Evan Babins has close to 10 years’ experience in corporate event production. Throughout his career, he has had the chance to manage event logistics and technical event production for many world class clients like: Nissan Canada, Equitable Bank, Kia Canada, Novartis, and TD Bank, to name a few. Evan has worked in both the live, virtual and hybrid event spaces, honing his craft as a top tier event industry trendsetter. Evan has been included in BizBash's Top 250 Event Professionals, Eventex's Top 50 Most Influential Event Technology Professionals, Bizzabo's Top 55 Event Experience Leaders & Special Event Magazine's Top 20 Young Event Pro's to Watch lists.

Evan works at Inuit Canada, on the Quickbooks Canadian Event team, producing internal and external live events directed at the accountant and bookkeeper channels across Canada.

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.

Nick started his carrier in the early 2000’s as Sound engineer in live theatre. After finding his feet on a series of number one global touring productions Nick discovered a passion overall technical management across multiple disciplines and went on to become technical manager of multiple venues and teams.

Striving to learn, then develop technical solutions and knowledge drove Nick to become a recognised name within the industry, including Best Event Technologist of The Year at the 2023 Event Technology Awards. With experience in Theatre, Touring music, Opera, Corporate and Experiential events Nick is responsible at DRPG to push the boundaries, researching new technology and actively challenges our own and our client’s thinking.

Hayley Haggarty has worked in the event industry for over 15 years across various disciplines and industries. She began her event career at UBM in London, then moved over to California to continue working at UBM (now Informa), managing medical and manufacturing events. She then moved to VentureBeat as GM of Events to head up their AI and Gaming events portfolio, and is currently working for Virgin Galactic, managing future astronaut and member events, as well as the spaceflight customer experience.

Ryan Howard is co-lead of Google Experience Institute, a Google-led initiative that includes external partnerships focused on researching, developing, and advocating for better event and experience futures. In his primary technology role, he leads event technology solutions tailored to the enterprise environment, including an range of innovative strategies that span design frameworks, analytic frameworks, platforms, and wearables. Before joining Google, he worked on similar initiatives at Goldman Sachs and across the broadcast, experiential, and audiovisual industries.

James Kelley Vice President, Registration – James joined the team from Experient, where he held positions over 19 years as Account Executive, Senior Account Executive, Strategic Account Manager, and Director of Onsite Services. His vast array of experience and knowledge were utilized to drive all onsite registration products and services. He held account management responsibilities in registration and housing for many of the top associations and independent show organizers. Managing events with over 150,000 attendees and 80,000 room nights. Since joining MCI has managed the Virtual Events, Registration, Lead and Customer Service Teams. Reviewing over 150 different technologies for MCI use during this time.

Doug spent 30 years in professional leadership positions around the world with the following industries: high-tech; marketing; military; manufacturing; and finance. At GPJ, he has played a critical role in the successful management and experience technology execution of customer experiences in EMEA, ASIA-Pacific, South and North America. Doug holds a Bachelor of Science in software engineering as well as a Master of Art in business. Doug is a certified Project Manager Professional (PMP®), Certified Toastmaster, PROSCI Change Manager, and specializes in Open Source technologies.

Anh Nguyen 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. Anh is a seasoned business event professional who possesses over 18 years of event design, production, and management experience. She has managed a vast array of events including intimate corporate functions, awards and fundraising galas, large conference, virtual events, conventions and tradeshows, and international hospitality events and is known for her keen eye for detail while being able to lead, inspire and manage large, global teams. She has served on the board of directors for many industry associations including the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). During the Covid-19 pandemic, Anh successfully lead 50 leading event professionals to coordinate the Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) Goes Virtual initiative and was recently named a Meetings Today Trendsetter.

Jake Runnion is a Sr. Event Technologist at Meetings & Incentives Worldwide. In his role at M&IW, Jake develops customized event apps and consults with clients to identify their event technology needs. In his first year with the company, he received their award for “Rookie of the Year” for his outstanding performance and dedication to client success.

Prior to joining M&IW in 2021, he spent the last 3 years with SpotMe where he got his start in the event technology industry. Jake graduated from Western Illinois University in 2015 where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Marketing. During his time at Western, Jake served as the President of the Marketing Club.

Julius Solaris is regarded as the most influential person in the event industry. He founded Boldpush, a management consultancy agency for the event industry.

Julius advises Fortune 500 companies and event industry CEOs. Companies that worked with Julius include IMEX, Swapcard, Hopin, Bizzabo, SAS, InEvent, Eventsair, and many more.

He founded EventMB (exited to Skift in 2019) and Showthemes, exited in 2018. 7 Million people read Julius' content in 2023, making him become a Top Voice on LinkedIn.

Julius has been named one of the most influential meeting industry individuals by many magazines and media for the past ten years. He has recently been awarded 2023 Trend Setter by Meetings Today magazine.

Julius has conducted some of the most groundbreaking research for the event industry. Over 300,000 event professionals have downloaded Julius' analysis and reports.

Julius has been a keynote for events in 15 countries and for over 250,000 attendees.

Courtney Stanley is recognized globally as an award-winning keynote speaker, leadership coach, and host of the podcast for women in business, Dare to Interrupt. Courtney has spent more than 13 years engaging professionals, entrepreneurs and organizations in game-changing, impactful conversations that empower individuals to tap into their true potential, improve team and culture dynamics, and drive meaningful change.

Courtney is the youngest member to have ever been elected to Meeting Professionals International's (MPI) International Board of Directors, and is recognized as one of the event and hospitality industry’s most impactful change-makers. Courtney currently serves on MPI's Public Relations Advisory Board, is a Meetings Mean Business Ambassador and is the co-founder of the award-winning movement to prevent sexual misconduct at events, #MeetingsToo.

Julieanna Gray-Stipek, a seasoned events professional with a decade of industry expertise, currently spearheads the event strategy for Forbes's live division. Instrumental in propelling the events department's growth at Forbes, she has orchestrated the production of globally acclaimed conferences such as the inaugural Forbes Under 30 Summits and Forbes Iconoclast Summits. Notably, Julieanna leads production on the award-winning Forbes 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi. She played a crucial role in reintroducing Forbes to in-person events, onboarding and introducing the company to health and safety technology. With a proven track record of bringing innovative concepts to fruition, she integrates cutting-edge technology to enhance community engagement at events. Looking ahead, she remains committed to steering the events department as an industry trailblazer, prioritizing the integration of sustainability initiatives.

Julie began as an actress in NYC. After two decades of producing and acting, she migrated into high end event planning. In 2011, she joined Living in Digital Times to produce the annual CES FitnessTech and Wearable Tech Summit. When the pandemic hit she built a community of event planners and associates to jump start The Virtual Events Group (VEG). She now advises and consults on the best use cases of technology for events as well as produce events, meetings, and conferences on a wide range of topics.

Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, DES, WMEP is the dynamic CEO of Tree-Fan Events LLC, Host of the “Events Demystified Podcast”, Founder of Fit Mindful Mavens, and Founder of Women BTS in Events (tech + prod). Recognized as a trailblazer, Anca has received numerous accolades: the 2023 Smart Woman in Meetings and Catalyst Quantum Leap Award by Smart Meetings, 2022’s “40 under 40” by BizBash+Connect Meetings, and the 2021 #womentowatch award by Meetings Today.

Under her leadership, Tree-Fan Events is pioneering the #FIT4Events framework, integrating Futuristic AV Production, Innovative AI Technology, Thriving Audiences, and Empowered Teams to transform event experiences. Anca’s commitment to merging event production with wellness and technology has set new industry standards. Additionally, Anca has excelled in the fitness world, claiming the 2023 First Place in Natural Bodybuilding Wellness Masters and the 2022 First Place in Natural Bodybuilding Bikini Competitor. Her multifaceted career showcases her dedication to innovation, wellness, and empowering women in tech and production.

I'm an Entrepreneur, self-proclaimed Registration Nerd and go-to Cvent guru with 15 years of intensive expertise in the platform.

Founded in 2015, Leanne Velky, Inc. specializes in providing white glove registration site build and support services to corporate clients, with a particular focus on crafting complex registration sites.

Driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, I've most recently set out to explore various other platforms and the entire event tech ecosystem to remain knowledgeable of emerging trends and innovations. My commitment to this research will enable me to offer valuable insights and guidance to fellow event and SaaS professionals.

Founder and CEO of BW Events, one of the fastest growing event technology consulting teams with vast international reach servicing some of the top global brands. Awards have included: “Best Digital Agency”, “Best Founder” and “Best Event Technician”.

Brandon has been instrumental in overseeing the Cisco Live and Google Cloud technology deployment and strategy for several years. While consulting one Fortune 50 company, the team won a Silver Award at EventTech for work in integrated AI/AR powered recommendation experience for over 30,000 attendees. He also led a groundbreaking global effort for AI-personalization and facial recognition technology across their global customer conferences.

Over 18 years of event technology experience deploying solutions involving an array of registration platforms, BI tools, analytics, integrations, BLE, RFID, attendee journeys, artificial intelligence, AR/VR, wayfinding, proximity-based messaging/personalization, and more.

The Zimmerman Agency, co-founded by Curtis and Carrie Zimmerman, utilizes WOW! planning against advertising, public relations, digital and social initiatives for national brands such as Aflac, Hertz, Domino’s Sugar, Firehouse Subs, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Clubs, Hard Rock, Party City, PGA TOUR, CitiBank, Marriott International, American Airlines, Cooper Tire, to name a few.

The Zimmerman Agency touts billings exceeding $165 million annually and employs more than 160 full-time professionals. The agency is the second largest hospitality public relations firm in the United States and three times larger than any other public relations company in Florida. The firm is part of Omnicom, the global marketing powerhouse.

Carrie has been the guest speaker on her WOW! philosophy to companies in Moscow, Singapore, Cairo, London, Macau, San Juan, Toronto and other global markets.