No webinar or white paper can fully prepare you for the moment things go sideways onsite. That’s why Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting & Exhibition matters so much: it is the ONE EPIC EVENT where the people who’ve actually managed a crisis mid-show, renegotiated a contract under pressure or rebuilt a team strategy from scratch are ready and willing to share exactly how they did it. On 16-18 November in Milwaukee, you will get direct access to that invaluable knowledge and leave with surefire strategies you can apply to your next big challenge.
Why Operations, Risk & Show Management Belongs at the Top of Your Agenda
Operations work rarely gets the spotlight, yet it’s the foundation of every event. When done well, nobody notices. However, everyone notices when something goes awry. The Operations, Risk & Show Management: Driving Better Outcomes learning track at Expo! Expo! 2026 is built around a simple idea: resilience (or lack thereof) isn’t something you have, it’s something you design into your events on purpose through better data, clearer contracts, sharper risk assessments and decision-making frameworks that hold up when conditions change fast. Brought to you by New Orleans & Company | New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, this track caters to the professionals responsible for making sure the show goes on, no matter what.
Sessions to Add to Your Schedule
Operational Chaos: Real-Time Decision Making During Event Disruption
Jump into a fast-moving disruption scenario where communication gaps, vendor breakdowns and shifting priorities collide all at once. Practice the leadership and coordination decisions that actually determine outcomes under pressure through facilitated discussion, live polling and small-group exercises. It’s the closest you will get to crisis training without an actual crisis.
How to Use Dynamic Data to Maximize Your Results
Follow the International Production & Processing Expo’s eight-year partnership with the Nexus Data Group to clean historic data, integrate new sources and build marketing campaigns that measurably improve attendee experience and exhibitor ROI. Learn how to build a genuine “record of truth” across attendees, exhibitors and prospects. If your data feels scattered and underused, this session will show you the fix.
Event Safety By Design: Risk Assessment & Mitigation in Practice
Move beyond checklists into a strategic, design-driven approach to safety that runs across your entire event lifecycle – from venue selection to onsite operations. Learn how to activate your full network of partners and stakeholders so that you’re never planning risk in isolation. This is a practical, interactive session for anyone who owns safety and doesn’t want to leave it to chance.
From Leaner Teams to Smarter Events
Executive interviews from CloserStill Media, Easyfairs, Terrapinn, the Specialty Food Association and mdg will explore how AI is reshaping both organizer team structures and attendee expectations at the same time. Leave with a clear, evidence-based picture of what to build, what to protect, and what your attendees and exhibitors will expect within the next two years. Take a rare, ground-level look at where this shift is actually headed.
See It Before It Happens
Kerry Gumas from Gardner Business Media and the Map Your Show team will explain how behavioral data helped them flag at-risk exhibitors before renewal decisions were even made. Walk away with practical tools to spot upsell opportunities, forecast revenue with confidence and benchmark your show against comparable events. This session is built for anyone ready to stop reacting to exhibitor churn and start getting ahead of it.
Just One More Thing: How to Stop Scope Creep Before It Costs You
Draw on 15 years of high-stakes production experience, including the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euros, to tackle scope creep at its actual source. These are the hard conversations event professionals avoid having early and Emmy Award-winning producer Gabriella Robuccio offers a practical framework for identifying scope creep before it spirals, as well as addressing it without damaging the relationship. Leave with boundary-setting language you can use at your very next client meeting.
The Hidden Assets of Trade Shows
Unpack the intangible assets every show generates – brands, content, attendee data – and how intellectual property and data rights intersect with daily event operations. Learn practical legal strategies for protecting these assets through exhibitor agreements, speaker releases and data governance practices. If your organization has never fully mapped what it owns and how it’s protected, this session is essential.
Make This the Track That Sets You Apart
The professionals who lead this industry forward are those whose events hold together when conditions don’t go as planned because they had the foresight and knowledge to build that resilience in advance. Expo! Expo!’s Operations, Risk & Show Management learning track gives you the tools, data and frameworks to be that person for your organization.
