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ver 370 exhibition industry
O professionals gathered at the Barton Creek Resort Austin, TX, USA, 30 March-3 April to learn and network at the annual SISO CEO Summit. It was the largest gathering of for-profit exhibition CEOs to date and had an increase of 22 % first-time delegates since Covid. There were people from 15 countries outside the United States. With visitors and exhibitors demanding greater ROI and Return on their Time( ROT), organisers are now charged with offering interesting experiences on and off the expo floor, better use of technology, utilising |
Generative AI, increasing purposeful networking, and more. The SISO CEO Summit’ s theme The Innovation Imperative explored these issues, focusing on takeaways for event company leaders to embrace disruption and grow their businesses.
Headed up by SISO chair Paul Miller, CEO, Questex, the one and a half-day educational programme included a keynote by Informa Board member Marcus Weldon. Other sessions ranged from noted economist Dr Anirban Basu, Sage Policy Group, Inc., to engaging attendees in today’ s world, and to discussing new operating models, markets, and products.
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Above: 1. Trevor Foley( right) with two Easy riders
2. Bringing the Indy vibe for SISO’ s August Leadership Conference
Left: Stephanie Selesnick( left) finds out what is on the agenda at the Executive Women’ s Forum
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Entrepreneurship alive and innovating Ahead of the SISO CEO Summit, both the Executive Women’ s Forum and Small Business Roundtable( SBR) were held. The Forum had 110 delegates. Rachel Wimberly, chair of the Forum, and head of business development – US, Easyfairs said:“ This year’ s SISO CEO Executive Women’ s Forum was focused on how to bring Emotional Intelligence( EI) into an organisation not only as a leader, but also when acquiring and integrating companies.”
The SBR expanded to five hours from previous years with 56 members in attendance. Chair Walter Charnizon, president of Continental Exhibitions, explained that entrance,“ is limited to for-profit independent operators of event businesses with no more than $ 10m in annual revenue. We discussed everything from how to develop sales team comp plans, to AI tools for small business operators, to how to develop new revenue streams, and how to to consider looking for investors.
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16 Issue 3 2025 |
www. exhibitionworld. co. uk |