New Orleans CVB expands sales team

Ted Pennison

The New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) have announced the return of two sales executives. Both convention sales managers join a team of CVB representatives dedicated to promoting New Orleans as a future meeting destination.

Ted Pennison and Sharon Sibley have come back home to join the CVB’s convention sales team.

Through his role as a senior sales manager at the New Orleans CVB, Pennison will work with associations and corporations across the Eastern Seaboard, in Florida, the Gulf Coast region and Texas. His primary focus is pharmaceutical and convention center business.

With more than 15 years of experience in destination sales and marketing with convention and visitors bureaus, Pennison brings the knowledge and skill required to work with meeting and convention customers. For more than seven years, Pennison worked as a sales manager and senior sales manager for the New Orleans CVB, after which he joined the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau, first as the associate director of sales and later as the director of convention sales.

As a convention sales manager, Sibley will handle the Midwest/Northeast association & corporate markets for the New Orleans CVB. Her specialty will be groups using up to 400 peak rooms.

Sibley began her career in the hospitality industry when she worked as a sales coordinator

Sharon Sibley

and later as the billing and business center supervisor for Royal Productions. From 2003 to 2006, she worked for the New Orleans CVB as the membership services coordinator, where she planned member events and assisted the CVB’s 1,000 members. Following a move to Houston in 2007, Sibley worked as the contract management coordinator for Vinson & Elkins LLP, an international law firm.

“Combined, Ted and Sharon bring nearly 25 years of tourism industry experience to the New Orleans CVB,” said Nikki Moon, vice president of convention sales for the New Orleans CVB. “Their familiarity with the New Orleans CVB and vast knowledge in the meetings and conventions industry brings the type of background and required experience to sell New Orleans. It’s a privilege to welcome them back to our CVB team.”