Corporate event executives managing on a sweeping scale—hundreds or thousands of meetings and regional or global responsibility—have an exceptional level of experience and a unique set of challenges.
For these high-level corporate planners, a small group that formed in summer 2021 is on the move. The Event Leaders Exchange now has a website, plans to launch a community portal by early August, and is accepting applications for membership.
ELX is backed by Explori, an attendee-feedback platform, and facilitated by industry veterans Kimberly Meyer, principal at The Data Angel, and David Kliman, president of The Kliman Group, as well as Chloe Richardson and Mark Brewster from Explori. Corporate planners on the group’s steering committee include Dean Armintrout, T-Mobile; Carolyn Pund, CMP, CMM, Cisco Systems; Vivian Eickhof, Microsoft; Carrie Cliggett, CMM, Kluwer; Micheal Mahoney, Genentech; Stephen Rose, Siemens; and Erin Smock, McDonald’s.
According to Meyer, the group currently has about 35 members with some applications still under review.
The community was created as a platform for sharing ideas and solutions and will hold participant-led “think tanks” on hot topics throughout the year. In the coming months, the group has plans for virtual events on diversity, equity, and inclusion; sustainability; and company culture, as well as a benchmarking study and an in-person gathering during IMEX America. In some cases, says Meyers, the conversations may evolve into industry-wide initiatives; in others, participants may just take the ideas back to their companies.
“The idea of this is to create a very focused way for just leaders to get together,” Meyers says. “So, you know who’s going to show up, and you know that someone has done the homework” to make it a valuable experience. She notes the benefits of staying focused on leadership tactics and strategies. All ELX meetings operate under the Chatham House Rule, meaning that attendees are free to use information from the discussion, but can’t reveal who made a particular comment.
As a guideline, Meyers says that event executives working for companies with revenues of $3 billion or more are appropriate for the group. She notes that members generally manage a region of the world, with a portfolio of at least 500 meetings. Others are managing globally, with as many as 20,000 meetings and events a year.
Membership is free. To apply, contact ELX at [email protected].
