The meetings and events industry is thriving, thanks in large part to the dedication and passion of countless talented individuals. Choosing the standout stars for our annual Influential #Eventprofs feature is always a rewarding yet challenging task. For months, the Northstar Meetings Group content team has been collaborating to compile a list of contenders and conduct interviews with nominees, and we have carefully narrowed the list down to 18 true trailblazers. These visionaries are not just excelling in their daily roles, but are making significant strides in areas such as technology, sustainability and inclusivity — aiming for the near and long-term betterment of the meetings industry. Here are their inspiring stories.
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Jill Joerling Blood | Janis Burke | Kate Cardoso | Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng | Santiago Corrada | John David | Fred Dixon | Michele Fox | Kathryn Frankson | Kelly Gallagher | Anita Howard | Kyle Jordan | Anh Nguyen | Janette Roush | Monique Ruff-Bell | Jake Steinman | Neil Thompson | Meghan Tierney
Jill Joerling Blood
Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Maritz
Jill Joerling Blood aspired to be an attorney from a young age, learning at her father’s knee. A mergers-and-acquisitions guy, he advised her to explore the legal world before committing to law school. Internships and a stint at a firm solidified her resolve, leading her to Washington University School of Law.
However, M&A was not her calling. Hospitality law became her passion. Since 2017, Blood has been a sharp legal mind at Maritz, the third-party event powerhouse based in her hometown of St. Louis. She generously shares her expertise with meeting professionals and speaks about complex topics in an engaging, accessible manner at industry events (including Northstar’s Destination Midwest this past August).
“Law and contracts can be intimidating, but they don’t need to be,” Blood says. “Maritz has a unique role, bridging organizers and suppliers. This positions me to educate both sides and make the process more approachable.”
Since the height of the pandemic, she says, “We’ve shifted from crisis mode to recovery to what’s next,” Blood says. “AI, sustainability and other strategic issues are now at the forefront. It’s an exciting time for legal topics in the industry.”
Planners frequently ask her about data privacy, security and health-security issues related to allergens and F&B.
Despite the challenges of the legal world, Blood’s passion remains unwavering. “A lot of people don’t love being a lawyer,” she says. “But I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Janis Burke
CEO, Harris County–Houston Sports Authority
When asked about her favorite sport, Janis Burke diplomatically hesitates. During her 18 years as CEO of the Harris County–Houston Sports Authority in Texas, she has been instrumental in securing major events for the city, including this year's College Football Playoff National Championship, the NCAA Men's Final Four (2011, 2016, and 2023) and the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals. She tends to fall in love with the sport she’s watching at the time.
“I’m a sports fan,” Burke says. Even rugby won a place in her heart when the Men’s College Rugby Championship came to town in 2022. In coming years, she’ll get to learn more about soccer (seven 2026 FIFA World Cup games will take place in Houston) and BMX cycling (2028 UCI BMX Racing World Championships).
Under Burke’s leadership, Houston has become a model for using sports events to enhance a destination’s visibility and community. One example is the Rockstar Energy Bike Park, built in 2019 for the upcoming BMX championships. At the site, in an underserved area, neighborhood kids are taught to ride bikes and use the course, using a free “library” of bicycles and helmets.
“It was a really cool dream and vision that came to life,” says Burke, who was inducted into the Sports Events & Tourism Association Hall of Fame this year. By March 2020, 20,000 children already had ridden at the park.
Kate Cardoso
Founder, Travel With Purpose Pact
During her pandemic downtime, Kate Cardoso began to volunteer in her community, first at a homeless shelter and then a food pantry. The experience “completely changed my relationship with my work,” she says.
In late 2023, Cardoso left her job at HMI Performance Incentives and founded the Travel With Purpose Pact, an organization that creates authentic, meaningful and cost-effective CSR programs for meetings.
She has worked worldwide with groups ranging from 30 to 1,200, creating “the most meaningful part of the trip for some people,” she says.
For an event in Las Vegas, Cardoso partnered with Camp to Belong, which reunites siblings separated in foster care for a week of summer camp. Nearly 100 people packed “camp kits” for the kids. In Barcelona, she worked with the Red Cross to organize a “shopping sweep.” Attendees were divided into teams and dropped off at a shopping district with lists of groceries and toys to buy and pack as holiday gifts.
“We’re going to these wonderful destinations, but we can’t just take,” says Cardoso. “We need to give back so that our impact is positive — not neutral or negative.”
Santiago Corrada
CEO, Visit Tampa Bay
Among Florida’s famous cities, Tampa is generating buzz — much of it thanks to Santiago Corrada, who took the helm of Visit Tampa Bay in May 2013, following a rich career in public service roles for the city. Now one of the country’s fastest-growing destinations, according to U.S. Census data, Tampa was recognized as one of Time magazine’s “World’s Greatest Places 2023” and Clever Real Estate’s “Best Places to Live in 2024.”
Under Corrada’s leadership, hotel metrics are soaring. In 2023, hotel taxable revenue hit a record $1.1 billion. Much of that comes from hosting groups like Destinations International, the National Association of Counties and many others. Meetings are already booked for 2030 and 2031.
Investment in sports is paying dividends, too. Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays are getting a new $1.3 billion stadium, and the Tampa Bay Sun women’s soccer team debuted this year. Raymond James Stadium has hosted the Super Bowl four times, most recently in 2021.
With fewer hotel rooms and less convention space than Florida’s most popular meeting destinations, Tampa “has to work harder,” Corrada notes. That’s precisely what Visit Tampa Bay is doing. This is just the beginning of the city’s rapid rise, he adds. “There’s still so much untapped potential.”
John David, STS
President & CEO, Sports Events and Tourism Association
As a kid, John David traveled across the country to compete in BMX and motocross events. As an adult, he turned that passion into a career, first as chief strategy officer for USA BMX and, as of May 2023, president and CEO of Sports ETA.
“It’s rewarding to help families get out there and experience sports tourism and travel, and do the things that molded me as a human,” he says.
During his 23-year tenure at USA BMX, David moved their headquarters from Gilbert, Ariz., to Tulsa, Okla., the home of the nation’s largest BMX track and the USA BMX Grand Nationals.
Major events like this year’s Summer Olympics are permanently associated with the host destination, he notes, with the potential to draw visitors for years to come. “In sports tourism, our number-one job is to create an authentic, lifelong memory. When your community hosts a sporting event and those out-of-towners come, they will forever remember that moment in time, in that location. Sports has a special way of connecting a person to a destination.”
Fred Dixon
President and CEO, Brand USA
Fred Dixon is eager to welcome the world — and international business events — to the United States. He’s got a solid foundation, having spent two decades drawing visitors to one of the greatest cities in the world. During his tenure at NYC Tourism + Conventions, where he was president and CEO for the past 10 years, international visitor numbers grew from 7 million to more than 13 million.
Now, as president and CEO of Brand USA, he aims to do the same, on a much greater scale. At Brand USA, Dixon plans to build on the excellent work the nation’s destination marketing organization has done since its launch in 2011, and to increase inbound international travel, create jobs, strengthen the economy and enhance the country’s global reputation.
“One of the things that I’m excited to explore is positioning the U.S. as the place where business events happen,” notes Dixon. In the sports world, giant events like the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, are ideal opportunities to showcase the U.S., he adds.
Ensuring that all visitors feel welcome to the country is a top priority for Dixon. “Business prospers most when doors are open the widest,” he states. “And that is definitely going to be a hallmark of my time at Brand USA.”
Michele Fox
Sustainable Event Coach, Founder of Members United for Sustainable Events
A self-described “event generalist,” Michele Fox has planned trade shows, meetings, art fairs and fashion shows, and worked for venues, caterers and countless others. A common thread in every job is her commitment to sustainable operations.
With a goal to share knowledge and learn from like-minded peers, Fox founded MUSE (Members United for Sustainable Events) in 2019. “I reached out to everybody I knew and pulled a meeting together, and that was the start of it,” she recalls.
MUSE now hosts monthly Zoom meetings for its 150 members, a mix of planners, vendors and consultants. Each meeting begins with a presentation by an expert on topics such as waste sorting, sustainable signage and calculating emissions, followed by smaller group discussions and knowledge-sharing.
There’s no “us/them” element to membership, says Fox. “Anyone in the ecosystem of events is welcome to join.” The annual fee is a modest $80 per year.
In the near term, Fox would like to see sustainability questions on every RFP, as a critical part of vendor selection. Ultimately, she hopes MUSE will push the meetings industry to make significant changes in how we positively impact the people and places we encounter in business and in life.
Kathryn Frankson
Global Director of Marketing, Money20/20
Event planning can be too much like working in a restaurant, says Kathryn Frankson: “You open the restaurant because you love food,” she posits, “but then you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m so far from the food!’ You go into creating experiences because you love them, and then you can get into spreadsheet land really quickly.”
This is precisely the scenario her team strives to avoid at Money20/20, a global financial technology event, which this year added an Asia Pacific edition to its acclaimed U.S. and European shows. “Creativity is in the DNA of the event, and we want to win based on that. We always say that doing serious business can be seriously fun, and we really look for that while not losing the connection to what people want to get out of an event,” she explains.
As one measurement of success, Money20/20 has been described on social media as the “Super Bowl of fintech events,” a “Burning Man festival for bankers and fintech geeks,” and “the Met Gala of fintech.”
Frankson loves the buzz. “I think when things hit the cultural zeitgeist and you’re compared to anything that’s consumer level or has pervaded pop culture, it feels like a huge win.”
Frankson brings other event professionals along for those wins by discussing the team's creative marketing campaigns and challenges through her own social media, happy to share winning ideas and elevate industry conversations. "There's an incredible opportunity to bring people along, to share the journey of how we market," she says. "And people are willing to follow along because it's fun — and because it feels honest."
Kelly Gallagher
CEO and Co-Owner, Canvas Meetings & Incentives
Where in the world is Canvas Meetings and Incentives? That’s the signature catchphrase used by Kelly Gallagher, co-owner and CEO, in her social media messages.
With more than 12,500 followers on LinkedIn, Gallagher’s gorgeous photos and engaging posts are much more than a hobby. Social media lets her share highlights of her global site inspections with meeting and incentive clients, while doubling as a marketing tool that fuels the growth of her company.
Gallagher’s love of hotels — and events — began with her first job as an operations manager at the Philadelphia Westin. From there, she joined a full-service planning company.
In 2022, Gallagher and business partner Christian Pardo bought Canvas Meetings and Incentives, where she had been working since 2020. In two years, the firm grew from three employees to 25. Pardo oversees the planning side, while Gallagher handles hotel and venue sourcing.
As a manager, she’s as committed to her employees as she is to her clients, establishing a strong foundation for a positive work experience. Her LinkedIn posts now feature her team’s travels along with her own.
Having visited 43 countries and inspected hundreds of hotels, Gallagher still considers travel a privilege. Where will she go next? Follow her to find out.
Anita Howard
Strategy Director, ICE-International Corporate Events
“Better together” is one of Anita Howard’s guiding principles. Formerly a meetings-tech provider in the United Kingdom, she believed her corporate clients were underappreciated and lacked a peer network. So in 2015, she launched the ICE Awards to honor the achievements of these unsung professionals.
Building on the awards’ success, Howard created ICE-International Corporate Events, a free online community where planners network, share advice, post blogs and review case studies.
ICE also hosts in-person events, including an annual conference. ”It’s corporates talking to corporates,” says Howard. “This is a community that loves sharing experiences.”
ICE grew organically in the U.K., now with 1,600 actively engaged members and expanding globally. The first U.S. ICE Awards program was held in New York City this past July, drawing 100 industry professionals. A German chapter launched three years ago, and Howard plans to bring ICE to Singapore in 2025.
Kyle Jordan
Director of Meetings, INFORMS; Chair, LGBT Meeting Professionals Association
Kyle Jordan is dedicated to advancing the industry, both as an “architect and strategist” in his full-time role at INFORMS and as chair of the LGBT Meeting Professionals Association. In both cases he takes a meticulous, strategic approach to improving processes and finding creative solutions.
Jordan is now in his second year as LGBT MPA chair, where he focuses on connecting, empowering and educating LGBTQ+ meeting professionals. Under his leadership, LGBT MPA has transformed from a grassroots network into a structured association with bylaws, sponsorship programs and a paid membership model. A strategic plan was set to launch in September. The organization has grown from a small group of peers to 2,200 "friends of LGBT MPA" on its contact list, and is set to make significant strides in the coming year. Members will benefit from registration discounts, access to peer resources, and more.
In both roles, Jordan urges planners to create safe, inclusive spaces for underrepresented groups — an objective he discussed with Northstar during a recent Eventful podcast.
Anh Nguyen
Principal and Cofounder, Spark Event Collective
Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng
Founder and Lead Event Strategist, Curious Bear Management
Individually, planners Anh Nguyen and Shawn Cheng are indisputable thought leaders. Together, they also like to “break shit.” In 2020, the two were among the founders of EventProfsBreakShit, a pandemic-fueled initiative to bridge the gap between planners and event-tech suppliers by eschewing demos and sales pitches for straight talk and real-world testing.
It's an approach they believe carries over to 2024. “There’s still a big gap between how event professionals and event-technology companies interact,” notes Nguyen. “I would be hard-pressed to say that it’s gotten a lot better… but now we’re more overwhelmed with options.”
Outside of their full-time event-planning jobs — and Cheng's brand-new role as ICCA’s regional director for North America — designing education and fostering honest discussions about event tech is a passion project for both. As collaborators, they experiment with different formats, as with their Tech Playground at PCMA’s Convening Leaders and the Tech Hub at EduCon. While they continue to bring that EPBS ethos to these in-person activations, they won't necessarily be looking to expand them as a business model, Cheng says, but they'll continue to advocate for new ways to connect planners and tech suppliers.
Nguyen agrees. "Like many planners, we’ve gotten drawn back into our regular jobs planning events," she says. "But we’re probably two of the first to speak up when we see missed opportunities for technology providers and event planners to find better ways of communicating." And they'll continue to push the envelope when it comes to finding fixes.
Janette Roush
Executive Vice President, Marketing and Digital, NYC Tourism + Conventions
“How can AI help with this?” is a question Janette Roush asks herself and her team every day. Roush, who oversees global campaigns for NYC Tourism + Conventions, is an AI power user who employs tools like Perplexity, Google NotebookLM and ChatGPT to streamline her daily workflow, parse data and enhance productivity.
“I’ve been using AI to identify who we want to talk to and what message might be most effective for that audience,” says Roush. AI can compare the number of meetings booked from the Midwest vs. the Northeast, for example, and analyze booking trends from the tech sector and third parties over the past 10 years.
“You don’t have to be an Excel expert or bang down the door of our research team every time you need some information,” she says. “Everyone can gather data. The less time we spend on reporting, the more time we have for creativity.”
Eager to share strategies with the industry at large, Roush is a member of AI Opener for Destinations, a collaborative program launched in early 2024 to help DMOs worldwide leverage AI to improve efficiency and develop ethical policies for its use.
Monique Ruff-Bell
Chief Program & Strategy Officer, TED
Monique Ruff-Bell took on a new role at TED this year, overseeing all programs and shaping the strategic plan of the revered organization. She is just as passionate about helping other planners become business leaders and be recognized for the value they bring. “We don’t just execute stuff; we make businesses money, real money,” she says, a point that “is not talked about enough.”
Ruff-Bell is trying to change that, as she frequently speaks at industry events about the ways planners can trumpet that value and become strategic leaders. This year, she took that further by joining the new Events Venture Group as a founding board member, joining leaders like Marco Giberti and Greg Topalian in a bid to foster innovation and connect event entrepreneurs with investors. And as the only woman on the board, she feels an added responsibility to amplify diverse voices.
Most of the ideas submitted to EVG so far have come from men, she says — a situation she aims to change by ensuring women are aware of the opportunities the group offers. “The industry needs this,” she says. “It also sparks something within me personally; I love getting to play a part in creating change.”
Jake Steinman
Founder and CEO, TravelAbility
Jake Steinman founded TravelAbility to help make the world more accessible for travelers with disabilities — an idea prompted by a credit-card scam. In 2018, frauds named his media and event business “Travel Agency of the Year” in an attempt to make him pay for the honor. He wasn’t a travel agent and ignored the notice, but the recognition got out there and he received a huge influx of calls from travelers seeking accommodations for their hearing, sight and neurodiverse challenges. Steinman saw a giant gap in information and awareness in hospitality and meetings.
Through TravelAbility, he launched a summit for travel professionals, as well as the Landing Page Project, which aggregates details on how cities accommodate travelers with disabilities. The site now hosts information for 195 destinations. With Destinations International, TravelAbility is creating an “Accessibility Playbook” for the American Society of Association Executives.
“Accessibility is like a journey without a finish line, but it’s also a journey with many starting lines,” Steinman says. Making one change to improve access is a fine place to start.
Neil Thompson
Founder & managing director, The Delegate Wranglers
When you need help finding a venue, booking a vendor or negotiating a contract, who can you call on? The Delegate Wranglers. The growing Facebook community, founded by Neil Thompson in 2014, is a place some 25,000 planners go to get advice from their peers.
U.K.-based Thompson started the group to connect European event professionals. Channels were added for the U.S. and Asia Pacific.
“It has become this beast that the industry can’t do without,” says Thompson. “It‘s like having 25,000 people in your back pocket to help you.” As many as 60 inquiries are posted every day. “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,” Thompson stresses. “We all have different levels of knowledge, and everyone is supportive.”
Meghan Tierney
Senior Manager of Live Events, Sustainability, AEG
As sustainability manager for some of the largest AEG-run festivals in the world, including Coachella in California and the Phish Festival in Delaware, Meghan Tierney is a trailblazer, constantly seeking, testing and implementing ways to reduce the environmental impact of bringing enormous crowds — in the hundreds of thousands — to one place.
Smaller festivals often serve as a testing ground for new initiatives that can be refined and scaled up to the larger events. “Rolling out a new compost protocol, for example, is easier at a smaller event,” Tierney explains. “With fewer people and teams, it’s less costly and simpler to manage.”
Among recent innovations AEG has embraced under Tierney’s leadership is the use of solar-powered batteries, reducing reliance on fuel-based generators.
“It’s really exciting to power stages or large event areas with battery power,” says Tierney. Just five years ago, she adds, attempting something like that at a festival of this size seemed impossible.
Putting plans in place is just the first step; ensuring that they’re used effectively by vendors, staff and participants can be just as challenging. “Setting up systems is one thing, but engaging those who will actually use them — especially staff — is key,” she stresses.
For the company as a whole, Tierney’s mission is to streamline sustainability practices across AEG’s diverse business units. “I want to help parts of the business talk to each other,” she says, to compare processes and establish best practices that could benefit AEG and the broader industry.
