Joe Schwinger

Joe Schwinger is Co-Founder and CEO of MeetingPlay, an award-winning technology company forging meaningful connections at in-person, virtual, and hybrid events for Fortune 500 companies including Marriott, PepsiCo, Databricks, and many more. With a background in ecommerce, he has extensive experience providing customer facing solutions on a global scale.  

Joe was recently named to the 2020 BizBash 500 Must-Know Event Pros in the U.S. (two years running) and the 2018 list of 40 under 40 by Connect Corporate. 

Will Curran

As the founder of Endless Events, Will Curran has been named one of the most influential people in the meeting & events industry, one of the 40 under 40 event industry leaders, 35 entrepreneurs under the age of 35, and Inc Magazine’s Coolest College Start-up all before graduating college. Will has been producing in-person and virtual events since high school when he started his first company and has now worked in the production of large event clients such as Emerald City Comicon, Anheuser-Busch, Warner Brothers, Morton Salt & Uber. His team’s mission is to simplify the event planning process by creating the equation for an event’s perfect solution. They also relentlessly seek to be the name in customer service in the events industry. From event logistics to business development to technical production, Will Curran has a diverse background in growing events and companies to the next level.

Courtney Stanley

Courtney Stanley is recognized globally as an award-winning changemaker, keynote speaker and event emcee, and acclaimed creator of the women-inspired podcast, Dare to Interrupt. Courtney has spent 10 years helping professionals, entrepreneurs and organizations engage in game-changing, impactful conversations that empower individuals to tap into their true potential, improve team and culture dynamics, and drive meaningful change. 

Courtney is the youngest member to have ever been elected to Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI) International Board of Directors. She has been recognized by MPI, Smart Meetings, Meetings Today, the Association for Women in Events, Connect Meetings, MeetingsNet and other leading organizations as one of the industry’s most impactful trailblazers. Courtney serves on the Events Industry Sexual Harassment Task Force, MPI’s Women’s Advisory Board, is a Meetings Mean Business Ambassador and is the co-founder of the award-winning movement, #MeetingsToo.

IG/TW/FB: @courtneyonstage

Website: www.courtney-stanley.com

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/courtneystanley

​​Rolando Espinoza

Rolando Espinoza is the Co-Founder and Creative Director for the Champagne Experiential Studios | Champagne Creative Group. His 12,000 sq ft Las Vegas-based boutique art house is filled with the bold, beautiful and the bizarre; curated for experiential marketing & activations.

Producing original works since 2003, Rolando’s in-house atelier is powered by costume designers, performance artists, and fabricators. Brief client list includes: Red Bull, Warner Bros Pictures, Southwest Airlines and Elon Musk

Thuy Diep (2E Deep), CGSP, DMCP, CSEP

As Senior Experience Designer, Thuy brings that Los Angeles energy to the Austin-based full-service creative & event agency, Haute. She continues positively impact the #EventProfs industry as 2021-2022 Past President for the International Live Events Association (ILEA) Los Angeles chapter, serves on the Board of Directors for SEARCH Foundation, spills the tea on #EventBrew Podcast, and volunteers on the 2021-2022 International Committee for DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) for ILEA HQ. Thuy is also this year’s BizBash Top 500 US Influential Event Professionals, a Triple Virgo and likes long walks on the Venice Beach… oh wait, this is suppose to be her professional bio… Come learn how the Hauties engage in our #EventProfs community!

STEVE ENSELEIN

As Senior Vice President of Events for Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Steve has global responsibility for all aspects of Events, including staffing, events standards, technology, and training. Additionally, he is a frequent presenter to customer and industry groups.

Under Steve’s leadership, Hyatt has successfully developed and implemented both Group Bill, which has been incredibly well received for its intuitive and interactive features, as well as a new event management system, EMS, which has been implemented worldwide.  This wide reaching project has revolutionized the way Hyatt manages group functions—streamlining the delivery of information and improving the communication between the Events and Operations departments. As a result of this new program, Hyatt service scores for Events are the best they have ever been in the company’s history.  In addition, Steve has overseen the rollout of such Events technology as the Event Concierge App, Meetings on Demand ,the automated diagram integration to Social Tables, Hyatt’s Group reservation system, Hy-Res and the Hyatt Planner Portal

In 2013, Steve was honored as one of “The 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry” by Successful Meetings, in 2014 was recognized as one of the “Top 25 Extraordinary Minds in Sales & Marketing” by HSMAI , in 2018 was named Supplier of the Year: Visionaries by Smart Meetings and in 2019 and 2020 named to Biz Bash’s list of the “Most Influential People in Events”.

Julius Solaris

Julius previously founded EventMB (exit to Skift in 2019) and Showthemes, exit in 2018. He has worked for high profile technology companies and tech events.

Julius has been named one of the most influential individuals in the meetings industry by many magazines and media for the past 10 years. In 2020, 60,000 event professionals have attended events Julius designed.

Julius has conducted some of the most groundbreaking research for the event industry. Over 3,000 events reviewed and 15,000 event professionals interviewed.

Julius’ analysis and reports have been downloaded by over 300,000 event professionals. 300,000 more read EventMB every month and over 50,000 event professionals attended Julius’events.

Julius has been keynote for events in 12 countries and for over 200,000 attendees.

Nolan Ether

Nolan is a Content Marketing leader at Socio. He’s passionate about helping tech companies build their brand and connect with their customers through engaging storytelling and interactive experiences. Nolan is a futurist with experience in emerging technology across a variety of industries. In recent years, he’s been particularly interested in how technology is evolving the way people connect and interact with each other, in-person and virtually. In his spare time, he likes to spend time with his family and friends, listen to podcasts, and watch Duke basketball games.

Rafat Ali

Indo-Brit-American. New Yorker. Global Soul. Mostly, my life is about travel, building businesses, media, daddyhood and such. Previously founded paidContent, sold to Guardian in 2008.

Dahlia El Gazzar

Dahlia is a coffee-fuelled ‘go-to’ source for event tech, virtual and hybrid event design, and branding. She is on a mission to empower your brand, brain, and being. She is breaking the status quo and geared to #getshiftdone!

Lori Cioffi

Lori has extensive experience as a content strategist in the international business events industry. She was named one of BizBash Media’s Top People in the Events Industry in 2018 and 2019 and is a proud recipient of the Medal of Tourism from France. She delights in connecting people, places and industry partners for their common gain.