Paul O. Robertson has been elected Chair of the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau (CTCSB). He succeeds Peter J. Berry, CAE, who completed two years of leadership in that position on June 30, 2015. Robertson is a longtime member of the CTCSB and its Executive Board.

“Paul O. Robertson is an active supporter of our Bureau’s efforts to bring conventions, conferences, meetings, and sports events into our state,” explains H. Scott Phelps, President of the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau, the State’s official meetings and sports event sales and marketing organization. “His knowledge of media, sales, and sports marketing has been invaluable as our organization builds new industry, business and community partnerships, and strengthens existing ones to fulfill our mission.” Phelps adds, “A little known ‘fun fact’ is that when he was a Hartford Public High School student decades ago, Paul interned with our office when we operated as the Greater Hartford Convention & Visitors Bureau. And, he was just as enthusiastic about our industry then as he is today!”

Robertson is an Independent Management and Sports Consultant for media properties that are looking to develop sponsorship for broadcast, sports and digital solutions. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Connecticut Public Broadcasting. Prior to that position, Robertson was Assistant General Manager for UConn Sports Marketing for IMG. His extensive background in broadcasting management and sales includes jobs as the Station Manager of Radio Disney Connecticut for nearly four years, as Senior Account Manager for the former Buckley Broadcasting (now Connoisseur Media), as a Sales Manager at NBC 30 (now NBC Connecticut), and as an Account Executive at CBS Radio in Farmington. Robertson also spent 11 years as Vice President and General Manager for WQTQ-FM 89.9, a broadcast radio station based at Weaver High School in Hartford. During those years, he also taught broadcasting classes to the school’s students.

The Windsor resident holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Hartford, and is a graduate of Hartford Public High School. He also serves on the Board of Directors of WYBC-FM at Yale University.

Working in partnership with businesses, institutions, nonprofit organizations and their surrounding communities, the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau markets all of the state – convention and meeting venues, hotels and attractions, and sporting venues – as a premier destination for international, national, regional and statewide conferences, conventions and major sports events. In the last fiscal year, the CTCSB booked more than 65,500 hotel room nights with over 340,000 attendees, resulting in nearly $63 million in spending by those attendees during their visits to the state and generating more than $4.8 million in CT Sales Tax. In addition, close to 21,000 Connecticut jobs in the hospitality industry were supported by meetings, conventions & sports events as a result of these bookings.*

The CTCSB is funded by private sector partnership support and through the DECD/Connecticut Office of Tourism. The Connecticut Sports Advisory Board, a division of the CTCSB, focuses its efforts on attracting and serving international, national and regional sporting events. For more information, visit www.CTmeetings.org or call 860-728-6789.

*DMAI economic calculator FY 2014-2015