Meet the 2026 Predict Speakers
Predict speakers provide big picture information through forward-thinking content to help position your organization to be future focused.
Marsha Flanagan, M.Ed., CEM, President & CEO, IAEE
Marsha Flanagan, M.Ed., CEM is the President and CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events® (IAEE). As IAEE’s president, she is responsible for the management of its full-time professional staff, producing the annual business operating plan and budget, overseeing the support of all meetings of governance units, leading business development, directing fund raising efforts, advocating for the industry and the organization’s members, and providing organizational leadership and strategic counsel to the board of directors.
Flanagan also serves as the association’s representative with industry coalitions, partner organizations and strategic alliances. Visit www.iaee.com for more information.
Nancy Drapeau, IPC, Vice President of CEIR Research, IAEE
Nancy Drapeau, IPC, brings over 30 years of market research expertise to the B2B exhibitions industry. As a key voice at CEIR, A division of IAEE, she leads influential, industry-wide studies that track trends and deliver insights to help event professionals stay ahead of the curve. A frequent speaker at conferences and forums, Nancy was named BizBash’s 1,000 Most Influential People in Events in 2019.
She holds a BA in Government from Georgetown University, a Graduate Diploma in International Studies from l’IEHEI, and is a trained focus group moderator through the AC Nielsen Burke Institute. Nancy is a member of the Industry Insights Association and has contributed her expertise to the Event Industry Council’s Research & Advocacy Task Force.
Based in Maine, she enjoys life by the coast with her husband and their energetic border collie, Moxie.
Michele Iversen, Principal, Geopolitical & Regulatory Risk
Michele Iversen is a Principal at The Chertoff Group, where she leads the Geopolitical & Regulatory Risk practice. She advises defense, technology and critical infrastructure customers on the national security dimensions of regulatory compliance, cross-border investment and supply chain risk.
Her work spans CFIUS National Security Agreement compliance, Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) risk advisory, Federal Acquisition Security Council (FASC) exclusion analysis, and ICT supply chain risk management strategy. Customers rely on her to translate complex statutory and regulatory requirements into actionable compliance frameworks and board-level risk decisions.
Ms. Iversen brings more than 25 years of government service spanning the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Cyber Command and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Chief Information Office, where she developed the DoW ICT Supply Chain Risk Management strategy and represented DoW on the Federal Acquisition Security Council.
She is a retired U.S. Army Signal Corps officer who helped establish the Joint Task Force for Computer Network Defense, the forerunner of U.S. Cyber Command.
Tariq Khan, Senior Economist, Tourism Economics - an Oxford Economics Company
Tariq Khan is a Senior Economist at Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company, with a decade of professional experience in the economics industry, having previously held roles at the International Monetary Fund and the Institute of International Finance in Washington, DC. He currently conducts macroeconomic and economic impact analysis for numerous destinations throughout the US and Canada and oversees the use and development of Destination International’s Event Impact Calculator in the Western Hemisphere.
He is a lead contributor to numerous event industry studies and a frequent speaker at conferences across North America, providing expert insights into the latest trends and outlooks for the travel and events industries.
Brian Pagel, CEIR 2026 Chairperson of the Board, Executive Vice President, Emerald X
Brian Pagel currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Business Development and oversees the Residential and Commercial Connections portfolio at Emerald. Brian began his career at Shore Varrone in 1998 and has worked in a variety of leadership positions with Bill Communications, VNU, Nielsen Expositions and Emerald.
Brian has produced nearly 100 events in his career, successfully repositioned several struggling properties and was a part of the deal team that acquired CEDIA Expo in 2017. In 2013 he helped to champion an effort to co-locate the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) with the International Builders Show (IBS), creating Design and Construction Week. Brian holds a degree in Organizational Communications from the University of Kansas and is an active volunteer with both the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) and the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE). He is also a frequent industry speaker, blogger and guest columnist.
Brian is originally from Littleton, Colorado, but currently lives and works in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Dr. Sam Potolicchio, President, Preparing Global Leaders Forum
Dr. Sam Potolicchio was named one of “America’s Best Professors” by the Princeton Review, the Future Leader of American Higher Education by the Association of Colleges and Universities and was also profiled in a cover story on his leadership curriculum by Newsweek Japan as the “Best Professor in America”.
Potolicchio is the President of the Preparing Global Leaders Forum and also teaches in Executive Education EMBA programs at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown and at the Mannheim Business School (Germany). He is a visiting lecturer at University of Bologna (Italy) and teaches two classes (US Political Systems and Preparing to Be President) to Georgetown University undergraduates.
He is a columnist for Newsweek Japan, a Distinguished Global Scholar at the Canterbury School of Fort Myers, and the lecturer on Leadership at the Library of Congress for COIL, an international leadership program of the United States Congress.
Potolicchio has served as the Distinguished University Professor, Department Chairman and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Political Science at RANEPA, Director of Global and Custom Education at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, a visiting Professor at NYU’s DC campus and co-taught with Senator Richard Lugar at UIndy’s Semester in Washington Program.
Potolicchio has delivered lectures in over 85 countries, from Oxford, LSE, Cambridge and Yale to Iraq’s Komar University and Donetsk State University. As a middle-school basketball coach he led his Little Hoyas to 6 league titles and previously served as a 5th grade Latin teacher, public high school teacher of Law and History and secondary school admissions officer.
B.A. Government, Georgetown; B.A. Psychology, Georgetown; M.T.S. Theology and Culture, Harvard; PRSE, Harvard; MA, Government, Georgetown; PhD, Government, Georgetown
Tara M. Sinclair, MA, Ph.D., Economist, Department Chair and Professor of Economics and International Affairs, George Washington University
Professor Sinclair is the chair of the GW Department of Economics and is the former director of the GW Center for Economic Research. Her research models, explains, and forecasts macroeconomic fluctuations and trends. She also evaluates forecasts, particularly with respect to their role in policy and decision-making. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in macroeconomics and econometrics.
Tara earned a BA in Foreign Languages from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and an MA and PhD in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis. Before starting graduate school, she worked as a commercial real estate appraiser in Chicago. In 2022-2024 she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomics in the Office of Economic Policy at the Department of Treasury. Sinclair has also been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis and Atlanta, a visiting associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, a consultant at the World Bank, a member of the Technical Advisory Committee at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and founding chief economist at job search site Indeed.
She is regularly quoted by the press, including in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, and has appeared on CNN, C-Span, NPR, Fox Business, Bloomberg Radio and TV, and various other national and international outlets.