Andrew is the director of ESSA a trade association for the very best suppliers and service providers to the business events world. Passionate about representing his members on the UK and global stage as the best in show, his focus has always been on raising the benchmark within the world ESSA operates, whether that be from a representative or safety perspective, skills/education or sustainability. Believes we get better by measuring and taking time to understand where we are now.

Corinne Kessel, CSEP, is the Principal of Greenscape Design and Décor, a design build company that creates botanically beautiful and sustainable replica trees and greenery that connect live, work and play spaces to nature. While helping people achieve more and feel better with greener spaces is her business, empowering and uplifting women, LGBTQIA2S+ persons and underrepresented groups is her passion and purpose.

In addition to her work with Greenscape, she is the current International President of ILEA (International Live Event Association), the Strategic Relationships Manager for Moms Against Racism Canada, and serves on the City of Delta’s Mayor’s Task Force for Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism.

She is a mom of 2 little girls and permanently has Lego bits and barbie shoes embedded in the bottom of her feet.

Craig Mathie is Managing Director of the multi-award-winning Bournemouth 7s Festival. Launched in 2008, the UK’s favourite sport and music festival welcomes 30,000 people and 400 sports teams to the South Coast each year.

In 2020, Craig founded the South Coast Events Forum, a group dedicated to supporting #eventprofs across Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire and is also a regular contributor to industry press, campaigns and a judge for some of the UK’s highest profile event awards. Craig is Vice President of the National Outdoor Events Association; a Key Advisor to the Association of Festival Organisers, Trustee of sporting charity, The Steve Bernard Foundation; Ambassador for mental health charity, Dorset Mind and Vice Chair of the Destination Management Board for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

A keen, but very amateur, cyclist – Craig is a passionate sportsman and, as a trained Mental Health First Aider, advocate for the beneficial impact of sport on mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

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.

Recently featured in: Eventex 100 Top Influencers in Events Industry 2020 Smart Meetings Magazine 2019 Smartest Women in the Industry - Hall Fame Top 500 People in Events by BizBash 2019 Smart Meetings Magazine 2017 + 2018 Top 100 Smartest Women in the meetings industry who inspire us Top 25 women in the meetings industry list by Meetings & Conventions Magazine Top 20 of the #eventprofs US & Canada Power 100 List Top Five Women in Event Tech List MeetingsNet's 2015 Changemakers 2014 Meetings Today Magazine's Trendsetter & Industry mover & shaker.

She is an Evernote aficionado, speaks globally on meetings and events technology, new-and-upcoming technology solutions and platforms. and Her mission is to empower event professionals with practical intel on everything tech related and educate them on the emerging digital innovation opportunities to elevate their events and audience engagement.

She wants you to break the status quo and #getshiftdone!

Eric is an experienced meetings industry professional with over 30 years of experience. In his role as Principal Consultant and Founder with Kingstad Event Technologists, he helps organizations of all sizes discover, implement, and manage the right event technology solutions for their in- person and virtual events. His career journey spans the spectrum of the live event industry from hotels and venues to event planning to event technology.

Beyond launching Kingstad Event Technologists in 2010 his experience includes roles as the founder and CEO of Kingstad Meeting Centers, a small chain of event venues in the Pacific Northwest; CEO of two destination marketing organizations; and a variety of positions in Convention Services, Sales, and Marketing for Marriott Hotels & Resorts. He offers a unique personal perspective that helps his clients solve problems, learn about new opportunities and explore new ways of doing business.

James leads and develops MCI’s expanding onsite, lead retrieval, and digital teams while helping the company drive new digital opportunities. Kelley joined the MCI team three years ago, coming from Experient, where he held positions over the course of 19 years from Senior Account Executive to Director, Onsite Services. His vast array of experience, knowledge and feet-on-the-ground show operations drives the success of MCI’s onsite registration products and services.

Kelly Stanley has more than 15 years of experience organising, marketing and launching B2B conferences, award ceremonies and exhibitions.

Kelly is founder and joint managing director of Borough Bench Media, which launched Open Banking Expo in the UK in 2018. The brand now hosts conferences in Canada and Europe, the Open Banking Expo Awards and its own TV and podcast channels. The brand won Best Conference Series at the 2020 Conference Awards.

She also advises event organisers on a whole range of topics, from how to grow visitor and exhibitor numbers, to harnessing the power of event technology and increasing audience engagement.

Prior to launching her own company, Kelly was Head of Marketing & Events for an independent publishing and events company where she held budget responsibility for £1m+ delegate revenue and all operating costs. She was instrumental in launching several award schemes to market, and in a major restructure to its exhibition offering.

Ksenija Polla, CMP is Regional Director North America at ICCA, the International Congress and Convention Association. She has been working in the field of international association meetings for almost 30 years and her experience ranges from membership recruitment and retention, product development, event management, sales, marketing and relationship development.

Ksenija started her career in Croatia, in the Congress department one of the leading travel agencies at the time, moved to the Zagreb Convention Bureau, where she worked on bidding and site inspections and joined ICCA in 1997, where she started in the Membership Department and has been building the Association Community from September 2013 until December 2020. As of January 2021 Ksenija, is heading the Regional Office for North America.

She has also been part of the ICCA 2020 Global Hybrid Congress organizing committee which was coordinating all activities including the education programme, marketing, sponsorship, logistics and activities and programme of the local hubs. In her free time you can find Ksenija on the golf course following her twins’ rising college golf careers.

Mahoganey Jones is an event expert and strategist who produces exceptionally planned & revenue generating events. With over 20 years in the event planning industry, she has gained extensive experience within the corporate, entrepreneurial, government, non-profit and social industries. Mahoganey has planned conferences, concerts, trade shows, retreats, fundraisers, meetings and celebrations for organizations such as the University of Ottawa and the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. Over the years, she has assisted in raising over $2.5M in fundraising initiatives.

As an entrepreneur herself with hundreds of events under her belt, Mahoganey is passionate about bringing event ideas to life. By taking care of the details and breathing personality and life into each event, Mahoganey is able to produce an experience that is a direct reflection of her clients. Throughout her career, she quickly learned that all events begin with a purpose and need more than a pretty logo to be successful. Events are opportunities to generate positive buzz about your brand and should be produced with that goal in mind. Mahoganey’s motto is do what you love and to love what you do. This motto can be seen in the attention to detail and drive she has to ensure every event is a success.

Marco is a successful entrepreneur and investor with over 25 years of intensive experience in media, technology, and the live events industry. He is the Founder and CEO of Vesuvio Ventures, where he works with startups, Venture and Private Equity investors, and corporate innovators serving as a coach, advisor, interim executive, board member, or angel investor (or a combination thereof).

After several years in a successful career as a corporate executive at Apple, Marco pursued his entrepreneurial ambitions and became:

• Co-founder and Board Member of Mind Opener, a leading publishing group in Latin America that was later sold to British Pearson Media Group, and Co-founder and Board Member of e-mind, an internet and media communications company that was sold to Liberty Media.

• President, CEO and co-founder of Mind Trainer (later Reed Exhibitions), a firm specializing in the organization of major regional trade-shows and events that was sold to Reed Elsevier after a successful long-term joint

Marco is a Harvard Business School OPM Graduate, and member of YPO, the Young Presidents Organization and a frequent speaker at industry conferences. He is also a co-author of the best-selling books The Face of Digital focused on how digital technologies are changing the live events business industry and Reinventing Live about the “Always-On” future of live events.

Michael has covered the transformative effects of technology on meetings and travel for more than a dozen years at Northstar, where he also plays a key role in developing content around topical industry trends, hospitality, and a wide variety of destinations. Previously, he was a founding editor of a pioneering digital photography magazine and has written for a couple of decades about tech, travel, events, business, cameras, and culture for a plethora of publications. He enjoys long walks, fine tequila, and getting caught in a good brainstorm.

RJ leads the Event Technology and Product team at Bloomberg where he manages a global team of digital event technicians, QA specialists, product and project managers to oversee an event tech stack responsible for the execution of 3,000+ events annually. He previously worked at Meredith Corporation (now Dotdash Meredith) as a Senior Product Manager, responsible for digital back end & front end product enhancements across 30+ brands, including People, Entertainment Weekly, Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens and Allrecipes. Based in New York City, RJ began his career managing large scale, in-person corporate productions including product launches and New York Fashion Week.

Sabrina Meyers is the Event Industry’s GO-TO on all things social media. She is a social media strategist, consultant and coach working with individuals, brands, businesses and organisations on social media event strategy for events to influencer marketing campaigns to optimising social media presence for companies. She is an event industry vlogger and founder of Hot Hospitality Exchange, her brand where she actively creates online content for, from and with the event community across a plethora of social media platforms (as expected) from her own YouTube Channel to newest social kid on the block, Clubhouse. An experienced industry speaker having spoken at industry tradeshows such as IBTM World, Sabrina is also an online event moderator having moderated for global organizations such as EventMB, InEvent and Swapcard. Be sure to follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Clubhouse on handle @hothospitalitye and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Sina is a Certified Meetings Professional (CMP) with extensive knowledge in organizing hybrid, online and in-person events. She organized the ICCA Congress 2020, a global hybrid event with 8 hubs around the world that attracted 1500 delegates, featured 220 speakers and over 100 hours of content. After working for seven years with ICCA, she has started her own digital events consultancy company, DigitalMind.events. Additionally, she is a manager at EventProfsBreakShit, a passion project to bring event professionals together to test Event Tech. She is also a nominee for the PCMA Visionary Awards in the category Digital Experience Strategist of the

Sina is a certified Digital Event Strategist (DES) and was awarded the prestigious PCMA "20 in their Twenties" Award in 2018. She is also the co-founder of SheSharp, a community created to empower women by bringing diversity to Amsterdam's technology and entrepreneur scene.

Tess thrives virtually and face-to-face. She is #EventTechPullUp Podcast Co-Host, Virtual Event Superhero, and Speaker. She is Chief Event Executioner & Event Technologist for iSocialExecution, Inc., Live Event Associate with ExecOnline, Tech Whisperer with DAHLIA+ AGENCY & Speaker. Tess was named one of the United States' most influential event professionals on the 2020 #BizBash500 list! She was recognized as a member of Connect Association magazine’s “15 Over 50.” The honor highlights the top professionals in the events industry. Tess is a Certified Meeting Professional, Digital Event Strategist, stage manager for TEDxPeachtree (9yrs).