Dolaher Is Ready to Run the IDG Game

David Korse stepped down last October as CEO of IDG World Expo. It didn't take long for Bob Carrigan, president of IDG Communications (IDG World Expo's parent company), to find a suitable replacement. A month later, he offered the job to Mary Dolaher, former vice president of the Entertainment Software Assn. and show manager of the now-defunct E³.

But there was a twist: Dolaher wasn't interested in that particular job — at the time. Instead, the announcement came that she was named executive vice president.

"When I came in and accepted the position, the title wasn't important," Dolaher said. "I wanted to get in and figure out what I was doing and help grow the business. I wasn't worried about whether I was called the receptionist or executive vice president."

Six months later, she's ready for the CEO title — and Carrigan is ready to give it to her.

"Mary Dolaher is a strategic thinker who is leading IDG World Expo in new directions," Carrigan said. "Her 20-plus years of experience leading major events will help make IDG World Expo one of the top-rated exposition companies in the world."

To be sure, Dolaher has had a lot of things to get her head around rather quickly, such as the launch of Entertainment for All Expo, scheduled Oct. 18–21 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the invitation-only E³ Media & Business Summit July 11–13 at the Barker Hangar Santa Monica Air Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Both events are successors to E³ (canceled by ESA last year), now owned by IDG World Expo and endorsed by the association.

If Dolaher isn't claiming she's in the standard new CEO's I'm-going-to-get-to-know-the-company phase, there's a good reason. After all, she worked for IDG before — for 15 years actually, starting in 1983.

E for All Expo in particular has posed challenges for Dolaher, the main one being convincing exhibitors, especially the flagship game companies that were once E³ mainstays, to now try the new show.

"Some people are looking at what we are doing very carefully and have a wait-and-see approach," Dolaher said. "Others are really excited about it."

In April, E for All snagged its first big anchor, Nintendo, and Dolaher said there were more who had committed, though she wasn't ready to name them.

Even if most of the major electronic game developers sign on, the event will still look considerably different from the old E³. For one thing, it will be a strictly consumer event (E³ was trade-only) and tickets will be sold in advance — a move, Dolaher said, that has been a major draw in luring more exhibitors.

"We also have sponsors selling tickets, and it's really helping sign on exhibitors," she said. "I think (advance ticket sales) is something people will be talking about in the industry."

Another major difference will be the showfloor itself. It will be considerably smaller than the last E³, which was ranked No. 36 in the 2007 TSW 200 and spanned more than 540,000 square feet. The new event will take up the LACC's South Hall, which is close to 350,000 sq. ft. Another 63,000 sq. ft. in the West Hall will most likely be used for a gaming tournament.

The booths will be smaller than at E³. Booths exhibiting hardware are limited to 7,000 sq. ft. at most. All others — software companies, game developers, merchandisers — are limited to 5,000 sq. ft.

Reports at the time were that the original E³ met its demise partly because major exhibitors were unhappy with the costly lengths they had been forced to go to in order to compete with their rivals.

Dolaher and her team have also had their hands full communicating to overseas retailers and exhibitors not only what happened to E³, but why there were now two shows, one by invitation only.

"There was some confusion," she added, "but a lot has been cleared up through personal conversations with exhibitors and retailers."

Now that Dolaher has smoothed out some of the launch details, she said she felt more comfortable donning the CEO hat.

"I wanted the staff to know I'm here and committed," Dolaher said.

Just because she's stepped into bigger shoes, doesn't mean she won't still be hands-on with E for All Expo. "My team and I have to be (close) because we have a lot of key relationships," Dolaher said.

Besides the gaming events, Dolaher will also oversee other IDG World Expo brands such as Macworld and LinuxWorld.

"I am also going to spend more of my time focusing on new event launches," she added.

And though she said she wouldn't comment on specifics, she did confirm there are already some irons in the fire. "We're looking outside for non-IT events," Dolaher said. "More than one, if everything goes well."