Elizabeth Glau, CMP, who used her firm Event Integrity to promote ethical, responsible, inclusive, and transparent business practices across the events industry, has died after an eight-month battle with metastatic breast cancer. She was 42 years old.
A 2001 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University, Glau started in the events industry as a catering and convention services manager before jumping to the planner side in 2007. Her focus for more than a decade revolved around data analytics, AI, and other technology elements that enhance the attendee experience. Another focus: Helping planners build diverse and inclusive environments for meetings while pushing hoteliers and other suppliers to assist in those efforts.
In May 2020, Glau purchased the firm Event Integrity from founder Chrystal Huskey with the goal of promoting business between planners and vendors committed to ethical and transparent business practices. A little more than a year later, Event Integrity’s Facebook page is a thriving forum populated by several hundred planners and suppliers who discuss industry principles and integrity in relation to recent industry news and developments.
Even after Glau was diagnosed with cancer in November 2020, she continued to be involved in the forum, assisting industry veteran Joan Eisenstodt in moderating topic threads.
“Elizabeth believed strongly in the literal integrity of events; that without transparency in planning and operating, without honest discussions about what needed to be communicated among all the business parties involved and to the participants, speakers, and exhibitors, we'd get nowhere in our business,” Eisenstodt says. “She was warm, open, curious, and strong—strong enough to know that her work had to reflect her values.”
“Elizabeth was focused on ethics and being straightforward in business. For instance, it really bothered her when she heard about planners entering into a deal where the other party sold them the pretty picture but didn't tell the whole story. She wanted transparency and honesty,” adds Mac Alshaarawi, Glau’s husband of 18 years. “Her goal was to take care of and provide as much service as she could to the people in the events industry, even when her illness made her exhausted. She always wanted to do more.”
