Officials at the Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM) have announced a number of plans for 2012 after a two-day annual board meeting at Wyboston Lakes.

The ITM board has confirmed its annual conference dates for April 24th–26th at the Palace Hotel in Manchester.

The event, entitled “Intelligence 2012”, will revert to the south of England in 2013 as part of a two year deal with Principal Hayley, with subsequent plans to rotate the conference between regions after that.

The association has also announced that the Chairman’s term will be changed to coincide with the annual conference each year.

This means that Nicola Lomas, director of corporate travel services for Omnicom, will officially take the chairman’s role on April 26th at the conference in Manchester from existing chairman, Jamie Hindhaugh, head of production 2012 for the BBC.

ITM has also agreed that Simone Buckley will join the association on the November 1st 2011 to take over the chief executive role on January 1st.

Her early start will ensure an effective handover with existing chief executive, Paul Tilstone, who departs on the December 31st.

Ms Buckley is in the process of handing over her responsibilities within and ownership of the Bouda consultancy which she established with partner Clare Murphy two years ago.

Ms Murphy will continue the Bouda consultancy independently.

Talking about the announced timings, Lomas said: “We saw an opportunity to align the chairman’s term with the conference dates and ensure a smooth handover of the two key leadership positions of ITM.

“These timings mean that Simone’s work with Paul over the next two months will ensure she will really hits the ground running in 2012.

“These changes and our conference plans continue to demonstrate the intent of ITM to grow its influence in the UK business travel and meetings market.”

In addition to wider industry content, the association plans to include three specialist areas at the conference: Industry Affairs, Meetings & Events and Crisis Management.