INDIANAPOLIS — The Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) hosted its annual SISO Leadership Conference in Indianapolis this week, and focused its education around leveraging AI and data effectively, creating systems that prove ROI from events and looking at what’s next for the industry.
“The just concluded SISO Leadership Conference was the perfect blend of equal parts content, community and commerce. I think of this audience as next generation CEOs, and this past week did not disappoint. I’ll plan on seeing many of the same faces at Trade Show Executive’s (TSE) Gold 100 Awards & Summit later this year too,” said SISO CEO Vinnie Polito. “In raw numbers, this was the largest SISO Leadership Conference since I’ve been a part of the SISO team, but more importantly, it was the highest quality audience and the best content to date — and it was hosted by Indianapolis, which demonstrated why the city has such positive momentum in the industry.”
Held Aug. 19-21, the SISO Leadership Conference provided actionable takeaways and a well-rounded view on the current state of the trade show and live events landscape. TSE was on the ground at the event to provide a comprehensive view of this year’s robust and relevant education.
Women’s Leadership Forum
The Women’s Leadership Forum opened with an intimate chat between Roberta Tisdul, CMP, Senior Director of Destination Experience at Visit Indy, and Amber Cox, the Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Indiana Fever. Cox talked about her career journey with the WNBA, and the growing interest in women’s sports, which many people credit to basketball star Caitlin Clark, who plays on the Indiana Fever. The two also talked about the power of mentorship and the fast growth that the WNBA is experiencing.
Then, Angela Scalpello, Owner and Principal of The Scalpello Group, shared a presentation about the benefits of reverse mentoring — when junior employees mentor more senior and executive team members. Besides benefits to the employees involved, Scalpello also shared how organizations benefit through reverse mentoring programs, including by promoting inclusive leadership, building a culture of curiosity and mutual respect, increasing retention and engagement, and rooting out bias and stereotypes among employees.
Another session focused on seeing the event industry through the eyes of Gen Z professionals. Rachel Wimberly, Head of Business Development, USA at Easyfairs, lead the panel featuring Emma Galeckas, Attendee Relations Coordinator at Diversified; Lisa Mae Hobson, Senior Manager, Event Marketing and Brand Strategy at Fast Forward Events; Shaela O’Dell, Senior Marketing Specialist at Informa Markets – Engineering; and Sarah Zinn, CEM, Brand Director, P3C Media at Access Intelligence, as they discussed their career goals, priorities when looking at companies to work for, and how they like to be marketed to. Overall, the group shared that the events industry needs to lean into social media and video content to catch the attention of and connect with younger audiences.
Capping off the forum was a keynote from Kenzi Inman, Associate Vice President of Business Ventures and Strategic Development at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, about how every company is becoming a data company, especially those involved in live events and experiences. Inman shared that 71% of consumers expect personalization, and the brands that are able to leverage their data to personalize experiences, like the NBA does, will be successful at creating loyalty. She also told attendees that companies need to prioritize data acquisition and enrichment at every touchpoint to get a well-rounded view of behaviors to drive their own strategy.
Inman’s five steps to becoming a data company included:
- Collect as much data as possible
- Connect your ecosystem
- Implement emerging technology to amplify database potential
- Evaluate direct database monetization
- Exchange data with third parties
Attendees also got the opportunity to participate in reverse mentoring roundtables, where conversations between different generations were aimed at providing insights into the similarities and differences between professionals.
Leveraging AI
One session of the conference focused on using AI throughout the sales journey, and Beth Casson, Senior Vice President at RXUS, spoke with Indiya Okam, Group Vice President of Sales at RXUS, and MK Granados, Director of Sponsorships at Informa Markets North America, about how their teams are leveraging AI. The speakers agreed that AI is shortening the time to close by quickening the discovery process and widening their prospect pool, with RX using a tool to record sales calls and coach team members and Informa focusing on increasing efficiency so the team can have more face-to-face time with customers. Notably, both Okam and Granados emphasized that they are viewing AI as a revenue optimization tool, not as a resource optimization tool to decrease their workforce.
Following the sales session was a discussion between Liz Irving, CEO of Clarion Events North America and Max Gabriel, Co-Founder and CEO of Augmented AI, who talked about using AI to supercharge events. The two talked about the potential of AI agents and how they can be used to facilitate and personalize networking experiences, driving deeper connections at live events. Gabriel advised leaders to make an AI roadmap for the organizations, because AI needs to be part of your long-term strategy, not just a tool for increasing productivity. Another key takeaway was that a lot of show organizers outsource their data collection and storage to third parties, but they should start to take more ownership over their data.
M&A, Integrations and Launches
One session featured a fireside chat between Hervé Sedky, CEO of Emerald, and Doug Emslie, Chairman at Cuil Bay Capital, as Emslie shared his career journey, thoughts on industry M&A and his priorities as an investor in live events. He shared with the attendees that the best way to make informed decisions, whether it be for M&A activity or show strategy, is to be in the market and see events for themselves. He also spoke about the rising costs of launching an event, and the importance of fostering entrepreneurial spirit in the industry.
Following the session with Sedky and Emslie was a panel about show launches, featuring Dana Teague, General Manager of High Performance Expo at Taffy Event Strategies, and Mike Armstrong, Senior Vice President of Fanatics Events. SISO CEO Vinnie Polito led the discussion where Teague and Armstrong shared the struggles and key learnings from their experience launching High Performance Expo and Fanatics Fest respectively. Both leaders agreed that for a launch to be successful, a show needs a dedicated team that is solely focused on the launch, and that those involved need to understand in the first year, and possibly for a few years, the new event won’t bring in any money. They also encouraged leaders to accept critical feedback as an opportunity to design a better event.
On the topic of M&A, Beth Cowperthwaite, Senior Vice President, Communications at Emerald, and Jo Dickson, Vice President of Business Integration and Project Management at Informa Markets, spoke to Fast Forward Events Partner Michelle Metter about the realities of integrations, and how leaders need to be empathetic and strategic about integrating acquired businesses. Cowperthwaite and Dickson got candid about the emotional toll acquisitions and integrations can have on teams and individuals, and encouraged leaders to have a learning mindset as they integrate teams. They also shared that no matter how many questions you ask, there will be surprises and misunderstandings during an integration, and advised leaders to stay empathetic and transparent. Metter also shared that leaders should be preparing their teams for possible acquisitions so that people are able to manage their expectations.
Data-First Mindset
In a session about how show organizers can leverage consumer insights to improve experiences at their events, Tim Groot, Founder and CEO of Grip, spoke with Liz Irving and Rhonda Wunderlin, Senior Vice President of Performance Marketing at Questex, about how they’re using data to do strategic decision-making. Groot shared that analyzing matchmaking data from audiences at events can help to inform strategy as far as two years before negative impacts are seen in traditional KPIs. Wunderlin shared that Questex uses registration data, attendee data and digital behavior data to get a view of its audiences and what they’re wanting out of an event or offering. Irving also shared that not all data collection needs to be tech-driven, and that having conversations with customers and attendees provides impactful insights as well.
In a session led by InGo CEO Michael Barnett, a panel featuring Sedky; Alice Deer, Director of Global Strategic Events at Genesys; and Brian Ludwig, Executive Vice President of Sales at Cvent, dove into why proving ROI for events is more important than ever in an increasingly digital world. The panel agreed that digital marketing channels are easier to determine ROI from, and the most successful shows are going to be those that help their participants understand and prove their ROI for attending. While shows that focus on commerce are easier to calculate ROI from, hard data and technology is needed to understand the full picture.
Some interesting takeaways from the session included why face-to-face events reign supreme, which included that there is digital fatigue and diminishing returns from traditional digital channels and events are helping to accelerate trust and make business development more effective, as well as be used for direct lead generation and relationship management.
In a session about the power of peer connections, Jacy Barker, Vice President of Marketing Operations at RXUS, and Rob Dabb, Senior Vice President of Eaton Hall Exhibitions, a division of Clarion Connect, discussed how peer-to-peer referrals and connections are driving meaningful engagements at their shows. They also emphasized the importance of video content at driving engagement, especially among younger audiences, and that user-generated and employee-generated content is effective marketing tactics for live events.
Dabb shared that a networking opportunity centered around ice cream and connecting is a fan-favorite at a show in his portfolio, proving that something simple can generate big impacts for event-goers, and Barker shared how RX is using Snoball to encourage peer-to-peer marketing and tracking and incentivizing referrals, which has led to some shows seeing 70% of their attendees coming from referrals.
Research and Trends
At the event, Ken Holsinger, Senior Vice President of Industry Research and Insights at Freeman, shared key findings from Freeman’s latest Trends Report focused on networking. He emphasized the meaningful connection is designed, and while networking is an important factor in why attendees return to a show, 96% of organizers do not have someone in charge of networking.
Related. New Freeman Trends Report Reveals Networking is No. 1 Reason to Return for Attendees
After Ken’s session, Clarion Events North America’s Jamie Reesby, CEM, Vice President, Generation and Grocery, and Amanda Gochee, Group Vice President, Marketing Strategy, joined Megan Finnell, CMP, Senior Director of Strategy and Insights at Freeman, to talk about how Clarion surveyed their audience of the NGA Show to make meaningful changes to drive attendance growth. A key theme of their session was to not make assumptions about your audiences, and to really collect data about what they want to see at the show — then educate exhibitors on why attendees are coming to help manage their expectations.
In a session about innovative sales approaches, Polito spoke with Marie-Elaine Lemire, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Emerald, and Nicole Beiner, Director of Business Development for New Adjacencies and Segments at RXUS, about how their organizations are approaching sales in a new way. Beiner shared that RX’s value-based selling strategy is helping sales teams to identify the goals of their customers to better provide them with offerings to succeed and drive revenue. Lemire advised teams to take a consultative and cross-portfolio approach to be able to collaboratively package offerings for customers looking to attend multiple events.
In back-to-back presentations, Mark Brewster, CEO of Explori, and Nancy Drapeau, IPC, Vice President of Research at CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research), shared the latest findings from their organization’s research. Brewster shared that Explori’s recent report shows that exhibitors are more satisfied with events than they were pre-COVID because they are now more selective and intentional and attendee quality is up post-pandemic. Some other key shifts driving satisfaction are that exhibitors are meeting with existing customers and focusing more on lead quality, and tech and data around events are advancing. Another key finding from Explori’s data was that B2B festivals are growing and reporting higher ROI than traditional event formats. In Drapeau’s presentation of a segmented CEIR report, it is clear that macroeconomics is driving show performance results in 2025, and that the number of exhibitors at shows has yet to recover to the degree other metrics have reached post-COVID.
On the last day of the event, Chris Skeith, OBE, CEO of UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, gave a presentation about UFI and its purpose, as well as some key findings from its recent research and its trends to watch. Some key data points were that 34% of companies expect space rented to grow, while close to half of organizers believe their revenues will grow by more than 5%. On the workforce side of things, 40% of companies said they plan to increase their staff numbers, while 56% said they’re planning to keep their current numbers.
Related. Inside the 2025 UFI Award with Chris Skeith, OBE
Company Culture is Key
In a fireside chat, Questex CEO Paul Miller, FCIM, spoke with Warwick Davies, Principal of The Event Mechanic and The Annabelle Project, about the importance of workforce development and exposure to the events industry — and how Davies is making an impact in this area with The Annabelle Project. The Annabelle Project is a mentorship program that matches events industry leaders with students from underrepresented communities to open their eyes to the opportunity that lies in the trade show and events industry. The program has nearly 50 mentors, and works to build a channel to bring in the best talent to the industry while making an impact one person at a time.
A panel featuring Ken Holsinger; Caitlin Fox, President of Home – mdg, A Freeman Company; Melissa Montes, Vice President of AXN and WWIN at Clarion Events North America; Ray Rhodes, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at RX Global; and Don Pietranczyk, Vice President of Experience Education at Informa Markets’ Fashion Group, focused on why prioritizing diversity and inclusion is good for business. Holsinger kicked things off by sharing key stats showcasing the positive impact diverse workforces have on companies’ bottom lines, and the panelists explored how DEIB needs to be destigmatized because it benefits everyone, and not just one group. The group also emphasized that as the workforce is overtaken in number by Millennials and Gen Z workers, company culture and commitment to DEI will only grow in importance.
Later, Janice Rogers, Chief People Officer at Diversified, and Macy Fecto, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Access Intelligence, explored how burnout prevention leads to more successful and profitable organizations. A few key takeaways from this impactful session were that employee stress is at an all-time high as instability across the board is causing high levels of stress and anxiety, and 80% of young employees prioritize wellness benefits when looking at their jobs. The two shared that for every $1 invested in mental health treatment for employees, there is a $4 ROI, so prioritizing the wellness of the workforce is a savvy business decision too. Some key tactics to prevent burnout include creating realistic timelines for projects, respecting employees’ personal time, scheduling regular check-ins with teammates, giving buffer time between events to give employees restful vacations and time off, and celebrating the wins together as a team.
Mike Carlucci, Chief Operating Officer of Clarion Events North America, led a panel on safety and emergency preparedness featuring Ana-Alyse Castelluccio, Group Director of Exhibitor Services and Customer Delivery at Clarion; Lori Jenks, DES, SEPC, Senior Vice President of Operations at Access Intelligence; Jody Mosley, Vice President, Event Operations at Emerald; and Leah Stevens, Vice President of Event Operations at Informa Markets. Notably, Jenks shared how Access Intelligence is using AI to help build their emergency planning through specific prompting. Overall, the group shared the importance of clear communication plans and accountability over who will communicate with the venue and local authorities in case of an emergency. Carlucci emphasized that the industry needs to take their emergency planning very seriously as the threat environment constantly evolves.
An Update from Capitol Hill
Kicking off the final day was a presentation from Tommy Goodwin, Vice President of the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance (ECA), about the impacts politics could have on the industry. Reflecting on wins in the areas of taxes and talent, Goodwin shared that ECA’s policy priorities around tax structures for businesses, and expanding 529 savings plans and Pell Grants, were all successful with the passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. However, on the flipside, there are uncertainties around tariffs and travel that are creating headwinds for business events. While inbound travel to the U.S. is down, Goodwin said he is optimistic that in the future any tariff policy will be more predictable as more traditional routes are used to enact them — giving business leaders more opportunity to plan ahead.
Activating Around the City
SISO offered various activities for attendees to participate in around Indianapolis. For early arrivals, a guided tour of the city’s monuments, murals and breweries offered a curated look at the city’s center, history and flavors. A fun fact included that Indianapolis has more acreage dedicated to monuments and memorials for veterans than anywhere else in the country, and is only second to Washington, D.C., in the number of monuments it has.
An opening reception at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum allowed attendees to check out the history of NASCAR. The night included a ride around the iconic track and the opportunity to take photos in a race car in the museum.
Attendees also headed to the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art for an evening filled with live music, gondola rides on the Indiana Central Canal and mingling over food and drinks.
On the final day of the event, attendees could take a tour of the Indiana Convention Center, where the event took place, and Lucus Oil Stadium.
All Photos Credited to Coleman Photography, LLC.
