CHICAGO — In 2019, Trade Show Executive (TSE) unveiled its first class of Trailblazers, a group of professionals who represented the rising talent in the trade show and events industry.
Among this inaugural class was Jordan Tuchband, who at the time was Industry Vice President, JIS at Reed Exhibitions (now RX). Today, Tuchband is Senior Vice President at RX, overseeing a successful portfolio of brands and teams and continuing to raise the bar for industry excellence.
TSE caught up with Jordan Tuchband to find out more about his career progression, his advice to young professionals and insights into his success.
MADDY: Can you talk to us a bit about your role and responsibilities at the time of you being named a Trailblazer, and what initiatives you led that resulted in you being nominated?
JORDAN: In 2019, I was leading the JIS events, and I had been leading those for some time. At that point, the event was acquired by Reed back in May of 2015, and that’s how I got to RX. In 2019, we launched the fifth JIS event; it had grown from three shows at the time of the acquisition to five.
That year, I also got involved in taking over all of the sales responsibilities for Vision Expo that year, which was the first time that I was working on an event that wasn’t jewelry related.
We also had ran a pilot that I championed at one of our events. It was a technology pilot, and the learnings and outcome of that ultimately became the foundation of a digital product that we now have rolled out across the globe. It was really an exciting year, and super busy.
MADDY: Looking to today, what are your current roles and responsibilities?
JORDAN: Today I am a Senior Vice President at RX, and I’m responsible for a portfolio of some of our most significant event brands that we have in a couple of different industries. This includes the ISC events for physical and cyber security, G2E which is Global Gaming Expo for the casino and gaming industry, and ITS which is Intelligent Transportation Systems that encompasses a lot of the public sector.
There’s a lot that goes into this, but ultimately, I am responsible for constantly finding ways to grow our events that are in my portfolio, and that includes strategy development, talent development, P&L performance, resourcing, and balancing the broader corporate initiatives with the individual events’ priorities.
MADDY: Can you walk us through your career journey from 2019 to today and how your work has expanded in some areas?
JORDAN: So, 2019 was definitely that exciting year with those five shows and Vision Expo — and then of course the whole world broke right at the beginning of 2020.
During that time, because I have a big love and fondness for and a lot of experience in the technology world, I got really involved in digital events, online marketplaces and all of those sorts of initiatives that every organizer was doing at the time to try to stay connected and engage with communities that the show supported.
In 2021, I led the first event back for RX coming out of COVID. It was the first face-to-face event that we ran globally and the teams I got to work with to make that happen, at all different levels of the organization, was really great exposure. Whether it was the most senior leadership at the time, the general counsel or operations leads at the global headquarters in the U.K., it was the first event back, so there was a lot of visibility.
Shortly after that there was an opportunity for me to move into the role that I’m in now as Group Vice President, which meant I would have to leave the jewelry industry. I’d have to move on and be willing to learn about entirely different sectors and industries, and that’s what happened.
I was given that opportunity at the beginning of January 2022 and had to immediately help these events get back on track and start performing coming out of COVID, and it turned out to be one of the greatest decisions I’ve made in my career — to pursue something beyond what I was comfortable with. It’s been super fun to make that transition, though a little daunting at first, but I have some incredible teams that work on those brands that were open-minded.
MADDY: Did you imagine this is where you would be now back in 2019?
JORDAN: Yes. I always wanted to stay connected with events and I was really happy where I was running the JIS events. But I wanted my career to continue to progress, which was my choice. There are some event leaders who are amazing at what they do and are totally fine with running their events for the time being and that is totally okay, and they’re really important, but I wanted to do more.
I was getting more involved with the company, like the whole experience with the pandemic, and there was so much more that I learned about how the company operated. I saw what we could do differently or how other events were operating. You think you know a lot when you’ve been on your brand for so many years, so I thought I had a pretty good handle on things. But the amount of knowledge and the skill set that expanded in a couple of years after moving off of jewelry dwarfs the knowledge that I had leading up to that point.
The exposure and interaction with different types of events that were substantially different from mine in terms of types of audiences, what the goals were, the scale of them — there was so much that I didn’t know. To me that was really exciting, so I got a taste of that during 2021, and I wanted to keep pursuing that, and then this opportunity became available, and I went for it.
Related. Meet the 2019 TSE Trailblazers
MADDY: You’ve been in this industry and at RX now for quite some time. What are some things about live events and RX that have kept you in this industry for so long?
JORDAN: As an industry, what we do is super fun. At the end of the day, it’s hard work, but it is really exciting. What I love about the industry is every day is guaranteed to be different, no matter how much you sometimes may want it to be simple or the same. It’s going to have some kind of new variable, some outside factor, and it’s just never going to be the same. I don’t think I could ever go back to a job where there was a 9-5 schedule doing the exact same kind of thing; I’d probably lose my mind.
As for RX, I would give the same answer I’ve given consistently for the last decade, and this was my first impression early on and it hasn’t changed: The greatest thing that keeps me at RX is the caliber of the people that I get to work with every day at all different levels of the organization. It’s not just peers or my leader, it’s all levels. The level of dedication that everyone shows up with — the creativity, the ingenuity, the work ethic — there’s so much that everyone really brings here and that’s inspiring to me personally. You see everyone working at 100% like that and you want to match that. It’s kind of like “a rising tide raises all boats” thing, so the culture in the organization is our biggest asset.
MADDY: Something that I think would be interesting to address would be your experience of coming into what was then Reed Exhibitions through an acquisition. That experience, especially for a newer industry professional, can be scary. Can you tell us a bit about your experience with that and maybe your advice on how to best navigate through that kind of big change?
JORDAN: It definitely was a significant change going from a small operator to a large global organization. I would say if you are joining a larger event organizer, like an RX, through an acquisition, that is not an accident. You should be confident that you are bringing knowledge and experience that the new ownership sees immediate value in. You’re not there by happenstance, and if you’re coming along as a new hire for the new owner there is a reason for that.
I would also say the less you know about the little details and standard operating procedures is actually an opportunity. There’s a quote I heard to the effect of knowing less is often an opportunity to do more. That means you’re coming with all this experience and knowledge, and you’re not handicapped by the baggage of “we’ve always done it this way,” and so you have an opportunity to challenge some of the status quo in a respectful way.
When you’re coming from a smaller operation, you are likely wearing a whole bunch of different hats. You’ve been used to doing a lot of things and finding ways to be super-efficient, and that’s something you might be able to bring to the table in your new organization.
I’d finish out with even though you’re used to wearing those many hats, you need to give space to allow others to get more involved and learn. It can test your patience and there will be mistakes, or things done in a way that you wouldn’t have done it, but you have to give the opportunity to others to start to learn. If you insist on doing everything yourself you are missing out on one of the most significant benefits of being part of a larger organization, which is all these other roles and experiences that could help you.
Change is hard, it’s easier said than done, especially if it’s something you’ve worked close to for so long, so it takes some getting used to.
Related. ISC East Marks Growth with High-Quality Education and Show Floor Enhancements
MADDY: Reflecting on your career thus far, what have been some of the most memorable accomplishments, and what have been some challenges you’ve successfully navigated?
JORDAN: You mean beyond winning the Trailblazer Award in 2019 from TSE? I would have to say that it’s No. 2 behind ISC West winning the Greatest Trade Show of the Year at TSE’s Gold 100. You’re in the same category with shows like CES, and just some major names in the space; and the strategy we had that year, the investments we made, all of that coming together was definitely a career highlight.
As far as some challenges, getting through the pandemic was one. Being able to pave the way to run face-to-face events and show that we could do it safely, and while it was a difficult time getting through that, show the industry that we could do things and create hope, was pretty impactful on me.
Another challenge was having to learn three different and new industries at the exact same time, while figuring out how to get them rolling and driving growth, and getting to know those teams. But it was super rewarding, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
MADDY: If you could go back and give yourself advice when you were early on in your career, what would you want to say?
JORDAN: I would say to sign up for a Sky Miles account or a rewards account because you’re going to be traveling a lot.
But in all seriousness, I would tell myself that everything you’re doing will take longer and take more resources to get done at the level you think it should be than you think it will take and planned for. You have to prioritize the things you’re working on and where you’re spending your time in a way where the outcomes have the most significant impact, because you can’t do everything — especially at a level of excellence. You have to be a little choosy. You want to be open-minded and say yes to opportunities all the time, but you need to be honest with yourself in terms of what the biggest priorities are that are going to help you get to the goal.
MADDY: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
JORDAN: Your managers are on paper, and leaders are not necessarily managers, so it’s convenient when they’re both. You could be a leader in your organization without having a direct report; so, pick your leaders carefully.
In my case, I had both, which was Yancy Weinrich [President, North America at CloserStill Media]. She was my boss at the time, and it was her who called me and said she needed my help with a project and asked me to get involved with Vision Expo. She had said it was only going to be a few months, but those turned into two and a half years when I was on JIS and Vision Expo.
Saying yes to her was the catalyst that put me on the career path that I’m on today, otherwise I’d probably still be on the jewelry portfolio within RX and running JIS. The impact she had on me was substantial and I want to give her tremendous credit and thanks for that.
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