March 8th is International Women's Day, a global day to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness against bias and take action for equality. IWD 2022 campaign theme is #BreakTheBias.
For the second year running, we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight and thank some of the most empowering and influential women in the global events industry today.
So here's our list of 24 influential women in events - there is no order as each of these women is awesome in their own unique way.
Tess Vismale, CMP, DES 
EventProfs call Tess to rescue their events at the ninth hour! Tess proudly counts 25+ years’ experience in event planning, production & technology. After being one of the earliest adopters of tech in the Events world, she began supporting people in the Events world through event tech training, ideation & execution.
Bre Donofrio
Bre, a.k.a the Queen of Clubhouse, has 15+ years experience in event planning and founded her own company, V.E.E. Virtual Event Experiences by Bre. After 1K+ planned events across the globe with audiences surpassing 40,000+, Bre is now distributing her knowledge by running training webinars, summits, and masterclasses.
Juliet Tripp
Previously Deputy Head of Global Events at Chemical Watch, this year Juliet made the move to Make Events Ltd as their new Group Strategy Director. She's also a Coach for Senior Level #EventProfs - empowering them to level up and make it happen within their events careers, businesses and personal brands. Accolades include C&IT Corporate A List 2021.
Dahlia El Gazzar
Dahlia is the founder of DAHLIA+Agency providing full-service marketing agency for virtual+hybrid events production, branding, event tech, and content strategy. Dahlia has an OMG-attitude about all things #eventtech and experience design. She’s her own brand, with more than a decade of experience in the meetings and events sector, working on both the professional planning side and as an association collaborator, Dahlia is known as the coffee-fuelled ‘go-to’ source for trend-setting solutions, eventtech news, and professional branding expertise.
Rachel Stephan, DES, EWD
Rachel helps organizers and meeting planners "put butts in seats and eyeballs on screens" for their in-person, hybrid, and virtual events. A strategic thinker, creative idea generator and an event industry speaker, she
provides strategic input and guidance to create, develop and deliver integrated marketing campaigns for non-profit and corporate organizations.
Liz Caruso
After many years running Liz King Events, planning conferences and meetings, branded events, and product launches, Liz (King) Caruso now spends the bulk of her time as the CEO of her influential thought leadership group for event tech, techsytalk. She has built an authoritative following of event leaders, engaging primarily through her Techsytalk Community facebook page.
Sophie Holt
Sophie leads the operational teams at event insight specialists, Explori. She regularly authors white papers and opinion pieces for the industry press and association bodies including the Global Visitor and Exhibitor Insights Reports for UFI and FaceTime research for the AEO. Sophie often speaks at industry events around the world on topics including customer experience, attendee trends, event sustainability and exhibitor ROI.
Lauralee Whyte
Lauralee recently founded SPECTRUM to represent and source extraordinary keynote & motivational speakers, educators, event hosts and entertainers for corporate, live and virtual events. She has set out to find speakers, who are diverse but aren't here to just talk about diversity...
Lauralee aims to present the full spectrum of intersectionality - Women, BIPOC, LGBTQ, Differently Abled, Neuro-Diverse and Socially Challenged storytellers, whose messages are steeped in purpose.
Sandy Hammer
With over 20 years of experience in the international event industry, Sandy Hammer is the founder of AllSeated, an award-winning VR Technology platform with the goal to revolutionize and digitize the event planning process. In addition to being a national speaker, Sandy has been involved in many associations and a board member to a few - she is a regular contributor to Catersource, WeddingIQ, NACE and other acclaimed publications.
Ruby Sweeney
Ruby is a virtual/hybrid/face-to-face conference & events specialist and founder of The Events Hub. She has a particular interest in the benefits of virtual and hybrid events for 'Sustainability and a Circular Economy', 'Diversity, Inclusivity and Accessibility', and 'Choice over how we engage with content and make connections'. Ruby was included in the F:Entrepreneur Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs in the UK 2022.
Ashanti Bentil-Dhue
CEO of EventMind, Ashanti is a speaker, diversity expert and researcher. She is the co-founder of the global network, Black In Events, and co-creator of Diversity Ally, the first HR, Training & Search partner dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive culture in the global events industry. There are few to none in the events sector who are more driven on teaching organizations how to invest in black millennials and generation Z females within the corporate structure.
Claire Tulloch
Claire is an experienced conference director with 20 years' experience working in the events industry. In addition to running Tulloch Consultancy, Claire is content director at Tembo Ltd. where she connects event companies with freelance conference producers.
If you're looking for event management, conference production, seminar content delivery at exhibitions and managing high performing conference production teams, Claire can do it.
Deanna Nwosu, CMP, DES
Deanna is a hostess at heart. This created a passion for meeting and event planning which allows her to coordinate countless opportunities to connect with people across all social strata. Deanna has worked on fundraisers, conferences, tradeshows and other events ranging in size from 10-20,000 attendees for almost 20 years and in the hospitality industry since 2000. She hosts the Experience Junkies Podcast.
Melissa Park
A self-made entrepreneur, Melissa has built a global event business - Melissa Park Events - through word-of-mouth referrals, attendee recognition, repeat clientele and an ROI track record that will make your head spin. She specializes in helping organizations elevate their brand, amplify their corporate message and transform their events into extraordinary must-attend experiences.
Carina Bauer
Carina is CEO of IMEX Group which organises two global trade shows in the meetings and events sector annually. She also volunteers on boards including SITE Foundation, the AEO and UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. In August 2021 Carina was the recipient of the PCMA Wayfinder Award which celebrates a leader for their tremendous leadership, support, courage and innovation in creating a better environment for those impacted by the pandemic.
Anh Nguyen, CMP
Anh is Head of Community Engagement at twine, the most simple and compelling way to create serendipity, connection, and meaningful conversations for your virtual, hybrid and in-person events. She is also the founder of Spark Event Management, an award-winning, full-service event management firm and the Spark Event Collective, a network of independent planners collaborating to deliver event experiences.
Liz Jordan, CMP
Liz recently became Director of Corporate Events at Morgan Stanley, after more than three years working in various roles at their appointed agency, FIRST. She is a seasoned marketing and events professional with over 10 years of experience delivering high caliber, innovative and seamlessly executed events, conferences and experiences for financial institutions, non-profits, luxury brands, and private clients.
Samme Allen
Samme Allen is a speaker, meeting & event designer and founder of conferenceemcees.com, the first of its kind, global network of professional conference emcees, moderators and facilitators. Built on the pillars of sustainability, diversity and experience, conferenceemcees.com aims to source your virtual, hybrid or in person professional wherever in the world you might need them.
Kathryn Frankson
Kathryn Frankson is the Director of Event Marketing at Informa, the global leader in specialized events and event intelligence. After 48 straight quarters selling exhibition space and custom event sponsorships, Kathryn launched Informa’s sales marketing team, modernizing demand generation. Kathryn now leads the event and 365 digital marketing efforts for Informa’s content led events.
Allison Crooker
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Allison is Head of Event Content Strategy & Production at VMware, and Founder of the Event Content Council. She is a strategic marketing executive with ~25 years of experience leading highly matrixed cross-functional teams of 20+ to build the vision and agenda of global events with 80,000+ participants. Allison is a finance expert who has a passion for and experience in developing stellar experiential content, adept at taking abstract ideas and translating them into actionable opportunities through live content.
Tamar Beck
Tamar has 20+ years’ experience running events and is now CEO of Gleanin - a community marketing platform that helps planners attract new attendees and create sell-out events. She is also a Director at Women in Exhibitions Network, an organisation that focuses on empowering women in the exhibitions industry whilst helping to nurture the next generation of female leaders.
Mahoganey Jones, CMP, DES, HMCC
Mahoganey is founder & CEO of Event Specialists, and founder & consultant at EventPreneur Success Club. As the first Canadian Event professional to become a Certified Digital Event Strategist, she is a true events expert with 17+ years of experience in the events industry. Some of her accolades include the 2021 “Event Professional of the Year'' & “Top 100 Most Influential People in the Events Industry.”
Lovelda Vincenzi
“Lovelda is a true pro in a world where many are mere amateurs." Lovelda is an international event MC, moderator and host who’s passionate about transforming events into memorable experiences. She is passionate about empowering female voices to be on the same stages as male voices in equal proportion, and co-founded the Female Speakers Conference and Awards.
Vanessa Lovatt
We'll wrap up with this one – the Glisser team is incredibly fortunate to employ Vanessa as our Chief Evangelist. She is an established virtual and hybrid event leader and an advocate for workplace diversity, inclusion, and equality. She founded Time 4 Equality in 2019. Anyone who has worked closely with Vanessa knows that she is not only intelligent and capable in her many work roles but is also full of kindness and can-do attitude.
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