SISO CEO Summit 2024 breaks records, reports Stephanie Selesnick
The Society of Independent Show Organisers (SISO) CEO Summit 2024 was held in April at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island, FL. The conference broke records with 35 new members in attendance and over 300 organisers and industry suppliers. Lisa Hannant, CEO Clarion Events took over as chair from Mary Larkin, Americas CEO, Arc Network.
A farewell, a congrats, and a solar eclipse
Freeman’s Carrie Parsons-Freeman and Janet Dell led a toast to Bob Priest-Heck, celebrating his long career and upcoming retirement. Nancy Walsh, president North America, Informa Markets, was awarded the Robert Krakoff award, SISO’s highest honour. Delegates participating in the day before Women’s Forum and Small Business Roundtable took a break to view the solar eclipse, safely.
Educational sessions
Speakers ranged from political and economic experts to those covering customer-centricity for success, advice from B2C events for the B2B event space, to commerce through sustainability, to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) – a long staple of conversation for the organisation.
Anirban Basu, Sage Policy Group and Daniel Lippman from Politico took the stage to discuss, ‘Navigating a complex and changing environment’.
While Basu last year predicted the US was going to have a recession in 2023, it failed to appear. He is not sure about another one in 2024 (maybe 2025 or 2026?), much to the audience’s relief. He mentioned the US economy grew 2.2% and that consumer spending is strong, particularly in services, including travel. Hotel occupancy is on the rise, too.
Lippman said while the Biden Administration’s economic data is good, there is a disconnect with people pessimistic about the US economy. The ex-president Trump is still popular, meanwhile, despite 91 indictments and facing a cash crunch.
Customer focus
The session, ‘Preparing for future success: The key to unlocking value for your organisation by focusing on your customer’, with Hervé Sedky, Emerald Holdings, Inc., Michelle Metter, Fast Forward Events, Paul Miller, Questex, and Hugh Jones, RELX plc, covered how industries are listening to customers. Jones suggested asking event directors the following question: ‘What is the value proposition of your show by segment?’ This includes buyers and exhibitors, demographics, company size, etc.
Miller said that Questex takes the data from digital content interest (clicks, opens, interactions) and shares it with event directors. The areas and specifics of said interest is then used to develop event/digital programing, including speaker selection, creating educational sessions and content.
Metter shared how Fast Forward Events uses ‘social listening’ tools to find strategic shifts and get more vertical depth on the industries they serve. They want to find their clients’ “pain points then deliver solutions via our shows.” She noted that Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) may shift as a show matures and industries change.
New perspective
‘A new perspective on innovation and experience – new entrants to the for-profit event landscape’, with Lance Fensterman, Fanatics Events; Dierdre Connolly, Bravocon and Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, and Aaron Levant, NTWRK (ComplexCon for sneakers), was a session focused on what fan events can bring to B2B events. Connolly and Levant agreed a key component in each of their events’ success is year-round engagement with super fans via varied forms
of content. (In the B2B space, these are your show evangelists.) Dierdre advised: “Understand who your customers are and what they want to buy. Then provide it.”
Fensterman who spent years developing and growing RX’s Reed- Pop division, is presently launching and building fan experiences for Fanatics Events advised, “Don’t be trapped by your experience! Leave space to experiment and change.”
Diverted waste
‘Sustainability meets the commercial world’ with Carlotta Mast, New Hope Network, Informa Markets was another session.
Natural Products Expo West, held annually in Anaheim, CA attracted 3,000 exhibitors, 60,000+ attendees and diverted 52% of the waste produced in its last edition. Mast said: “Sustainability will be either the headwinds or the tailwinds for our industry and the communities we serve. Which one of these is our choice – and it will have an impact.
She shared a couple of new, successful sponsorships from the show: replacing 21,000 single-use plastic water bottles in all official hotels with more sustainable water boxes (with monetary compensation) and a pilot programme for a Waste Diversion sponsor, helping them reinforce their own products recyclability and meaningfully connecting with attendees.
Mast offered organisers some sustainability initiatives which can also be money-makers:
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Sustainability can seed commercial opportunities.
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Talk to your market and about the right opportunities to support sustainability.
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Be transparent and authentic with your efforts. No green washing!
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Think big and empower your team to lead the way – can you add sustainable and commercially successful events to your portfolio?
‘M&A: What’s on the Cards for 2024?’ was a session with Russell Wilcox, Clarion Events Ltd., Gareth Bowhill, CloserStill Media and Simon Foster, Arc Network.
Topics included geographic interest, advice for sellers and integration of acquired properties (if the culture isn’t a good alignment, pass on the property).
Geographic regions of interest include the UK, Europe (Germany specifically), Southeast Asia and of course, North America.
Advice for sellers:
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2024 is a very different environment than 2019, so there’s a lot of thought going into deals. (Bowhill)
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Think carefully about why you want to sell. What do you want out of a deal? Be prepared and think about how your business/show will fit in with the buyer’s. (Foster)
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There is a more strategic emphasis on where the proposed new company fits in with your company’s overall culture and alignment. (Wilcox)
As Foster summed up: “You do not buy the past. You buy the future.”
The SISO Leadership Conference takes place 13-15 August in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Registration is now open. https://www.siso.org/leadership
This article is taken from EW Issue 3, to get the digital magazine bi-monthly to your inbox, subscribe here: https://www.exhibitionworld.co.uk/subscribe
