August 19-21, 2025 | Indiana Convention Center I Indianapolis, IN
August 19-21, 2025 | Indiana Convention Center I Indianapolis, IN
All sessions will be held in the Sagamore Ballroom 1-2.
Meals will be in Sagamore Ballroom 3 and Networking Breaks in the Serpentine Lobby.
Climb aboard a comfortable mini coach for a dynamic two-hour guided tour that blends Indy’s monumental history with its vibrant craft beverage scene!
You’ll cruise past some of Indianapolis’ most iconic landmarks, striking murals, and historic monuments—learning how the city earned its title as home to more memorials than any U.S. city outside of Washington, D.C. Along the way, enjoy fascinating stories, rich local history, and plenty of photo-worthy sights from the comfort of your seat (with a few quick stops to snap the perfect shot!).
Throughout the tour route we will also visit a selection of local breweries featured on the Indy Craft Pass. Enjoy curated tastings, peek into the brewing process, and hear how Visit Indy works with partners to promote Indy’s thriving craft culture—complete with behind-the-scenes insights and lessons learned.
It’s the perfect blend of history, hops, and hometown pride—no walking shoes required! 🍻
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🍽 Sit-Down Lunch
Join us for an intimate, courtside conversation over lunch, featuring Amber Cox, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for the Indiana Fever basketball team. This is your chance to engage directly with a leader who has shattered glass ceilings in the world of professional sports. Following her insights, we'll open the floor for your questions in a dynamic Q&A session. A sit-down lunch will be provided for all registered participants of the SISO Women’s Leadership Forum.
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When we think about mentoring, we often think of more senior individuals imparting advice and knowledge to junior employees. However, reverse mentoring is where junior employees teach more senior leaders.
In this interactive session, you will learn how to create a reverse-mentoring program and the individual and organizational benefits. We will also explore the skills and capabilities that will enable both the junior mentor and the senior mentee to be more effective in learning from each other.
What did Gen Z think the very first time they stepped on a trade show floor? How do they like to be communicated with? How did they end up in the industry? How are they using AI? How can trade shows utilize social media more effectively? Hear from Gen Z panelists on a variety of topics.
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Beverages and desserts will be served in the back of the room.
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Senior leaders will be at each roundtable and ask participants about hot topics such as – what do they think is the future of trade shows? What do they think of the employee experience? Are we using data effectively at our shows? And many more! At the end, tables will share back some of their main takeaways from these valuable discussions.
Opening Night Reception & Dinner
📍 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
4750 W. 16th St., Indianapolis, IN 46222
📅 Tuesday, August 19
🕕 Reception begins at 6:00 PM
Kick off the week with an unforgettable evening at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, home to one of the world’s premier collections of racing artifacts and memorabilia, located inside the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Transportation Information
🚐 Shuttle Service (Round Trip)
Departure Times to the Museum
Return Shuttles to the Hyatt
🏨 Staying at Another Hotel?
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Join us as Visit Indy, the official destination marketing organization for Indianapolis, extends a warm welcome to SISO Leadership Conference attendees. Discover the spirit of Indy and what makes this vibrant city a premier destination for innovation, hospitality, and unforgettable experiences.
Data is only as powerful as the story it tells—but how do we translate numbers into insights that resonate across marketing, sales, and leadership teams? This session will focus on bridging the gap between raw data and strategic decision-making, equipping attendees with the tools to craft compelling narratives, ask the right questions, and connect the dots between insights and action. Through real-world examples taking the National Grocer Event challenge and outcomes, we’ll explore how to build confidence in data interpretation and foster collaboration that turns insights into business growth.
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The sales landscape is evolving at lightning speed, and Artificial Intelligence is at the heart of this transformation. In this dynamic session, we’ll explore the complete AI-powered sales journey—from the first prospecting email to closing the deal.
Discover how AI is revolutionizing each stage of the sales cycle. Learn how tools like Jasper can craft personalized, high-converting prospecting emails at scale, while platforms like Gong are being used to train teams with insights from real conversations. Explore how AI can automatically summarize meetings and surface action items, helping teams stay focused and aligned. We’ll also dive into how sales feedback loops, powered by AI, are driving product development decisions, and how platforms like Highspot are enabling reps to find, personalize, and share the right content at the right time.
Join us to see how sales leaders are using AI not just to improve productivity—but to win more deals, faster.
How should organizers think about leveraging AI to enrich the event experience?
Lunch & Learn: AI Working Groups
AI - exhibitor/sponsor
AI - attendee/ delegate
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In this candid 20-minute conversation, industry veterans Warwick Davies (The Event Mechanic!) and Paul Miller (CEO, Questex) unpack the real-world origin story of The Annabelle Project—a mentorship initiative that started with a personal mission and evolved into a model for leadership in action.
Whether or not your company has a formal diversity strategy, you likely have the resources, influence, and opportunity to shape the next generation of event professionals—and grow your business culture in the process. This session is not about compliance or checking boxes. It’s about practical leadership, how to back up good intentions with meaningful action, and why mentorship might be your most underleveraged asset.
Expect straight talk, real examples, and clear ideas you can bring home and implement—without a new budget or board resolution.
The amount of pessimism, uncertainty and disconnect employees are experiencing in the workplace is reaching critical levels, endangering employee well-being and undermining productivity, which can trigger symptoms of burnout and hurt your bottom line. We'll discuss key strategies we can use as leaders (and for ourselves) to help our teams avoid this.
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Data is only as powerful as the story it tells. But how do we translate numbers into insights that resonate across marketing, sales and leadership teams?
This session will focus on bridging the gap between raw data and strategic decision-making, equipping organisers with the tools to craft compelling narratives, ask the right questions and connect the dots between insights and action.
Real-world examples, like ITC Vegas, will illustrate how you can interpret data and foster collaboration, turning insights into business growth.
In an industry built on live, in-person experiences, trade show organizers face a distinct set of vulnerabilities that require proactive planning. This panel will explore practical, actionable strategies for developing emergency preparedness plans that prioritize safety, maintain continuity, and foster trust. Hear from industry leaders as they share how to:
· Develop comprehensive risk assessment frameworks
· Build effective crisis communication plans
· Enable real-time information sharing across internal and external stakeholders
Walk away with a better understanding of emergency preparedness – and the confidence to put effective plans into action in an ever-changing risk landscape.
And
Wednesday Night Reception
📍 Eiteljorg Museum, 500 W. Washington St.
📅 Wednesday, August 20
🕕 Reception starts at 6:00 PM
Celebrate with us at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, featuring world-class Native and Western art.
🌤️ Weather permitting, the event will take place outdoors on the museum’s scenic terrace with access to the 1st floor museum exhibits.
Transportation Options
🚶 Walk with Us
🚌 Shuttle Service
Attire
👕 Casual dress encouraged
🩳 Shorts welcome
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Event marketers are under more pressure than ever to prove their value and your event is part of that equation. If you want to grow your show, event organizers have to help exhibitors prove ROI. Trade shows are some of the most powerful marketing engines on the planet yet they’re often funded like a gamble. Why? Because proving ROI is harder than closing a sale on the show floor.
This panel pulls back the curtain on how the smartest organizers are changing that. Join industry leaders from EmeraldX, Cvent, and InGo as they reveal
If you want your next event to be the one your sponsors can’t afford to miss, you need to be in this room.
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Strong peer-to-peer connections are the foundation of our events, but how can we better facilitate, measure, and learn from the relationships we help create? This session will explore strategies for designing intentional networking experiences, leveraging technology to track engagement, and extracting insights that improve future connection-building efforts. From structured networking formats to real-time data tracking, attendees will gain actionable tactics to enhance peer-to-peer engagement and maximize event impact.
🍽 Lunch Options – Departure Day
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Tour the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium 🏈
Two venues, overseen by One board with 566,600 sq. ft. of contiguous exhibit space. From tradeshows and conventions to dirt bikes and concerts, walk behind the scenes to see how they make it happen.
Indiana Convention Center - from standard tradeshows to semi-truck driving championships, to firefighters with live fire drills and everything in between, let alone hosting the entirety of the NCAA Championships during COVID in a bubble.
Lucas Oil Stadium - from NFL Football games to loading tons of dirt for Motorcross Supercross, to building Olympic-sized pools for USA Olympic Swimming Trials and concerts galore.
Meet in the Sagamore Lobby.
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