“It is such an honor and very humbling when I look at the list of past inductees and consider their prominence in my evolution—especially those from back in the day when I was a young whipper-snapper and [absorbed] their leadership influence.”
So wrote William Reed, CMP, FASAE, on July 17 in a post to LinkedIn, after he learned that he was one five industry veterans chosen for the Events Industry Council’s Hall of Leaders this year. Only about 150 people have been inducted into EIC’s Hall of Leaders in its 40-year existence.
The chief event strategy officer for the American Society of Hematology, Reed has more than two decades of experience in planning large business events. He’s been at ASH for 13 years, after spending eight as a senior vice president at event-strategy and -design firm Experient, which Maritz purchased in 2012. And before that, Reed worked for 17 years as a hotel-sales executive focused on the group market.
It is fitting that Reed publicly expressed gratitude to colleagues whose wisdom he drew upon during his early years in the business. For many years now, Reed himself has been an educator at meetings-industry conferences and a knowledgeable source for media outlets covering the industry.
Here are just two instances where Reed offered valuable experience and advice for fellow planners:
How I Got Here: William Reed, CMP, FASAE
On the Road Again, and Again
One more lesson: Here’s an excerpt from a 2023 MeetingsNet article explaining Reed’s revenue-producing hybrid-event strategies for ASH’s annual meeting in the post-pandemic environment:
“We have not experienced any cannibalizing of our in-person attendance," Reed says. "Of our 5,000 virtual attendees, almost none would come to the in-person edition” because they are located outside of the United States. His goal with the virtual version, then, is to raise the awareness and reputation of the association around the world, which will draw more attendees both in person and online over time.
In addition, ASH uses the sessions recorded at the in-person event as the basis for subscriptions of different lengths that provide access to the content. Virtual and in-person attendees have free access to all sessions posted online for 30 days after the event, but ASH allows any member to purchase additional access month by month—which some attendees do along with non-attendees. “This brings us a good amount of additional revenue at no additional cost,” he notes.
