Event Experience

Colleen Bisconti (Vice President of Global Conferences and Events at IBM) shares her perspectives on how the events team at IBM has become more data-driven and agile over the years, leading a team of 350 event marketers, and Space Jam.

Having been with the company for more than 25 years, Colleen is an eyewitness to how the company has evolved. She has worked with a number of different departments in different roles, ultimately leading to her current role as head of the company’s events program.

Dana Pake (Senior Director of Global Experiences at InVision) shares her UX-focused approach to events, what it’s like to work as part of a globally distributed team, how to hire for a rapidly growing events program, and what it means to lead with resiliency.

At InVision, Dana oversees over 150 events worldwide. She previously worked at Tableau where she grew the annual Tableau Conference from roughly 1,200 -12,000 total attendees in four years.

Carina Bauer (CEO at IMEX) shares a behind-the-scenes look at the world’s largest events industry trade show and her thoughts on sustainability, mental health, and finding a good cup of coffee in Las Vegas. 

Carina’s been named one of the 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry and one of the Top 25 Women in the Meetings Industry. She has held numerous positions in MPI, is a winner of ICCA’s 2018 Inspirational Women Awards, and is a member of the board of directors at the SITE Foundation.

In this episode of IN-PERSON, Hugh Forrest (Chief Programming Officer, SXSW) shares his perspectives on curating great content, what it takes to maintain a strong sense of community at an event with hundreds of thousands of attendees, and how events can bring people together in an increasingly digital—and at times divisive—world.

In addition to his role in curating content, Hugh is the Director of SXSW Interactive Festival. He has been with SXSW since 1989 and was their first full-time employee. Hugh's seen first-hand how the event has scaled from a gathering of hundreds to a gathering of hundreds of thousands.

Kira Willner is Executive Director of Brand Experience at Barron's Group, a Dow Jones Company. In this episode of IN-PERSON, Kira shares how Barron’s Group is breathing new life into many of its brands with live events, balancing the needs of sponsors and attendees and more.

Kira oversees live journalism events for all of the brands within Barron's Group, including Barron's, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Penta and Financial News. She also oversees brand marketing and business strategy for several of these brands.

Lindsay Niemiec McKenna, VP of Revenue Marketing at Yext, discusses how events can be used to define a company brand, the importance of sales/marketing alignment, the concept of revenue marketing and branded fruit.

Lindsay is the mastermind of ONWARD, Yext’s award-winning annual flagship conference. In 2018, ONWARD brought together nearly 6,000 in-person attendees and over 1,000 virtual ones. Lindsay is a Salesforce alum and was named to the 2018 list of DMN’s Marketing Hall of Femme & Women to Watch.

IN-PERSON tells the stories behind the world's most daring events and the people who make them happen.