By Danica Tormohlen, editor-at-large, SISO
After canceling last year’s summer meeting due to COVID, SISO hosted 150+ executives for the SISO Summer Conference 2021, held August 24-26 at the Marriott Downtown in Louisville, Kentucky. While many industry association events have been held virtually since the pandemic, SISO has led the return to in-person by hosting this event and the SISO CEO Summit in April.
SISO Chair and Emerald CEO and President Hervé Sedky welcomed the audience: “There’s no substitute for face to face, and I want to thank you all for being here.”
SISO members gathered to discuss industry trends, exchange ideas and network with colleagues and suppliers. While travel restrictions kept most international attendees from coming into the U.S., the event attracted executives from large, public companies like Emerald and Informa Markets, as well as small and medium-sized businesses like JDC Events and MJBiz. See the full list of attendees here. Offering one and one-half days of programming, the SISO Summer Conference featured 18 sessions, including breakouts for revenue, operations, marketing and business/management.
“This year’s SISO Summer Conference in Louisville was a great success because so many people put an amazing amount of work into it,” said SISO CEO David Audrain (pictured left). “We had a terrific volunteer program planning committee, co-chaired by Courtney Muller and David Adler; really informative speakers from the opening panel discussion session led by Danica Tormohlen to the closing general session led by Cassandra Farrington — and everyone in between.
“The Louisville Host team and city partners were wonderful and created a great experience for the participants. Our many sponsors, representing the best suppliers and services the industry has to offer, were as supportive as ever. I have received more positive direct comments and feedback from participants than I have ever received from a previous SISO Summer Conference. It is really encouraging to see so many people invest their time in the middle of such challenges as we are all still experiencing during our industry’s recovery.”
