Innovators
-- Tradeshow Week, 6/9/2008
Senior Vice President, Strategic Business Development
SMG
Caren works out of SMG's corporate headquarters in Philadelphia, but good luck finding him there. In fact, most of the time his voice mail message is some version of “I'm on the other side of the world, don't even think about trying to reach me.” Ever since Caren returned last summer to SMG, under new ownership, after a 10-month hiatus with Trump Entertainment Resorts, he's indeed been traveling the globe, developing new markets for the company that isn't satisfied with the 240 various facilities it runs in the U.S. The best example is the announcement he made last year during IAEE's Expo! Expo! that SMG would manage the China Natl. Convention Center in Beijing – as soon as it's finished being used as a venue for the upcoming Summer Olympics. Although friendly with the media, he's cagey enough to keep them guessing about what his next big announcement will be – and where it will take place.
CEO
IDG World Expo
Dolaher loves the tradeshow business, so much so she took advantage of her company's tuition reimbursement program to get ahead in it. She combined education, a willingness to learn on the job and strong organizational and management skills to become, first, IDG's director of corporate events and, then, organizer and manager of one of the country's top tradeshows, E3/Electronic Entertainment Expo. After returning to IDG World Expo in 2006, today she leads a team whose events include Macworld Conference & Expo/San Francisco, LinuxWorld Conference & Expo/San Francisco, GreenXchange Xpo, debuting in the fall, and the new Entertainment for All Expo video game event, launched in 2007 to replace the E3 mega-show. Dolaher's been named one of the top 25 people in the video game industry and was the inaugural recipient of the Gertrude Crain Award recognizing achievement among the country's leading female executives. 1396927554
Managing Director
Tarsus Group
In the last six months alone, Emslie's Tarsus Group has acquired a 50-percent interest in a company with a portfolio of 27 shows in Central and Western China, launched an edition of its Label Summit events in Barcelona, Spain, and acquired a company with eight events in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, among them the Dubai Airshow. To Emslie, the strategy's a simple one: “Build on the success of our international portfolio of shows and strengthen the business by expanding to fast-growing emerging markets.” Although Emslie was referring to emerging countries when he spoke to TSW, he's not letting mere geography limit him. A year and a half ago, he bought Medical Conferences Intl., an organizer of health care exhibitions and conferences in the U.S. anti-aging market. With American baby boomers getting on in years, anti-aging's practically the definition of an emerging market.
Chairman
Natl. Trade Productions
Harar founded Natl. Trade Productions in 1976 with the introduction of FOSE, an information technology exposition targeting the federal government that eventually became – and remains – a TSW 200 show (though now in other hands). Today, he's still an entrepreneur who's apparently doing something right. NTP's a mix of proprietary events and events managed for clients. Under Harar's leadership, NTP's produced more than 1,000 events worldwide in more than 20 industries. The company still manages more than a dozen, including three TSW 200 shows. Harar, who also works as a consultant for organizations facing significant change within their events, is a past chairman of SISO and a featured speaker at many industry meetings. He's also served on the CEIR board.
President and CEO
American Business Media
B-to-B media's in the midst of upheaval, with print advertising dollars dissolving into thin air and the move to online becoming more and more imminent for any company that hopes to stay around. Watching over this industry in transition is Hughes in his role as the head of the organization that is the go-to place for anything and everything to do with B-to-B media. Almost since the day he became CEO of ABM in 2000 (he's been president of the organization since 1994), Hughes has pushed his members to get into the events and tradeshow business in an effort to better serve their customers, whose horizons have expanded way beyond the era in which the organization was called American Business Publishing. With 25 years of advertising experience under his belt, he has the know-how to guide his members onto the Web and into face-to-face marketing.
President and CEO
Business Journals Inc.
Jones is the fourth generation to head up BJI, a family-owned B-to-B communications company that produces 19 fashion-oriented events per year, three of which take place a combined 13 times a year at the Jacob K. Javits CC of New York. The other six are held in Las Vegas, territory that BJI just branched out to in recent years.
Jones has said that if he wasn't managing tradeshows he'd be a struggling publisher. BJI also publishes four trade magazines with a 54-magazine custom publishing division, seven Web sites and one of the industry's largest databases of fashion retailers. He said he became a show manager because it was the next logical step for his company to take.
Jones served on the American Business Media board for the maximum number of terms allowed (three) and chaired ABM's Trade Show Council and Strategic Planning Committee. He's currently vice chairman of SISO. His term as chairman will begin in August.
Director, Meeting Services
Health Information & Management Society
As manager of HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, Malone looks like she would be primed for success no matter what. The show, along with two new editions in Europe and one in Asia launched in the last two years, sits at the confluence of two fast-growing sectors, health care and IT, as the former races to employ the latter to get doctors, hospitals and other medical institutions up to speed technology-wise. The truth is that the The Expo Group Show Manager of the Year award winner's almost never rested, constantly coming up with new innovations to not only grow her showfloor, but also to make it more accessible, if not indispensible, to its exhibitors and attendees. The HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo – yes, a virtual tradeshow – is, according to Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Assn. Executive Vice President Eric Allen, one of a handful in cyberspace that seem to make sense for health care.
CEO
Chicago's Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority
In 2007, Ochoa had been on the job for just a few months when a commissioned report came back with detailed suggestions about what had to be done to improve – if not save – the tradeshow experience at McCormick Place. He could've said he needed more time, but instead Ochoa tackled the problems head on. Most importantly, there were new contracts with labor unions that have gone a long way to reduce the antagonism between show managers, exhibitors, contractors and labor. That's not all: There's a contract with a new convention center caterer, better and more transportation options between the center and downtown hotels, plans for renovations and expansion at the anchor Hyatt and a better relationship with the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau. But Ochoa's still not done: He's got plans for developing more property around McCormick Place for even further expansion.
Senior Vice President, Events
Canon Communications
If you wonder what the story is behind the long-winded name of the No. 88 show on the 2008 TSW 200 – Natl. Manufacturing Week/Assembly Technology Expo/Quality Expo/Electronics Assembly Show/Plastec Midwest – ask O'Keefe: It's his brainchild. In 2005, Apprise Media bought Canon, which at the time had 15 tradeshows, 15 magazines and eight Web sites. Since then, O'Keefe's been instrumental in taking Canon's core group of products and, through a flurry of acquisitions, building an impressive array of collocated advanced technology-based manufacturing tradeshows, hence the multi-named shows. He also was behind the launch of the Plastec and Medtec events, the integration and annualizing of the packaging shows and the introduction of various pavilion exhibition features. Along the way, that original portfolio of 15 shows has grown to 63.
Director, Leasing and Deal-making
Intl. Council of Shopping Centers
Peterson's been at ICSC a while – she started in the public relations department 30 years ago before moving to the Leasing Mall and now to managing the show – but it doesn't mean she hasn't stopped looking for ways to constantly remake ICSC's show. This year there's a new name, ReCon, The Global Real Estate Convention (formerly the ICSC Spring Convention Leasing Mall & Trade Expo). Peterson also was keeping the show green before being green was a buzz word in the industry. The show uses the same carpeting four years in a row and then recycles it; recyclable products are in the exhibitors' kits; recycled paper's used for everything that's printed; and all the show's trash is sorted.
Director, Operations
Nielsen Business Media – Retail Group
Cindy Sample isn't one to pat herself on the back or take any inordinate credit for her company's achievements. The growth and success of Nielsen's Retail Group (formerly the Sports Group), which includes the Outdoor Retailer Summer and Winter Markets, Interbike Intl. Bicycle Expo, Fly-fishing Retailer World Trade Expo, Health & Fitness Business Expo and Conference and Action Sports Retailer tradeshows, isn't about individual accolades, she asserted, but the result of great leadership, strong teamwork and solid working relationships. In her five years as operations director, the 13-year industry veteran also has been known for working with the 4-year-old Green Steps Program, a grassroots environmental initiative that implements eco-friendly practices at Nielsen's outdoor industry tradeshows. The goal, Sample said, is to encourage environmental stewardship, step by step.
President
Stetson Convention Services
This man sees green. Since purchasing the 40-year-old general contracting and decorating company in 1995, Sandherr's grown Stetson Convention Services from a regional firm serving the eastern United States into the leading national tradeshow contractor that emphasizes environmental sustainability. The commitment to produce sustainable events didn't materialize overnight for the 20-year industry veteran, but two experiences did inspire Sandherr to alter his company's direction: First, in 2001, he served on the design commission for the David L. Lawrence CC in Pittsburgh, the world's first and largest LEED-certified convention center. Second, the following year, Stetson won the bid to provide contracting services for the U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild Intl. Conference and Expo. The show opened Sandherr's eyes to not only the environmental movement taking shape, but also the burgeoning market for producing sustainable events. Since then, he's been on a mission to help the tradeshow industry move from wasteful to sustainable.
President and CEO
Professional Convention Management Assn.
For more than 30 years, Sexton has committed herself to an industry she clearly is passionate about. After a long stint as a salesperson at several Chicago hotels and running her own company, Sexton Hospitality Services, she spent more than a decade at the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, where she took over as CEO in 2002. Three years later, she moved on to the top leadership position at PCMA. In that role, she has been a trailblazer from day one, pushing the organization, and the industry, to be the best it can be. She's also taken a principled stand on the environment, requiring any venue that wants to host PCMA's lucrative annual meeting to be and see green.
CEO
Expomedia Group
Shashoua's been hooked on the tradeshow business ever since he went to work for his father and uncle's company, Intl. Trade & Exhibitions, in the early 1990s. He worked his way up to CEO by the end of the decade; then he and the rest of his family sold their shares in the company. Shashoua teamed up again with his father to form U.K.-based Expomedia Group in 2000. With the new company, Shashoua ventured into venue management in places where the modern exhibition industry barely existed: cities like Warsaw, Poland; Zagreb, Croatia; and Belgrade, Serbia. Expomedia found a formula for success in these countries by setting up shop and forming local partnerships. The next natural step was to start launching exhibitions. At the same time, Expomedia branched off into conferences – mainly in Russia, Poland and India. To top it off, Shashoua has a hand in the publishing world with a shareholder interest in Mash Media, publisher of Exhibition World.
CEO
A.C.T/Expocad
Stone's company may be Applied Computer Technology, but most in the tradeshow industry are more familiar with his software, Expocad. It's an event management software with an interactive online floor plan, used by some of the biggest tradeshows, including NAB and Semicon West. Stone went even further about a year ago when he teamed up with BDMetrics, which offers ROI and matchmaking software for shows, to integrate the products for shared tradeshow clients. Now show managers have the ability to give more information to potential exhibitors, and exhibitors can see what kind of buyers are on the showfloor, guiding them in decisions about booth size and location. The partnership between the two softwares also helps exhibit sales staffs quantify ROI for exhibitors in real time. Just as significantly, he's possibly one of the best known individuals in the business since there's hardly an industry meeting he doesn't make an appearance at.
President and CEO
1105 Media
Neal Vitale's one of a handful of people in the tradeshow business who not only instilled enough confidence in the private equity community to allow him to start a business – but also to go back to the well and keep on investing. With years of experience and the successful buy-build-sell of Petersen Publishing under his belt, in 2006 Vitale partnered with two Boston-based private equity firms, Nautic Partners and Alta Communications, to start 1105 Media off with the $75 million purchase of 101 Communications. Building on the strategy of aligning print, online and face-to-face properties, Vitale and his backers went on to snag Stevens Publishing and its seven magazines and newsletters; government technology tradeshow FOSE; FETC, the Florida Technology Conference; and a trio of government shows, GovSec, U.S. Law and the Ready! Conference & Exhibition series – all in the past two years.
