

Work has already started on a graduate placement scheme with HBAA members, he added. “At Conference Care we started to take a number of event management graduates into the business and the quality of people is very high. Talking to them, they would often note that their placements weren’t relevant and giving them opportunities. The target is to get 25 students in the HBAA placement scheme by 2012. It’s a win-win – member companies get a motivated person into their business for a year and students get valid experience for their career path,” he added.

“Thirdly, I’d like to raise the profile of our membership to the corporate market and show the meetings management part of what HBAs can offer,” Peacock said, noting this would be done through client-facing newsletters, exhibiting at the PA event, Office, and a client forum towards the end of the year.

HBAA is also investing in a new online infrastructure this year: “We’re in a strong financial position and you’ve got to deliver value to members.”

Peacock will be joined on the executive committee by Zibrant’s managing director Chris Parnham, who has been elected as vice-chair for 2012. Although no longer with Hotelzon, 2011 chair Juliet Price will sit on the board as an individual as past chair.

The 2012 board is as follows: executive director - Peter Ducker; treasurer - Stephen Usher, Trinity Event Management; academy committee chair - Ellis Salsby, Ellis Salsby; events committee chair - Jill Fleming, Absolute Corporate Events; technology innovation and environment (TIE) committee chair - Adam Woods, Hotelscene; membership committee chair - Tracey Symcox, BSI; marketing committee chair - Andrew Deakin, Conference Care; meetings committee chair – Gareth Crowder, Zibrant; special projects - Sue Burgess, Inntel; international projects - Steve Ockerby, Logical Venue Solutions; serviced apartment sector chair - Ricky Kapoor, Hotelworld.

Pictured: HBAA chairman Chris Peacock