Ahead of the close of 2017 I was thrilled to see my name included as one of the Top 29 Event Industry Influencers to Follow from a newly released article from Tom Pick/G2 Planet.  I have extensive experience working within the Event Industry and am thrilled to be included with so many colleagues from one of my old employers BizBash Media.

My father Richard Aaron was the President of BizBash for many years ahead of his recent retirement and took a chance hiring me as the economy was tanking in 2007 to work within his event team.  I had just completed my Master of Public Administration and couldn’t find a job that fit my background and he encouraged me to join him and get some experience outside of my traditional interests.  Working at BizBash as an Event Marketing Manager I traveled the United States supporting nine  core markets learning first hand from him and others how to execute the onsite event managements for all of the trade shows and events the company put together.  I developed content for email, social media, direct mail and other channels to convert and engage audiences.

As social media emerged as a dominant channel driving both engagement and revenue for many of our events my interests quickly migrated into learning about digital and social strategy.  Within BizBash Events we developed a social media lounge a core part of our large scale tradeshows deepening relationships with Event Influencers within core markets and showcasing what real time event success looked like with giveaways, live twitter feeds and more. We were one of the first to develop this type of strategy and it was fascinating and exciting.

It was love at first sight for me. Seeing social media so deeply integrated into the success of our overall event success really hit home.  I knew I had to work to deepen my digital marketing background and move forward in future roles with more focus on social media and the strategies of implementation for ongoing success.  I worked alongside a fantastic team and mentor (my father) who took a chance on a young twenty something and deeply impacted my long term career success.  Since BizBash I’ve worked at several events and publishing companies (Crain Communications, IQPC, Euromoney Institutional Investor) and have implemented tactics I learned from my event days.

Within my role at CFA Institute I work to support some of our larger global events developing social media strategies for ongoing success.  At one of our annual conferences I developed a social media lounge featuring a social media vending machine where a tweet with a unique hashtag dispensed a prize to the participating delegate. Not something you traditionally see at financial events but a real wow-factor and attention grabber for many of our attendees. I’ve also lead our internal team annual kickoff meeting for the last two years bringing some of my old BizBash “outside the box” event skills to make work meetings more engaging including a live graphic artist, digital caricatures and hashtag cookies and chocolates to tie the theme together.

I’m so grateful to Tom Pick and G2 Planet for the Inclusion and to my father for taking a chance on me.  It’s important to have a mentor that supports you and helps you refine your skills as the years go on.  He’s always been a sounding board for many of my ideas helping me to think outside the box and refine for success and I’m grateful beyond words.