Tradeshow Week Power Pack

As we editors worked the past couple of months to prepare this year’s Power Pack – Tradeshow Week’s list of the 100 most influential people in the exhibition business – we couldn’t resist peeking at our list from a couple of years ago. It may be that you disagree with some of our choices. We expect and welcome that. Our hope is the 2008 Power Pack will be a starting point for a discussion of leadership in the exhibition world

 Head Honchos

Sheldon Adelson
Chairman and CEO
Las Vegas Sands
Sheldon Adelson's certainly an elusive man when it comes to the media. That, however, doesn't stop him from being the subject of countless stories in TSW's pages. The story of how he started COMDEX from scratch, sold it for $800 million, and built the Las Vegas Sands empire is the stuff of tradeshow industry legend.
Everybody knows what kind of powerhouse the Sands complex in Macau has become, with tradeshow organizers elbowing each other to book space there. Then there are the plans for Singapore, for resorts in Kansas (you can look it up) and who knows what else.
But wait … there's more, such as the pitched battle between his neighbor down the Strip (and what seems to be arch-nemesis) Steve Wynn. Adelson told TSW three years ago he would expand the Sands Expo & CC by 800,000 sq. ft. Plans have even been filed with Clark County, Nevada, zoning officials. However, those plans are still quite vague. Meanwhile, Wynn announced his own proposal for a new convention center, practically in the shadow of the Sands-Venetian-Palazzo. Don't expect Adelson to take that sitting down.
As if that weren't enough excitement for a man whom Forbes Magazine has declared the 12th richest in the world, there are a few plans in the works in Nevada that would divert bed-tax revenue to the state budget and away from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. And who's behind them? You guessed it, Adelson, motivated by his long-professed belief that the LVCVA, a quasi-governmental entity, has no business competing with him and other private-sector operators.
The bottom line: Expect Adelson's name to show up again the next time TSW puts together one of these lists of the industry's most influential people.

Chuck Bowling
Executive Vice President
Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
It appears that Chuck Bowling isn't going to have time to get too comfortable in his new role as executive vice president of Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. According to Mandalay President and colleague Bill Hornbuckle, Bowling's being groomed to fill Hornbuckle's role and take the helm from him in less than a year. This is no surprise, given Bowling's steady rise to the top at MGM Mirage since he began his Las Vegas tenure at MGM Grand in 1998. Since then, Bowling has held a variety of sales and marketing positions at the company, leading up to his current role overseeing day-to-day operations at Mandalay Bay.
Hornbuckle, who's known Bowling for 10 years, said he believes Bowling's success in the industry is due in part to his friendly nature, an innate ability to establish and build positive relationships with clients, and an uncanny ability to zero in on, package and deliver what they want.
“Above all else, it's his ability to see a piece of business from the client's perspective,” Hornbuckle said. “That is probably his best quality and one of the things that's made him excel in the industry. He's one of the friendliest guys, and clients relate to him instantly. He's a southern gentleman, and he has a way about him.”
A 27-year industry veteran, Bowling also is a well-known, outspoken and respected member of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, Nevada Commission on Tourism and Travel Industry Assn. of America boards.

Chet Burchett
President
Reed Exhibitions Americas
The last time TSW published a Power Pack in 2006, Burchett still was considered a new face, someone who had more or less just arrived on the scene. My, how things have changed. Even if one didn't factor in the steady year-over-year revenue growth for Reed Exhibitions, there's still plenty more to talk about.
One of the most significant moves Burchett and Reed Exhibitions Americas made since the last time out was the decision a little more than a year ago to acquire a majority interest in 26 tradeshows in Brazil and create a partnership with the largest tradeshow organizer in South America, Brazil-based Alcantara Machado. It became a new entity, Reed Exhibitions Alcantara Machado.
Alcantara Machado held on to a handful of shows, but the most successful went with the new partnership with Reed Exhibitions Americas: Mecanica, for machinery and industrial supplies; Brasilpack, for packaging; and Fenatec-Primavera/Verao, for textiles.
Also last year, Burchett realigned his top management, leaving him more time to focus on the real growth areas of the business, among them Latin America and health care.
Reed Exhibitions' life sciences group also has seen rapid growth during Burchett's tenure, including expansion of the Interphex brand. In addition, he's overseen swift expansion in security, home enhancement and lifestyle, serves as a member of the World Wide Board of Reed Exhibitions and is responsible for the global development of the company's life science, health care and gaming brands.

Tony Calanca
Executive Vice President, Exhibitions
Advanstar Communications
Calanca earned his stripes in the tradeshow industry far in advance of being offered the post overseeing Advanstar's exhibition arm. He spent 23 years moving up the ranks at Reed Exhibitions, ending up as senior vice president before striking out on his own in 2003 to found, with three other partners, Infinity Expo, a small, entrepreneurial tradeshow firm. Infinity launched and managed several shows before dissolving in late 2005. Calanca said at the time, “There just wasn't volume there to support four partners. It was good business, just not that much.”
It didn't take long though for someone with Calanca's pedigree to be snatched up by another company. In 2006, he went to work for Advanstar Communications.
In his role at Advanstar, Calanca's responsible for the continued growth and direction of the company's exhibitions, four of which are on the 2008 TSW 200, including No. 6 Las Vegas-based MAGIC Marketplace.
The company's successful strategy of matching its tradeshow and magazine titles, among them 87 events and 60 publications and directories, also has paid off for Calanca and his team. In 2007, private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson made the biggest U.S. acquisition of the year when it bought Advanstar for $1.4 billion.
Now the only question seems to be, with all that fresh capital in hand, which one of the Advanstar divisions – fashion and licensing, life sciences or powersports and automotive – will Calanca expand next?

Karen Chupka
Senior Vice President, Events and Conferences
Consumer Electronics Assn.
Most years, (the only exceptions being those when the massive triennial CONEXPO-CON/AGG takes place), Intl. CES is the largest tradeshow staged in North America, typically ranked No. 1 on the TSW 200. Chupka oversees the large consumer technology tradeshow, which brings more than 130,000 people to Las Vegas every January for a look at the latest, coolest products and services. The show also prompts more than a few headlines, most having to do with electronics. However, this year's hottest rumor during the show was that it might – just might – move to another city. That was quashed by CEA President Gary Shapiro later in the week when he said Las Vegas was the only place the behemoth could fit.
Chupka's been finding ways to make the show more relevant as on-air broadcasting and mobile communications find common ground in content. Enter the launch of Content@CES at the most recent show, which included exhibitors such as Sony and NBC Universal, providing a forum for next-generation, Hollywood-type content. It's an area where NATPE, the Natl. Assn. of Television Program Executives' annual conference and exhibition, usually dominated, but now Intl. CES is giving that show, also staged in Las Vegas in January, competition, especially with the hiring of Nick Orfanopoulos, former director of NATPE, as a consultant for CES' content section.
With all these changes, and the show's continued growth – 1,857,161 net sq. ft. in January, compared with 2007's 1,804,070 net sq. ft., plus almost 200 additional exhibitors in 2008 for a total of 3,268 – what will 2009 hold?

Mike Cooke
CEO
dmg world media
It's been a little more than 10 years since Mike Cooke tackled the top post at dmg world media. Since his 1997 appointment, he's led the company's growth from a U.K.-based focus to a global one, acquiring more than 60 companies and increasing annual revenue from $70 million to more than $300 million. Cooke even moved to the United States in 2002, at least in part to facilitate that growth.
It seems to have paid off, too.
The past year has been a busy one, as dmg completed its divestiture of nine consumer shows, including all of its home and garden shows; put what was left of its North American consumer show portfolio on the market (about 40 shows, still awaiting a buyer); and acquired the remaining 51 percent of George Little Management that it didn't already own.
That acquisition moved dmg world media into a tie with Reed Exhibitions for the second-most TSW 200 shows. The company has 10, eight of them GLM-managed. (Nielsen Business Media ranked just ahead of both dmg and Reed Exhibitions with 11.)
Outside of his professional life, Cooke apparently likes a challenge too: He recently completed the Haute Route, a 180-kilometer (112-mile) journey by foot and skis from Chamonix, France, to Zermatt, Switzerland.

Greg Farrar
President
Nielsen Business Media
Last year was a roller coaster ride for Nielsen executives like Farrar. Longtime tradeshow veteran and Nielsen CEO Robert L. Krakoff died unexpectedly. Farrar, who was COO at the time, stepped in, led the division and was eventually named president.
Some would say it takes a certain kind of person to not only keep things together during a difficult time, but also lead the troops. In that case, Nielsen has been served well: Farrar's a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer.
His years in the tradeshow industry were a plus too. In 1986, Farrar started his career with the Capitol Convention and Exhibit Company before shifting in 1992 to Bill Communications where he was appointed president of the BillCom Exposition and Conference Group and then promoted to vice president of corporate services for the parent company.
In 2000, Farrar became senior vice president of business development for (then) VNU Business Media where he played a leading role in the acquisition of Miller Freeman USA, a $200 million business media company made up of more than 70 magazines, tradeshows and conferences.
Since landing the top gig at Nielsen, Farrar's spearheaded the formation of an entertainment group that will include ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo Intl. and CineAsia Exposition, as well print publications such as Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and Back Stage.
Reorganizing Nielsen's shows and print titles, pushing a digital agenda and revamping show management at some of the company's biggest shows are just a few of the many things Farrar's had on his plate in his new role.

Steven Hacker
President
Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events
Since Hacker began his association management career almost 40 years ago, he's served on dozens of boards and as a key staff member, executive, consultant and adviser. Highly visible as an exhibition industry association leader, he helped build IAEE's membership from less than 2,600 when he went to work in 1992 at what was then called the Natl. Assn. of Exhibition Managers to more than 9,000 individuals today.
Hacker sent a message that the organization was broadening its scope by renaming it the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management in the 1990s. Then, in 2006, that scope was further broadened by another new name, this time the Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events.
Proving the new nomenclature is far more than symbolism, IAEE has forged alliances with 17 international, national and regional exhibition industry associations with overseas offices now in Brussels, Belgium; Singapore; and Beijing. Hacker's pushed for greater recognition of exhibitions as a legitimate marketing medium and for the easing of visa requirements for overseas participants at U.S. tradeshows.
He was named Industry Leader of the Year in 2005 by the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Last year, he received the New York Society of Assn. Executives' Vision Award and was inducted into the Convention Industry Council's Hall of Leaders. Hacker also is a member of the American Society of Assn. Executives and sits on the boards of the Travel Industry Assn. and the Convention Industry Council.

Christopher Kennedy
President
Merchandise Mart Properties Inc.
Merchandise Mart Properties manages somewhere around 10 million sq. ft. of exhibit space in several American cities and mounts more than 300 trade and consumer events every year. However, it was two blockbuster announcements in the past year that have pushed Kennedy on to the list of the most influential people in the tradeshow business at this moment.
The first was the news that MMPI would develop a medical mart in Cleveland that would provide the city with a much needed convention center. At the same time, it would create hundreds of thousands of square feet of permanent exhibit space for pharmaceutical and medical device companies in a region that is dense with health care facilities.
Then, there was the announcement that MMPI would spend $100 million for an expansion of Pier 94 on the west side of New York City. If MMPI can successfully run the famously intractable New York political gauntlet, the city will end up with about 400,000 sq. ft. of desperately needed exhibit space just blocks from the Jacob K. Javits CC, which appears as if it will continue to be the size it is now for some time to come.
Kennedy's been president of MMPI since 2000, but he went to work as a research analyst in 1987 at what was then essentially a family business. Vornado Realty Trust bought Merchandise Mart Properties from Kennedy's family in 1998. Among the properties MMPI operates and holds shows in are the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, L.A. Mart and the Boston Design Center.

Edward J. “Ned” Krause III
President and CEO
E.J. Krause & Associates
Long before the tradeshow business was truly global, Ned Krause opened offices and produced events around the world. In 1979, Krause and his father went to work at Clapp & Poliak Intl. They saw globalization coming: China was just beginning to open up, but even before that, the elder Krause had spent more than 20 years running the U.S. Dept. of Commerce's bureau of export development, starting many of the DOC's exhibitor programs in the late 1950s and early '60s.Father and son received permission to stage the very first exhibition in China, Electronics China, that brought 85 exhibitors from the United States. In 1984, they founded EJK and produced a single event. Since then, Ned Krause has built an international operation that eventually became the most extensive of any U.S.-based tradeshow organizer.
Today, the ExpoComm China telecom show alone attracts more than 250,000 visitors. The show, launched in Beijing in 1986, was the foundation for the Krause strategy: Build a global sales and marketing infrastructure that could help buyers and sellers throughout the world connect with one another.
Today, nine ExpoComm events are held each year around the world. EJK produces more than 80 events a year in 16 different industries, employing more than 230 people. In 2007, IAEE awarded the Pinnacle Award, its highest individual honor, to Krause for his advancement of exhibition and event management through education, disseminated knowledge, introduction or development of innovative techniques and dedication to industry ideals and professionalism.

Charles McCurdy
Chairman and CEO
Apprise Media and Canon Communications
Want to know what it takes to start a successful company? Ask McCurdy; he's done it more than once.
As co-founder, president and director of Primedia, he oversaw the acquisition, development and growth of more than 20 platform niche media companies. He was the driving force behind the company's entrance into the enthusiast and B-to-B magazine markets, as well as consumer guides, specialty video, supplemental educational publishing and their related online and digital media properties.
McCurdy also was a pioneer with the successful model that any B-to-B company that wants to stick around for a while has since adopted – a portfolio with a combination of print, live events and digital products.
In 2004, McCurdy rolled the dice again with the launch of Apprise Media. That led to the acquisition of three platform companies under the Apprise umbrella: Canon Communications, as well as Beckett Media and Action Pursuit Group, which together form Apprise Enthusiast Media.
McCurdy's philosophy on how to conquer a market sector is apparent by the strategy he and his team at Canon have undertaken to be the dominant force in the advanced manufacturing sector. What started as a handful of shows has now mushroomed into a series of collocated events, sometimes as many as eight at one time, in different regions around the United States. As if that weren't enough, McCurdy has both launched and acquired even more shows overseas.

Joseph V. “Joe” Popolo Jr.
President
Freeman
Right now Popolo's president of Freeman, but come July, his title will be reduced to three letters: CEO. The company announced in April that current CEO Donald S. Freeman Jr. will step aside and Popolo, Freeman's son-in-law, will take his place heading the company. Freeman will continue as chairman.
Popolo didn't start his career in the service contracting side of the business. Prior to joining Freeman, he was government affairs representative for Roadway Services in Washington, D.C. He joined Freeman as assistant treasurer in 1997, was promoted to vice president of finance and treasurer in 1999 and named president in 2001.
If the past year at Freeman is any indication of the future, Popolo's going to have quite the legacy to keep up with. The company snagged service contracts with two of the country's largest shows, the Natl. Assn. of Broadcasters' show NAB, ranked No. 14 on the 2008 TSW 200, and the triennial NPE – The Intl. Plastics Showcase, owned by The Society of the Plastics Industry, ranked No. 12 on the 2007 TSW 200 (for the 2006 show).
At the same time, the company's diversified beyond the realm of a mere general service contractor by entering the face-to-face marketing world with the purchase last year of ProActive to better help its clients understand and enhance their brands.
The company also inked a strategic partnership with BDMetrics earlier this year to allow exhibitors the opportunity to use that company's matchmaking and social networking technology for marketing purposes.

Rossi Ralenkotter
President and CEO
Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority
Mayor Oscar Goodman has said three people hold the title of Mr. Las Vegas: Wayne Newton, the mayor himself, and the LVCVA's Ralenkotter. Having recently celebrated his 35th anniversary with the authority, it would seem as if Ralenkotter could now rest on his laurels.
Business is booming; the Vegas brand's known worldwide. Las Vegas hosted 357,000 convention visitors at 305 conventions when Ralenkotter joined the LVCVA in 1973; last year, 6.2 million convention visitors attended 23,847 conventions in Las Vegas. In March, the Las Vegas Hospitality Assn. handed out its first Distinction Awards, giving Ralenkotter the Legacy Award – but that doesn't mean he's done yet.
In fact, he's got a goal to bring 43 million visitors – both for business and leisure – to Las Vegas by 2009. To accomplish that goal, he'll have some help: Somewhere in the neighborhood of $42 billion will be invested in new resorts, convention centers and casinos over the next decade. Along with that will come 35,000 new hotel rooms.
There are challenges though, like that $890 million phased enhancement of the Las Vegas CC that's just about to – no, really – get underway. At the same time, there could be the kind of local political problem Ralenkotter might not have been used to in the past. Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson is backing a couple of state-wide initiatives that would divert bed-tax revenue away from institutions like the LVCVA (and its convention center project) to other needs in the state. The Las Vegas bureau has an annual budget of $280 million, so this is not exactly a minor blip on the path to ultimate success.

Colin V. Reed
Chairman, President and CEO
Gaylord Entertainment
Since Reed joined Gaylord Entertainment in 2001, he's been a man with a plan – and he's stuck with it. The plan was pretty simple: build all-inclusive convention center-hotel properties near major cities around the United States, court a specific segment of the tradeshow and meeting industry that likes to rotate its meetings around the country, and book them.
The plan's definitely worked. Reed's led the company's strategic reorganization as a hospitality and entertainment conglomerate. Now Gaylord has four convention center-hotel properties, including the recently opened Gaylord Natl. Resort & Convention Center in Natl. Harbor, Md., right outside Washington, D.C.; the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, close to Dallas; the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Fla., near Orlando; and the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in the company's hometown of Nashville, Tenn.
Gaylord Entertainment also has gone on record stating it intends to replicate its plan in the country's top 20 to 30 convention markets. At the moment, it's working with the city of Chula Vista, Calif., to build a new convention-center hotel just south of San Diego.
Reed comes by the expertise to pull off such a strategy naturally. His experience includes a stint with the Holiday Inn Intl. Group in Europe before moving over to the parent company, Holiday Corp., and eventually another one of its brands, Harrah's Casinos.

Mike Rusbridge
Chairman and CEO
Reed Exhibitions
Rusbridge is an obvious choice here. His resume's a chronicle of his 30-year exhibition industry career, which has taken him from sales executive with Clapp & Poliak (1978) to managing director of Cahners Exhibitions (1982), president of Reed Exhibitions Europe and Asia (1994) and finally chairman of Reed Exhibitions worldwide (1996). In 2000, he oversaw Reed Exhibitions' successful acquisition of Miller Freeman Europe, adding 1 million sq. m. (10.7 million sq. ft.) of exhibition space to Reed's already well-established portfolio, making it the world's largest exhibition organizer.
During his career at Reed Exhibitions, Rusbridge has developed the company's global network into one of brand strength, industry knowledge and organizational expertise while negotiating a series of partnerships and acquisitions with venues, organizers, trade associations and government bodies.
In the past few years, with Chet Burchett, president ofReed Exhibitions Americas,focusing on the Western Hemisphere, Rusbridge has overseen a dramatic expansion of Reed's presence in emerging economies, opening new offices in Russia, India and the Middle East. He's expanded Reed's presence in China with three joint venture partnerships – including one with Sinopharm, a major Chinese pharmaceutical firm, to produce medical shows. And in 2007, Reed also expanded its activities in Latin America. Today, Reed Exhibitions organizes more than 500 events in 38 countries, employing more than 2,600 event specialists in 39 offices that serve 47 industries worldwide.
With Rusbridge at the helm, Reed Exhibitions has remained focused on delivering the goods to its event customers while simultaneously growing its strategic presence online.

Megan Tanel
Vice President, Exhibitions
Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers
Only one show manager can lay claim to managing two of three shows that consistently appear at the top of the TSW 200: Megan Tanel. As vice president of the Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers, she oversees all of the organization's U.S.-based shows, including the triennial mega-shows CONEXPO-CON/AGG that had close to 144,600 attendees and 2,182 exhibitors on a 2.28 million sq. ft. showfloor at the Las Vegas CC this year, and ICUEE (Intl. Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition), which in 2005 had 9,934 attendees and 805 exhibitors on a 1 million sq. ft.-plus showfloor at the Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center in Louisville.
How did Tanel end up with such a big job? The old-fashioned way – she earned it. Tanel joined AEM in 1995 as an exhibits assistant and held a series of exhibition-related posts that included exhibits manager and director of exposition services. She helped launch the AEM-produced World of Asphalt Show & Conference in 2001 and shepherded it, as an exhibits manager and show manager, to three TSW Fastest 50 awards.
She was named CONEXPO director in 2006 and ICUEE director in 2007.
Just in case she doesn't have enough to do, Tanel also is responsible for AEM's international exhibit pavilions program that provides turnkey services to help smaller, new-to-market companies participate in international tradeshows in Europe, China and Brazil, including BAUMA and INTERMAT.

Innovators

 

Gregg Caren
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.

Mary Dolaher
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

Doug Emslie
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.

Robert E. Harar
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.

Gordon T. Hughes II
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.

Britton Jones
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.

Karen Malone
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.

Juan Ochoa
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.

Kevin O'Keefe
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.

Phyllis Peterson
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.

Cindy Sample
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.

Bill Sandherr
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.

Deborah Sexton
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.

Mark Shashoua
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.

Richard A. Stone
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.

Neal Vitale
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. 

Go-getters

 

Chris Brown
Executive Vice President, Conventions and Business Operations
Natl. Assn. of Broadcasters
Brown's a mover, shaker and grower of tradeshows, with more than 20 years of experience in the tradeshow industry, most of it in the association sector, focusing on producing large-scale events. Since joining NAB in 1999, he's played the lead role in planning and executing NAB's two major annual conventions, NAB in Las Vegas and the NAB Radio Show. During his tenure, the main NAB show's grown from 80,000 attendees and 1,200 exhibitors to more than 100,000 attendees and 1,600 exhibitors, spanning 900,000 net sq. ft. of exhibit space. Brown heads NAB's conventions and business operations division, which includes business development, event operations and marketing, meetings support and membership. He's also a high-level player in tradeshow industry associations: Brown's a past chairman of IAEE and current member of the CEIR board of directors.

David Causton
General Manager
McCormick Place
Causton's almost five years as the top man at one of the country's largest and busiest tradeshow venues has been event-filled, to say the least. There's the gleaming, new $882 million McCormick Place West that had its official opening last August and already has 80-plus shows booked for itself through 2018, two-thirds of them new business or shows that haven't been in Chicago in the past five years. Then there's the new food service deal he signed with a local restaurant consortium that's set to not only be more profitable for the center, but also provide more options to clients (although probably not end the era of the $3 bottle of water). Finally, of course, there's been the ongoing, slowly developing move to declare peace between warring labor unions on one side and exasperated show managers and exhibitors on the other that seems – one new contract with a union local at a time – to be taking place.

Joe D'Alessandro
President and CEO
San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau
Before landing the top job at the San Francisco CVB in July 2006, D'Alessandro already had a reputation for generating tourism revenue. During 10 years as president and CEO of the Portland (Ore.) Visitors Assn., he saw tourism-oriented revenue increase from $1.2 billion to more than $3 billion. He took that winning strategy with him to San Francisco, optimistically selling the city's attributes, while maintaining the high bar set by his predecessor, John A. Marks, who retired in 2005 after 19 years on the job. In 2005, San Francisco's average hotel occupancy rate was 76 percent with about $6 billion in visitor spending. In 2007, that hotel occupancy rate was 78 percent, but the city generated more than $7 billion in visitor spending.

Peter Eelman
Vice President, Exhibitions
AMT – The Assn. for Manufacturing Technology
Eelman's the rare show manager who began his career as an exhibitor, and then moved further up the food chain. In his current gig as the AMT executive in charge of exhibitions, its biennial Intl. Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago reached the No. 1 ranking on the TSW 200 for the first time in 2000. With a showfloor of more than 1.1 million sq. ft. year in and year out, IMTS is perennially ranked in the top 10. Eelman's been involved in manufacturing exhibitions for more than 20 years, the last 12 with AMT. He's responsible for AMT events all over the world, personally coordinating shows and meetings in China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Europe. He's actively involved in such tradeshow groups as IAEE, CEIR, TSEA and Assn.net. He also is a member of The Chicago Advisory Council and The Chicago Labor-Management Council, groups that have worked to build bridges between management and labor at the city's McCormick Place.

Marco Giberti
President
Reed Exhibitions Latin America
Marco Giberti didn't exactly enter Reed Exhibitions through the back door, but almost. A true entrepreneur, he'd started his share of companies, including a publishing group, before Reed Elsevier, Reed Exhibitions' parent company, bought a controlling position in Giberti's business, Mind Trainer, in 2005. His company also had specialized in organizing regional tradeshows and events, and had a long-term relationship with E.J. Krause & Associates, a one-time partner of Reed's, when Reed entered the scene and bought out Krause's side of the business. Giberti's responsibilities with Reed have grown exponentially in the roughly three years he's been with the company. At one time, he managed a portfolio of 15 annual events in Latin America (primarily Brazil, Mexico and Argentina), but with Reed purchasing a majority interest in Brazil-based tradeshow organizer Alcantara Machado last year, Giberti now is responsible for more than 50 annual events throughout Latin America.

Kerry Gumas
President and CEO
Questex Media
Gumas' 25-year-plus tradeshow industry pedigree includes senior executive posts with stalwarts like Advanstar Communications, IDG World Expo and Reed Exhibitions. In May 2005, Gumas decided to become his own boss by forming Questex, an integrated media company that currently has more than 50 magazines, Web sites and interactive media products, as well as 25 face-to-face events in North America, Europe, South America and Asia. One of his coups was the formation and management of the world's third largest air show, Asian Aerospace, where his company helped construct, and now manages, the 250,000 sq. ft. Changi Intl. Exhibition Center in Singapore as part of an industry-government joint venture. Much of his success negotiating deals may have come from a different “trade”: Gumas began his career as an international trade specialist at the U.S. Dept. of Commerce where he was part of a team that produced the first U.S. national trade exhibitions in China.

Phillip Jones
President and CEO
Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau
Jones wears his heart on his sleeve. At a lunch last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dallas' bureau and convention center, he implored the crowd of a few hundred to please help their city get an anchor hotel before Dallas fell too far behind the competition. “We cannot reach our potential as a destination without that hotel,” he told them. Jones also told the lunch attendees that 80 groups had said they wouldn't come to the city, not only because of the missing hotel, but also because it didn't have enough meeting space. The strategy seems to have worked. Most of the political hoops have been jumped through, and Jones is inching ever closer to shovels in the ground for a hotel. And for fun? He competes in Ironman triathlon competitions around the world.

Jo-Anne Kelleway
CEO
Info Salons Group
Kelleway's had a busy 18 years since she started Info Salons in 1990. In a seemingly short amount of time, she's turned her small, Australian database and registration firm into an international player. After starting out by managing registration for 10 events in Sydney, Australia, Kelleway's company now is involved in more than 500 events annually, providing services to organizers in emerging markets from offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Clients include Reed Exhibitions, dmg world media, Deutsche Messe, IIR Middle East, Diversified Exhibitions and CMP Asia. When Kelleway isn't busy running her own company, she's a global player who's on the scene at industry group meetings all over the world. She's an IAEE board member, helped launch the China Council for the Promotion of Intl. Trade's CEFCO global matchmaking event for the exhibition and event industries, speaks frequently at industry events and is a founding member, board member and former vice president of the Exhibition & Events Assn. of Australia.

Ken McAvoy
Senior Vice President
Reed Exhibitions
McAvoy, a senior executive at Reed Exhibitions since the tradeshow company lured him away from GES Exposition Services in 1999, has become something of an industry elder statesman in recent years. He's one of a few on the show management side that spoke out against exclusive contracts at the San Diego Convention Center – even when his company didn't have a stake in the controversy. “Our objective is to ensure the practice trying to be instituted in San Diego isn't spread to other centers,” he told TSW at the time. McAvoy also has been outspoken about the desperate need for an expansion at the Jacob K. Javits CC of New York – where Reed does have a couple of horses in the race: chief among them, BookExpo America, No. 94 on the 2008 TSW 200, and Intl. Vision Expo East, No. 100 – a plan that was trashed recently after years of off-and-on debate.

Chris Meyer
Vice President, Convention Sales
Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority
It's hard not to be affected by Meyer's infectious excitement about Las Vegas. Bringing visitors and groups to the destination is his self-proclaimed focus in life. It's his responsibility – one he's been successful with – to recruit enough tradeshows, meetings and conventions to fill the city's 9.7 million sq. ft. of meeting and convention space. Less than a year ago, Meyer helped develop a long-term leasing strategy at the Las Vegas CC, a program that's so far resulted in booking several major shows up to 12 years in advance. A 20-year industry veteran and 30-year resident of Las Vegas, Meyer joined the LVCVA in 2000 after a handful of sales positions at Strip properties, including the Flamingo, Tropicana and Venetian Sands.

Michelle Monteferrante
Vice President, Tradeshow Operations
World Market Center
Monteferrante's worked fast. Two years ago, she took over as director of what was then the 1-year-old World Market Center's semiannual Las Vegas Market – Summer and Winter tradeshows. Monteferrante's worked to position the home furnishings marketplace among the most significant in the industry sector. During her time with World Market Center, not only has Monteferrante assured the show was safely in the ranks of the TSW 200, but also she's watched the WMC campus balloon into two buildings with 3 million sq. ft. of permanent showroom space. Another building – with an additional 2.1 million sq. ft. – opens next month. A 20-year tradeshow and hospitality industry veteran, Monteferrante has proven herself to be a shrewd market strategist, planning and launching events at WMC to coincide with other industry-related conventions in Las Vegas.

Galen A. Poss
President
Hanley Wood Exhibitions
Poss has been head of the building show-heavy Hanley Wood Exhibitions since its inception in 2000. Even as the construction and real estate sectors have struggled, Hanley Wood's shows have demonstrated something close to stability, staying on a far more even keel than the industry it serves. Poss was previously group president of the Dallas division of Miller Freeman. In 1983, he formed association exhibition management firm Precision Planning & Sales, which Miller Freeman acquired in 1993. He began his career in 1977 with the Greater New Orleans Tourist and Convention Commission. He's been on the boards of IAEE, as well as chairman of SISO, IAEE Services, IAEE Foundation and CEIR. He also was the 1999 recipient of IAEE's highest service award, the William Hunt Eisenman Career Achievement Award.

Kevin Rabbitt
President and CEO
GES Exposition Services
Rabbitt hasn't been at the top of the GES heap all that long – he joined the company in 2002, moved quickly up the ranks and was appointed to his current position Jan. 1, 2006 – but since taking the helm, Rabbitt's moved the company in some interesting directions. He's pushed GES beyond its core business model by buying Ethnometrics, a consulting company that analyzes attendee behavior and interaction with exhibits and booth staff in order to increase exhibitors' sales effectiveness. That's only one of the many strategic acquisitions the company has announced in the past year. GES also extended its influence in Canada with the purchase, through its Canadian affiliate, of Quebec City-based Poitras Exposition Services. With those and other buys under the GES banner, one has to wonder: What does Rabbitt have planned next for the Las Vegas-based company?

Gary Sain
President and CEO
Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau
It was a bit of a surprise when Sain was picked to fill Orlando CVB founder Bill Peeper's shoes in early 2007. Despite the fact his father, Frank Sain, was a legend in the convention and visitors bureau world, having run bureaus in both Las Vegas and Chicago, Gary Sain had never worked at a CVB before taking the Orlando job (even though he had a solid background in hospitality and marketing). A year later, there was no doubt he was the right guy for the top spot. Orlando kept its standing as the No. 2 city with TSW 200 shows, even edging a little further ahead of No. 3 Chicago in the 2008 standings. Sain's also led the charge to roll out a new marketing campaign this year for meeting planners with the tagline, “Orlando, Where Creative Minds Meet.” He also set up roadshows – the Meeting Planners' Creative Workshops – this month in Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City to show the new campaign to prospective clients.

Cliff Wallace
Managing Director Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management)
President UFI, The Global Assn. of the Exhibition Industry
It's a long way from Greenville, S.C., to Hong Kong. On his way from the former to the latter, Wallace has become one of the best-known facility managers in the world. He heads the massive HKCEC, which, since opening in 1988, has hosted some of the world's largest exhibitions and events. Wallace also has withstood the appearance of stiff competition practically next door in the form of AsiaWorld-Expo near the Hong Kong Intl. Airport. He's done it by drawing additional future shows with the promise of an expansion currently underway – in crowded central Hong Kong, no less. Oh, and one more thing: He's president of UFI, the most significant non-U.S.-oriented exhibition industry organization in the world. Wallace also is past chairman of the World Council for Venue Management and the Asia Pacific Exhibition and Convention Council, past president of the Intl. Assn. of Auditorium Managers and a recipient of IAAM's highest honor, the Charles A. McElravy Award for extraordinary contributions to IAAM and public assembly facility management. 

Achievers
 

Charles Ahlers
President
Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau
Ahlers is on his second tour at the Anaheim bureau. He spent seven years there as a convention sales manager in the 1970s. A lot's changed for the Anaheim CC since then, including previous expansions and a new one in the works – a roughly 200,000 sq. ft. addition that will give large tenants like The NAMM Show and Natural Products Expo West/Supply Expo more space for their already maxed-out showfloors.

Eric Allen
Executive Vice President
Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Assn.
Allen's been associated with HCEA for 12 years and its executive vice president for the past six. During that time, the association representing one of the busiest tradeshow sectors has grown its membership to a record (more than 700), broken attendance records at its annual meeting three out of the last four years and developed multiple new services for members. Also in multiples: the number of association executives who say they wish their organization was run as well as Allen's.

Sandy Angus
Chairman
Andry Montgomery
Forty years after Sandy Angus entered the events industry, he's as visible and well known in every corner of the world as ever. He's been, at one time or the other, chairman of IAEE, president of UFI and director of the Assn. of Exhibition Organisers in the United Kingdom. Angus runs the family business founded in 1895 with a global portfolio of more than 70 exhibitions and events.

Paul Ashley
President
Smart City Networks
Paul Ashley can now take a break. Due to retire next month after eight years as head of Smart City and 24 years in the cable television and data industry, he'll pass the torch to someone else, confident of his success with transforming a small technology company into the largest provider of telecommunications services for the tradeshow and convention industry. Under Ashley's leadership, the company tripled its work force and now services more than 5,500 events at 62 convention centers in 14 states every year.

Randy Bauler
Chairman
Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events
Corporate Relations and Exhibits Director
American Assn. of Critical-care Nurses
In his day job, Bauler manages the Natl. Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, one of the largest annual nursing conferences and tradeshows in the United States. An active member since 1988 of what's now IAEE, this year Bauler's pulling his shift as its volunteer chairman. He's made turning every showfloor into a drug-free zone one of the hallmark goals of his term in office.

Eric Bello
Vice President, Sales
Las Vegas Sands
Eric Bello doesn't stay in one place for long. With group sales to oversee in six existing and developing properties from Las Vegas and Pennsylvania to Macau and Singapore, Bello's job has helped him collect his fair share of frequent flier miles. As the Sands continues to expand, the 17-year industry veteran stays in step, working to keep more than 2 million sq. ft. of meeting and convention space filled in Las Vegas alone.

Kathleen Blouin
Senior Vice President, Conventions, Seminars and Forums
Natl. Business Aviation Assn.
When Blouin joined NBAA as a senior manager in 1992, the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention had just more than 600 exhibitors. Now, the 1 million net sq. ft.-plus show with 1,152 exhibitors is No. 10 on the 2008 TSW 200. During the last 15 years, Blouin's launched European, Latin American and Asian versions of the business aviation show, along with running nearly 25 seminars and other events annually.

Cathy Breden
COO, Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events
Executive Director, Center for Exhibition Industry Research
Cathy Breden has a full plate: She's IAEE's COO, executive director of its for-profit IAEE Services and now executive director of CEIR. But Breden, in association management since 1984, can handle it. She's been instrumental in reorganizing IAEE, which now comprises 1,200 member organizations. And in her 11 years there, she's helped IAEE weather industry downturns, reach reciprocity agreements with 16 national and international event organizations and expand its offices from Dallas to Brussels, Belgium; Singapore; and Beijing.

Brian Casey
President and CEO
High Point Market Authority
Ever since Casey took the reins at the High Point Market Authority two years ago and started overseeing the High Point Markets (Spring and Fall), he's had his work cut out for him. The World Market Center in Las Vegas decided to horn in on High Point's dominant position in the furniture tradeshow market by launching a few Las Vegas Markets. As a result, Casey's not only had to keep his own shows relevant to buyers, but also fend off encroachment from the west. So far, so good.

Tom Cindric
Director
Hanley Wood Exhibitions
Net square footage at World of Concrete dipped ever so slightly this year; attendance, a little more. That doesn't tell the real story though. When Cindric took over management of the event in 2001, its showfloor was somewhere around 650,000 net sq. ft. and it drew fewer than 26,000 attendees. This year? Try 893,129 net sq. ft. and 84,789 attendees – all during what's supposed to be a shakeout in the construction and real estate industries.

Jonathan “Skip” Cox
President and CEO
Exhibit Surveys
If there's a science to exhibitions, Cox is the resident Ph.D. For decades, show organizers and exhibitors have looked to Exhibit Surveys' measurement services for ways to quantify their success. Cox has been intimately involved with that process for a large part of its history, having started at ESI in 1971 as an assistant survey director. Today, as president, CEO and the face of the company to the larger industry, Cox is a regular speaker at industry events and meetings.

Nick Curci
President
Corporate Solutions
Curci's not the type of guy to pass the buck when a deal comes across his desk. He personally handles the process from beginning to end, and maybe that's why so many companies have trusted him to take care of their transactions. Curci's specialty is the boutique deal, anything from the sale of dmg world media's home and garden shows to Hotrod & Performance's sale of a tradeshow and magazine to Bobit Business Media.

Joel Davis
President and CEO
JDEvents
JDEvents seems quiet these days – maybe too quiet. After a flurry of activity a few years ago that included the successful sale of ad:tech in 2005, followed by the acquisition of KioskCom, Davis has been busy nurturing his garden of eight or nine tradeshows and conferences, many of which he launched himself. Look for one or two of these to ripen soon into prime acquisition targets, followed by new acquisitions and launches, followed by prime … well, you get it.

Nate Derby
Vice President, Corporate Events
Champion Exposition Services
Derby's been in the tradeshow and hospitality industry for 16 years, 10 of those with Champion, taking on numerous roles, including local and national sales executive. He now drives the company's sales and business development efforts in the corporate market. Derby's team also makes it easy for event managers to monitor the planning of their events with C3 event portal technology, which just rolled out an updated version, C3 2.0.

Douglas L. Ducate
President and CEO
Center for Exhibition Industry Research
Since joining CEIR in 1998, Ducate's run the organization that evaluates the effectiveness of exhibitions. However, he's for many of those years also been the tradeshow industry's biggest cheerleader. Before his involvement with CEIR, Ducate was associate executive director of the Society of Petroleum Engineers for 26 years, managing its 30 conferences and 15 exhibitions in oil-producing regions worldwide, most notably the Offshore Technology Conference.

Jime Essink
CEO
CMP Asia
One could forgive Essink for feeling a bit claustrophobic in his relatively new job running CMP Asia. After all, its 80 or so tradeshows and 20 publications are limited to the Asian continent. That's in contrast to his previous job as president of VNU Exhibitions Asia and VNU Exhibitions Europe, where virtually half the world was his workplace. Nevertheless, over the last year, Essink's CMP Asia's one company that has taken advantage of the new tradeshow destination of Macau, with show launches so far exceeding its wildest expectations.

Angelo Gangone
Executive Vice President
Assn. of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers
Six years ago, Gangone was an exhibitor at AWFS Vegas. That's when he jumped the fence to show management – a move he calls one of the best he ever made. Since he's taken over, AWFS has reclaimed management of the show from the independent operator that previously ran it for the association and relocated it from Anaheim to Las Vegas. At the same time, Gangone's quickly made his way up the ladder at AWFS, moving from vice president of tradeshows to association executive vice president earlier this year.

Vincent Gerard
Managing Director
UFI, The Global Assn. of the Exhibition Industry
Gerard became UFI's managing director in 2001 with the goal of expanding the membership base and strengthening UFI as an international association. He seems to be succeeding. Gerard's doubled the number of members to 530 in 84 countries, opened offices in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong, and expanded UFI's range of member services to include research and education. Gerard also helped raise industry standards through auditing of show statistics and grew the number of UFI-organized major events from two in 2001 to nine last year.

Henry S. Givray
Chairman and CEO
SmithBucklin
Givray runs the world’s largest association management and professional services company providing flexible, tailored full-service management and function/project-specific services to more than 225 trade associations, professional societies, technology user groups, government institutes/agencies and corporations. The company manages some 65 tradeshows, including five on this year's TSW 200. Givray spent 13 years as chief staff officer for a variety of client associations in addition to his corporate executive responsibilities before leaving his post in 1996 to run CourtLink, an online service for retrieving court records and filing legal documents electronically. He returned to SmithBucklin as CEO in 2002.

Hal Greenberg
Managing Director
Veronis Suhler Stevenson
Few private equity funds are in the market to buy companies with multibillion-dollar multiples, but Greenberg did just that at VSS when it bought Advanstar Communications last year for $1.4 billion. No U.S. B-to-B deal since has come near it in scope. Advanstar's just one of many deals Greenberg has handled for the firm, including buying and then selling Hanley Wood Exhibitions and Canon Communications, or the recent purchase of U.K.-based Clarion Events.

Andreas Gruchow
Member, Managing Board
Deutsche Messe
On its management board since April, Gruchow's been venue and show organizer Deutsche Messe's executive manager and head of its international tradeshow division since 2000. Nowadays, he's also in charge of all of Deutsche Messe's activities at its massive facility in Hannover, Germany. Gruchow, who played a significant managerial role in Expo 2000 Hannover, has established numerous spin-offs of major Deutsche Messe events overseas and expanded collaboration and alliances with multiple global players.

Nancy Hasselback
President and CEO
Diversified Business Communications
In 2003, Hasselback moved up from Diversified vice president of business development to president and CEO. She's spearheaded rapid growth at the company that started out with four tradeshows and three magazines in 1993, and built it into a powerhouse with 60 trade and consumer shows and five trade magazines on four continents. Hasselback oversaw the acquisition of Australia's leading exhibition firm, expansion into Canada through a partnership, the launch of a seafood show in Europe and ethnic food shows in the United States, and the acquisition of Full Moon Communications in the United Kingdom.

George F. “Jeff” Little II
Co-president
George Little Management
A lot has changed for Little in the past year. And yet, not that much has changed. Little now is co-president of GLM, a dmg world media company. What's different is that dmg bought the remaining 51-percent stake it didn't own in GLM last fall. What hasn't changed is that GLM continues to manage the shows it did before, including two editions of the New York Intl. Gift Fair, Nos. 27 and 29 on the 2008 TSW 200.

David Loechner
Senior Vice President, Retail Group
Nielsen Business Media
If not for mergers and acquisitions, Loechner might still be working for Pacifica Publishing, the employer he started with in 1983. As the company proceeded from one name to another (becoming Nielsen in 2006), Loechner worked on some of the biggest shows the company has, including stints as show director of Action Sports Retailer World Trade Expo and Outdoor Retailer Summer and Winter Markets. Now he oversees Nielsen's large and profitable retail group, with a handful of his old shows still in the portfolio.

Peter MacGillivray
Vice President, Events and Communications
Specialty Equipment Market Assn.
MacGillivray may have relocated last year to his native Massachusetts from Southern California, headquarters of SEMA, but it doesn't matter; he hasn't missed a beat. Since MacGillivray started with the association in 2001, the SEMA Show, which he manages, has gone from No. 21 on the 2002 TSW 200 with 635,000 net sq. ft., 1,262 exhibitors and 45,677 attendees to No. 7 on the 2008 TSW 200 with 1,063,970 net sq. ft., 2,203 exhibitors and 80,200 attendees.

Michael Massari
Vice President, Meeting Sales and Operations – Las Vegas
Harrah's Entertainment
With the responsibility of selling and managing more than 1 million sq. ft. of convention and meeting space spread across six Las Vegas properties, you'd think Michael Massari wouldn't know which end was up sometimes. However, since the 2005 merger of Harrah's and Caesars Entertainment, Massari's not only helped streamline the multiproperty, multibrand business, he's also redefined it by consolidating meeting sales and operations under one umbrella: Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah's Entertainment.

Tim McGuinness
Vice President, Business Development
Intl. Council of Shopping Centers
McGuinness has a new job drumming up business for one of the most innovative tradeshows around, ReCon, The Global Real Estate Convention (formerly the ICSC Spring Convention Leasing Mall & Trade Expo). However, up until May 15, he was executive director of NYC & Company, saddled with the frustrating job of drawing tradeshow business to a city that can't decide whether it wants to expand the Jacob K. Javits CC or not – and whether it still wants to be a tradeshow power or not.

Richard Mead
Managing Director
The Jordan, Edmiston Group Inc.
Since joining JEGI more than a decade ago, Mead's overseen the successful completion of close to 100 transactions. The deals read like a who's who of the B-to-B media industry, including most recently dmg world media's acquisition of the remaining 51-percent interest in George Little Management for $155 million and the sale of Gartner's Vision Events to CMP (United Business Media).

Thomas Mobley Jr.
Senior Vice President
Global Spectrum
Mobley, a venue management veteran, is responsible for the 20-plus convention centers Global Spectrum runs, everything from the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati to the Pueblo (Colo.) Convention Center. And, of course, he's looking for more venues to manage. Global Spectrum was in the news most recently when it decided to join with the manager of one of the Miami Beach Convention Center's biggest shows in a proposal to take over management of the center together.

John Mooney
Chairman
M|C Communications
When Mooney won the inaugural 2008 Robert L. Krakoff Industry Leadership Award, Cherif Moujabber, president of Creative Expos and Conferences, said Mooney has “not only done well, he has done good.” When Mooney founded M|C Communications in 1994, he was managing one event. Today, the company provides education programs for physicians through its Pri-Med, LiveMed and Physician's Weekly brands, and has managed the AIA 2007 Natl. Convention & Design Exposition (American Institute of Architects), a TSW 200 event, for the past 12 years.

Cherif Moujabber
President
Creative Expos and Conferences
In 1975, penniless, Egyptian-born Moujabber moved from Lebanon to Massachusetts. He started out in the Horizon House mailroom and within a year was organizing its overseas tradeshows. Moujabber's subsequent international tradeshow career culminated in the 1993 founding of Creative Expos and Conferences, which organizes its own events and advises others in the launch of shows outside their national bases. He's also on the SISO board and has received numerous tradeshow industry awards for his service.

Scott Mozarsky
COO
United Business Media
Mozarsky's been behind the expansion of UBM's portfolio as the company's gone on a worldwide hunt for shows to acquire. He joined UBM in 2000, and for the last eight years has been in charge of corporate development and M&A for all of UBM's U.S.-based subsidiaries. With more than 60 transactions successfully completed, there's no doubt that Mozarsky's still on the lookout for that next key to the puzzle.

Peter Neven
Managing Director
AUMA (the Assn. of the German Trade Fair Industry)
For information on the German tradeshow industry, look to AUMA – and ultimately to Neven. AUMA represents the German industry, providing information on tradeshows in Germany and overseas. AUMA tracks about 5,000 events with more than 170,000 exhibitors and 9 to 10 million visitors every year – so it's a big job. Neven went to work for AUMA in 1988 after studying economics, research and social sciences. He's also a frequent guest lecturer at universities, colleges and other educational institutions.

Carrie Freeman Parsons
Chief Marketing Officer
Freeman
In less than a month, Parsons will take on a new, expanded role in the family business. With her father Donald S. Freeman Jr. cutting back on day-to-day responsibilities, she'll become vice chairwoman, along with her current duties as CMO. Parsons is the third generation of Freemans to work at the family-owned business started by her grandfather, D.S. “Buck” Freeman in 1927. Parsons joined the company in 1985 as an account executive in the Dallas office.

Ray Pekowski
President and CEO
The Expo Group
The Expo Group may not be the biggest service contractor in the business, but the Dallas-based company that Pekowski heads gets plenty of attention. Its Show Manager of the Year Awards that recognize outstanding tradeshow managers is a highly lauded industry event every year. Pekowski, a 30-year exhibition industry veteran and member of numerous industry associations, created TEG in 1987 with its patented customer service model – what he calls a Single Source Solution for exhibitors and show managers, providing one point of contact for all services required for a show.

J. Stephen Perry
President and CEO
New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau
Having once been chief of staff in former Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster's office likely gave Perry the knack he has for grace under pressure. New Orleans went from being one of the top 10 tradeshow cities in the country to near decimation by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Now, almost three years later, Perry's steadily worked to rebuild the Crescent City's lucrative tradeshow industry and lure back one big meeting after another.

Jim Pittas
Director, Expositions
Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute
Somehow, Pittas has managed to grow a show that seemed like it just couldn't get any bigger. The biennial Pack Expo Intl. routinely snags the No. 2 ranking on the TSW 200. In 2006, it was up in square footage, attendees and exhibitors. We'll see if Pittas can keep the streak going, but in the meantime he's taking strides to ensure the upcoming edition is friendlier to planet Earth with this year's conference titled “Change, Innovation and Sustainability.”

Frank Poe
Director
Dallas Convention and Event Services
Poe, a Texas native and 34-year industry veteran who directs the Dallas Convention Center, helped bring The FMI (Food Marketing Institute) Show back to Dallas in 2009. From 1994 to 1997 he was director of Dallas' event facilities and cultural affairs department before a seven-year stint as executive director and CEO of the Birmingham-Jefferson (Ala.) Convention Complex Authority. Poe's a Convention Industry Council Hall of Leaders inductee and past president of the Intl. Assn. of Assembly Managers.

Carl Pugh
President, Radius Events
Chairman, Society of Independent Show Organizers
In the next few months, Pugh will wrap up his term as chairman of SISO. He began his events business in late 2003 after successfully running tradeshows for others: first CMC, then Cowles Events (now Primedia), Mecklermedia and most recently the technology events division of Penton Media, generating as much as $80 million in revenue during the tech boom. His career started with PDN (Photo District News), a leading magazine for professional photographers that morphed into his first tradeshow, for that sector, in 1983.

Jeff Quade
Executive Vice president, Sales and Marketing
GES Exposition Services
As the one responsible for GES' exposition and event sales (along with a few other duties), Quade was involved in the company landing the American Foundry Society's triennial CastExpo last year. The show took place this year for the first time with GES as its general service contractor May 17-20 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. When it last took place in 2005, it was No. 168 on the next year's TSW 200. Now under Quade's watch, can this year's show beat that?

Tim Roby
President and CEO
Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau
After a long career in the hotel business, Roby knows what it takes to please a lot of the people a lot of the time, a necessary skill for the top spot at the Windy City's bureau. It also takes being a good multi-tasker, and Roby's that in spades. He's had to juggle attracting an entirely new type of show, one that's more meeting space-oriented to fill the McCormick West building that opened last year, while still catering to the mega-shows that have been Chicago's bread and butter for years and the reason it has the third-most TSW 200 shows.

Jim Rooney
Executive Director
Massachusetts Convention Center Authority
Rooney's job is to generate economic activity in Beantown, and he's done it well: Several large consumer shows, including the New England Boat Show, have been able to grow by moving from other venues around Boston to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center since the state legislature changed a law restricting their movements a couple years ago. He's also reduced the operating deficit at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial CC to its slimmest in its 20-year history.

Chuck Schwartz
Co-founder and Chairman
ConvExx
A past chairman of IAEE, Schwartz conceived the idea and name of IAEE's annual Expo! Expo!, and in 2004 received IAEE's prestigious IAEE Pinnacle Award for outstanding service to the exhibition industry. He started his tradeshow career in 1976 after 20 years in the retail automotive aftermarket. Now, Schwartz's ConvExx produces, among other events, the auto aftermarket SEMA Show, which spans more than 1 million net sq. ft.

Warren Sellers
President
Sellers Expositions
There's more than one way to grow your show. This is how Sellers did it with the Intl. Lawn, Garden & Equipment Expo, a mere No. 21 on last year's TSW 200: He merged his for-profit show with that of two associations, renamed it the Green Industry & Equipment Expo, held it on close to the same dates in the same venue in Louisville, Ky. – and instantly grew the show by 80,000 net sq. ft. and 150 exhibitors, jumping five spots on the 2008 TSW 200 to No. 16 in the process.

Ed Shartar
President and CEO
Experient
Four years into his role as leader of one of the largest meeting and event service suppliers in the industry – done with the merger of three companies, a name change and a rebranding – Shartar's hard at work on the next steps: Taking advantage of new technologies and adjusting to the reality that face-to-face marketing has become a global enterprise with tradeshow attendees pouring into U.S. events and American companies looking for help as they market themselves in other countries.

John W. Spargo
Chairman
J. Spargo & Associates
Since 1973, J. Spargo & Associates has provided housing, registration, lead retrieval, exhibit sales, exhibit management and meeting logistics assistance for countless events. So far, 2008 has been an exciting year as several associations selected the company's services. JS&A will sell and manage the exhibit hall for The Natl. Assn. of State Boards of Accountancy's 2009, 2010 and 2011 Natl. CPE Expo, and for the 2008 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology.

Christopher R. Stephens
General Manager
Donald R. Stephens Convention Center
At 29, Stephens is probably one of the youngest convention center general managers in the business. He keeps the tradeshows coming to the once-but-no-longer-tiny Chicago suburb that his grandfather, Rosemont's long-time mayor and convention center namesake, transformed into a tradeshow powerhouse that today has a $350 million economic impact on the area. Stephens is currently in the forefront in the development of Rosemont Walk, a proposed 60-acre, $500 million entertainment district project.

Wayne Stetson
Senior Staff Vice President
Natl. Assn. of Home Builders
After 28 years at the helm of The Intl. Builders' Show, Stetson's been around long enough to not let the current housing crisis spook him too much. The most recent show, held Feb. 13-16 at Orlando's Orange County CC, was down 11 percent in attendance, but Stetson's counting on a move to Las Vegas next year after four years in the Sunshine State to give the show the spark it needs to bring people back.

Kathleen Thomas
Managing Director
Berkery Noyes
Thomas has been on a deal-making roll ever since she moved to Berkery Noyes in 2003 from private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Even in a dicey financial market, she's getting things done – like Hanley Wood Exhibitions' recent acquisition of The TFM Show, ENK Intl.'s purchase of WSA Global Holdings and The WSA Show, Nos. 3 and 5 on the 2008 TSW 200, and Investcorp's scooping up of Randall-Reilly and its trucking shows.

Andy Tompkins
Group Show Director
ASR, Cycling and Fitness Groups, Nielsen Business Media
Obviously, Tompkins is a guy who likes to have fun. He started his professional career at Marvel Comics before transitioning to Miller Freeman as a sales assistant in the Sports Group. Tompkins climbed through the (now) Nielsen Business Media ranks to his current position as group show director of Outdoor Retailer Summer and Winter Markets. He has a couple of brand new posts too, heading up Interbike Intl. Bicycle Expo and Health & Fitness Business Expo & Conference.

Nancy Walsh
Executive Vice President
Reed Exhibitions Americas
Walsh's title changed last October, from senior vice president to executive vice president. So did a lot of her duties. Today she's essentially in charge of all Reed Exhibitions' operations in North America, which entails every detail of the 70-plus events it has in its portfolio. In the past, Walsh and her boss Chet Burchett have told TSW that a third of the business the company has now didn't even exist three years ago.

Wang Jinzhen
Vice Chairman
China Council for the Promotion of Intl. Trade
Arguably the most important Chinese government official involved with the tradeshow industry, Wang's appeared to be at the forefront of efforts to “rationalize” the country's fast-growing exhibition industry, calling for more regulations than in the past and a pause as the growth of shows catches up with the rapid construction of venues throughout the country. Earlier this year, Wang told TSW, “2008 will be a year of consolidation for our industry.”

Paul Woodward
Principal
Business Strategies Group
From his perch in Hong Kong, for years Woodward has had his hand on the pulse of the Asian tradeshow industry, churning out detailed reports on all aspects of the continent's business. He seems to know as much about what's going on in the relatively low-profile countries of southeast Asia as he does about the enormous industry in China. Woodward also runs UFI's Asia/Pacific office and, in that capacity, has begun reporting on the industry beyond Asia, like the assessment he wrote late last year of the global venue inventory.