CHICAGO — Trade Show Executive is proud to announce this year’s Women to Watch list. The Women to Watch program, which launched in 2018, recognizes and encourages the next generation of leaders in the trade show industry. Submissions were reviewed by TSE editors, and the results are in.
This year’s winners are Randi Cavitt, Event Services Manager, AVIXA; Kristina Rogers, Event Vice President, ReedPop; Christen Tye, Education Manager, World of Concrete/Informa; Melissa Montes, Vice President, AXN and WWIN, Clarion Events; Jacqueline Williams, Event Director, RX Global; Jennifer Muna, Vice President – Market Operations, International Market Centers; Tiffany Hale, Event Manager, National FFA; and Sarah Wilson, Show Director, Emerald.
“Now more than ever, we need to recognize the talented women who do and will continue to make our industry successful and thrive. I think of the many people who helped and encouraged me and so it is an honor pay that forward and reward these dynamic up-and-comers for their hard work and leadership skills,” Gabrielle Weiss, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, Trade Show Executive, said. “I personally read the submissions and talked with their nominators. To hear the passion and excitement of the executives who nominated the talented women was inspiring to me as well. I think that says a lot about our industry.”
They were selected based on various criteria, including demonstrable leadership qualities, creativity, integrity, overall business acumen, problem-solving, fostering excellence in team members and mentorship, and having shown a high level of excellence in show management. It was open to non-executive level staff of show management and is for those who have been in the industry from 2-10 years.
The program, which is sponsored by Connections Housing this year and is led by Owners Nancy Hallberg and Kris Sieradzki, had not been active since 2019 due to the pandemic. This year’s class of winners demonstrated excellence not only based on the original criteria, but also their resilience through the pandemic, which hit the trade show and exhibition hard and forced many to move to virtual and hybrid format events. These winners proved instrumental in helping their companies to provide clients with the best and safest trade show experience, and in helping their shows grow.
The Women to Watch will be in the spotlight at the TSE Gold 100 Awards & Summit being held at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara, Calif., Sept. 21-23, 2022. They will also partake in a professional photo shoot and will be featured in TSE’s December issue, which will be distributed at IAEE’s Expo! Expo! They’ll also get headshots to aid them on their journey up the corporate ladder.
“We are so grateful for the many submissions we received this year. The talent in this industry is abundant! TSE seeks to recognize talent as part of its mission as B2B publication that works diligently to serve our community and industry. I encourage our readers to reach out to me with stories about their up-and-comers, submit for TSE Trailblazers, our mixed gender recognition initiative, and of course for next year’s W2W program. We can’t do this without you,” Weiss said.
Reach Randi Cavitt at rcavitt@avixa.org; Kristina Rogers at kristina@reedpop.com; Christen Tye at christen.tye@informa.com; Melissa Montes at melissa.montes@clarionevents.com; Jacqueline Williams at jacqueline.williams@rxglobal.com; Jennifer Muna at jmuna@imcenters.com; Tiffany Hale at thale@ffa.org; Sarah Wilson at Sarah.Wilson@emeraldx.com; Kris Sieradzki at Kris@connectionshousing.com; and Nancy Hallberg at nancy@connectionshousing.com
