The story of how Laura Purdy found a career in the exhibitions and meetings industry will be a familiar one for many event professionals: She fell into it – and never left. While in the process of building a marketing and retail management career at a prestigious commercial real estate firm in Toronto, Canada, Purdy had the chance to participate in new business development projects, including responding to RFPs for management contracts for global commercial real estate properties. 

The steady influx of new hires and promotions continues as corporate events move full steam ahead in 2023. Take a look at who’s landing new career opportunities or moving up the ladder!

ASM Global

Global venue management and event strategy leader ASM Global has appointed 20-year San Francisco travel and convention veteran Leonie Patrick as the new general manager for the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. 

Pre-teen girls certainly have a lot of things on their minds but hatching a business—let alone brainstorming best marketing practices for its success—ordinarily aren’t some of them. Cathy Schlosberg, however, was an extraordinary girl, and those were the exact thoughts swirling through her 12-year-old brain when she and her brother came up with the idea to launch a catering business servicing events for their parents and parents’ friends.

Oftentimes, the careers we imagine for ourselves as children aren’t necessarily what we end up pursuing as adults. Ask Phil Evans about his path into the culinary arts, and he’ll tell you a similar story.

“My parents were the driving force for me to get into the culinary industry,” Evans explains. “I actually wanted to be a schoolteacher, but I grew up in the kitchen cooking with my grandmother and then my mother, so it came to me naturally. I inevitably fell in love with cooking.”

The meetings industry continues to demonstrate a rosy outlook for the year ahead as event-related organizations across the U.S. announce a bevy of new hires and an array of leadership promotions. Check them out!   

The corporate meetings industry is moving full steam ahead into 2023, with organizations far and wide continuing to welcome new leaders and fill newly created positions with experienced professionals. Here’s the latest people news you need to know!

Leading hospitality partner Sodexo Live! has tapped proven international business leader Belinda Oakley as its new CEO, North America. Bringing two decades of foodservice management experience to her new role, Oakley is responsible for leading more than 20,000 team members at more than 150 partner venues throughout the U.S. and Canada. 

As the corporate events industry kicks off 2023, event-related organizations across the country are welcoming new leaders and promoting hard-working staff as they prepare for a year of growth, increasing demand and continued post-pandemic recovery. Take a look!  

Destination DC 

Destination DC (DDC), the official destination marketing organization for Washington, D.C., recently appointed a new executive and senior staff to its leadership team. 

Straight out of college, Kelly Gleeson Smith knew she had fallen into her dream career after landing her first job in “meeting connection sales” at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort in San Antonio, Texas. From the start, she reveled in what she described as the “power of meetings” that affect so many people.

“It was like a pebble falling into the water, and then the centrifugal rings just continue to expand,” Gleeson Smith said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is an amazing industry.’”

Starting a new job in a difficult business climate can be challenging enough, but what about during the height of a global pandemic? That’s exactly where Claude Molinari found himself when he took the helm of Visit Detroit as its new president and CEO in January of 2021 as the global events industry was reeling from the impacts of COVID-19.