Prestige AV & Creative Services

Prestige AV & Creative Services is a Cincinnati-based audio-visual rental, production, and creative service provider, producing experiences for live, virtual and hybrid events, corporate meetings, private parties, receptions, and fundraising events. 

I have been with Prestige in a sales management leadership role since 2013, when I was the sales manager. After four years, I was promoted to Director of Business Development in 2017 and then promoted to my current role less than a year later in 2018. In each role, I led a team of passionate sales and marketing professionals, ensuring they 

‣ Listen to the customer
‣ Put the customers’ needs first
‣ Create amazing customer experiences 

During this time, I:

‣ Successfully secured two major convention center contracts in new markets, valued at $10M.
‣ Efficiently led teams, raising contract renewals with venues from 50% to 90% in two years.
‣ Boosted revenue by $1M annually through the development of new markets.
‣ Improved company performance by launching a national marketing campaign.

Everything was great, but then COVID-19 happened. 

Business went from strong to scarce in a matter of weeks. As a result, layoffs occurred, and we were forced to change the way we looked at the event industry. 

Not knowing if things would ever go back to how it was, we reimagined what Prestige could become with a focus on virtual events, and planning for the eventual return of virtual and live events. 

It was a rough couple of quarters, but we came out on the other side. 

I am proud of my role as a guide in this evolution – a guide both for my company and for our clients. 

I helped Prestige find footing by reimagining the industry and how to approach it through amazing virtual and, eventually, hybrid events. With focus and determination, I was able to help Prestige regain its:

‣ Team members
‣ Customer Base
‣ Focus

Today, we are now stronger and more resilient than ever.

Let's connect >>  bmonahan at PrestigeAV dot com

Vice President of Sales and Business Development ► Event Producer  ► Live, Hybrid & Virtual Events

Director Of Business Development

I specialize in connecting meeting and event planners with the latest in AV technology to create memorable experiences.

I work with mid- to large-size associations, corporations and organizations to host first-class meetings, events, trade shows, conferences and conventions. 

And, with Prestige AV & Creative Services, meeting and event planners have a one-stop resource. We have a large inventory of the finest equipment. But what sets us apart is that we partner with our clients to determine what you really need to make your meeting or event successful.

To make it easy for you, Prestige does it all, including:

• AV planning and production
• Creative direction
• Project management
• In-house design, video and post-production
• Writing services
• Cost-effective budgeting

National Sales Manager

BRIAN MONAHAN

Owner & Founder ► Motivator & Inspirer ► Writer ► Speaker ► Connector

Are you living the life you dreamt about when you were younger, the life you want to live, the life of your dreams? 

If yes, congratulations, and keep at it! And if not, read on.

First, know you are not alone. Too many people feel stuck where they are and aren’t sure of the steps to take to get to a place they want to be. And that’s where I can help.

I’ve always had a passion for living an authentic life and helping others do the same. 

My 20+ years in the events industry have provided the opportunity to watch and absorb the words and perspectives of the thousands of speakers I helped support. 

Those presentations shaped my thinking, my actions, and my motivation. Each helped me realize that I don’t have time to live small, and that I have a drive to do more. I found the courage to act and unleash my passion, and now, I want to help others do the same. 

Through keynote speeches, articles and books, team training, and one-on-one sessions, I am building a foundation to help you live bigger. 

While your approach may look different than someone else’s, that’s OK because there is no one size fits all solution. One thing that rings true across the board, however, is that it’s not easy and can be scary. But the result is worth it. 

If you are ready to act, let’s talk. 

Let’s also talk if: 

‣ You are in the events industry and looking to do more with your life
‣ You are in any industry and want to take charge of your life
‣ You are looking for a keynote speaker on leadership 
 
Please feel free to reach out to me or email me at 
Brian at BrianMonahan dot me

Personal / Small Business Coach

ITA AudioVisual

Responsibilities included leading the company’s senior directors; purchasing; capital expenditures; recruiting staff; inventory management/control; preparing the company for major software upgrade. 

Created training platform for mentoring and training ITA’s regional managers and frontline employees across 30+ locations.

Assistant General Manager

Director of Business Development/Senior Project Manager – Director of Audio Visual Sales & Operations 

Responsibilities included: operations manager; account management; new business development; execution and planning AV for meetings and events for 10-5000 attendees; creating content for events; marketing support

Director of Business Development

United States Marine Corp

-Leader of Marines
-Oversaw Audio Visual Library for Recruit Training Base
-Manager Commanding Generals Board Room
-Managed Recruit Training Cable Broadcast Library and Scheduling
-Managed Repair and Maintenance Division

Audio Visual Specialist

545/730 🎤 #Eventprof by Day 📘 Book Writing Coach by Passion 🎸 Air Guitarist

Are you following your passion? Are you taking action every day to unleash it? Most people believe passion precedes action, but I believe it’s the other way around. To find your passion, you must act first, but sometimes taking the first step is difficult. 

I help those who want to take that first step. 

Being in the event industry for the past 20 years, I’ve had amazing access to authors, speakers and world dignitaries. True, my job is to ensure their presentations go off without a hitch, but it also provides the opportunity to watch and absorb every single one of those motivation speakers I helped support. 

Those presentations helped shape my thinking, my actions and my motivation. Each has helped me realize that I don’t have time to live small, and that I have a drive to do more. Each has helped me find the courage to take action, unleash my passion and I want to help others do the same. 

This revelation is nothing new, actually. I’ve always been interested in personal and professional development and have taken small steps to support that interest. In doing so, I have found my stage as an author of a book and as a speaker at numerous conferences. 

Now, as I continue to support my corporate clients with Prestige, I also work with those who are looking to find and embrace their stage. 

Do you have a calling to write a book, become a speaker or rise to the top of your profession? If so, let’s talk. 

I help my clients own their life and their brand through whatever stage they prefer to be on. 

After all, life is too short to not do what you feel you’ve been called to do. It may be scary to take those first steps, but it’s worth it to live an amazing life and you deserve it. 

However, I understand it may be daunting to take those first steps onto your stage alone. Let me be your guide by providing you with the motivation you need to act so your passions will follow. 

Please feel free to reach out to me here or email me at  
Brian at BrianMonahan Dot Me . 

I look forward to connecting.

Brian Monahan

I was the kid who climbed a 30 ft tall oak tree on a Romanian hillside to glimpse a wider horizon, then hustled before sunrise for bread rations during Communism, and walked cows to pasture—lessons in grit I didn’t yet have words for.  A crackling radio mic lit the next spark, steering me into sound engineering and, eventually, across the Atlantic. 

Years of coiling cables, calling shows, and now becoming an AI expert, I’ve blended those roots into one mission: 
>> give events the clarity, creativity, and tech horsepower they need to move people.

Having created a name and brand for myself, I’m a partnership strategist, an AV production expert, AI strategist and implementer, a 5x bodybuilding champion, a Technical Director and Showcaller—and a soon-to-be author, telling the story of what it really takes to lift both the gear and the industry, while staying grounded in purpose and vision. 

I am also the creator, producer and host of Events: Demystified, a podcast show that became a platform, a brand in itself, and a trusted voice in the event industry, which opened the door to speaking at global events, leading over 100 AI workshops, and helping teams stop fearing technology, and start using it with confidence.

With over 20 years in technical event productions and technology, I’ve wore just about every hat and been hands-on on every tech role behind the scenes. From mixing FOH for A-listers and celebrities, to building and running vMix broadcasts, from show calling to stage managing stadium-sized shows. And from there I've built Tree-Fan Events Productions into a woman-owned and operated production agency focused on AV and AI-driven solutions. 

On the outside, I may not look like your typical event professional—and I don't try nor don’t need to.

I bring a unique edge to this industry. Years of radio and live events production. A deep understanding of AV and AI. Real experience leading under pressure. And the discipline of competitive bodybuilding, where showing up strong—mentally, physically, and emotionally—is non-negotiable. 

I created the #FIT4EVENTS™️ framework because high performance should include the whole person, authentically showing up in every room, pushing boundaries, heavy weights and lifting others in the process.

So, if you're my kind of people, let’s connect. 

🏆 AWARDS:

2025 Top 13 LinkedIn Influencers in Events
2024 Top Voice In Events To Pay Attention 
2024 Best of Stage Speaker Award
2024 Smart Woman in Meetings and Events
2023 Catalyst Quantum Leap Award
2022 “40 under 40” BizBash & Connect
2021 #WomenToWatch – MeetingsToday

Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, DES, WMEP

For years, I chased performance the way many of us do. More work. More events. More stages. More reps. Bodybuilding taught me something the event industry never spelled out: you cannot separate output from recovery. 

You cannot demand elite performance from a depleted system. 
Lean muscle mass does not grow under chaos. 
It grows under disciplined stress and intentional restoration.

That philosophy became #fit4events ™️. Mental fitness. Physical fitness. Emotional regulation. Strategic execution. Not as a wellness trend, but as a leadership standard.

I’m honored to be speaking at the WICxWellness Summit 2026, a global gathering focused on helping leaders build capacity, not just careers.

I’ll be sharing how high performers can design sustainable excellence, integrating nervous system regulation, disciplined execution, and long-term resilience into the way they lead and build.

If you care about performing at your highest level without burning out in the process, this room will matter. Link to join us in the comments below. 

Will we see you there?

Other amazing speakers joining this conversation. Jennifer Brown Chelsey Galipeau PA-C Chaitra Vedullapalli Karen Fassio Clara Schroeder Dr. Linda Bing, PhD, CDE, CRS (she/her/hers) Sheena Yap Chan Megan Copelin Scilla Andreen Nancy Watt 

#WICxWellness #WomenInCloud #LeadershipPreparedness #fit4events™️  #ExecutiveWellness #SustainableLeadership #TheDisciplinedAdvantage Women in Cloud

Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, WMEP

I help leadership teams reduce cognitive load, regain clarity, and design AI-powered systems that support real decision-making under pressure. Mental bandwidth in a world that is eating it alive. #fit4events™️

We say we want better trade shows. But most of them still feel like fluorescent mazes filled with tired booths and polite small talk. This Friday’s episode of Events: demystified Podcast is different.

Recorded live at GO WEST® Live in Edmonton, I sat down with Arthur Kerekes and Evan Babins right after the show to unpack what actually worked.

Here’s the line that stuck:
“We’re not just walking around. We’re trying to generate real business.”

That’s the shift. 

When the trade show floor becomes a vibe. When food, lounges, education, and activations are integrated instead of scattered. When vendors are engaged. When attendees feel like they can actually close conversations, not just collect tote bags.

Arthur calls it what it is: we need trade showing that feels alive.
And Evan’s hot take? It’s the people.
Not the LED wall. Not the stage design. The people who show up ready to connect, collaborate, and move the industry forward.

In this episode we break down:
• Why a 600-person show felt stronger than many mega-events
• The real business case behind intentional trade show design
• Programming that respects energy instead of draining it
• What North America’s larger conferences can learn from this format

Full episode drops this Friday on our Youtube channel, plus Spotify. If you plan events, sponsor them, speak at them, or invest in them… this one is for you.

March 8 has always meant something special to me. Around the world, it is celebrated as International Women’s Day. A moment to recognize women shaping industries, communities, and the next generation of leaders. #IWD26

But where I grew up, in Romania, March 8 was also Mother’s Day.

As children, we would bring flowers to our mothers and grandmothers. Small bouquets, handmade cards, simple gestures that carried a lot of love. It was less about grand declarations and more about gratitude for the women who held families together with quiet strength.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to see how beautifully those two meanings connect. Because motherhood is not only about raising children. It’s about nurturing life, protecting what matters, guiding others, and holding space for growth. Some women do this through their children. Others do it through mentorship, leadership, creativity, or the communities they build around them.

The world often celebrates women for what they achieve. Romania’s tradition reminds me to also celebrate women for what they sustain.
The care.
The resilience.
The ability to keep showing up for others even when life is complicated.

So today I’m thinking about the women who shaped me, the women walking beside me, and the next generation of girls growing into their own strength.

La mulți ani de 8 Martie.

If you’d like to continue this reflection, I invite you to watch the raw, honest conversation Cindi Cohn and I recorded for International Women’s Day. We talk about leadership, motherhood, resilience, and what it really means to keep growing as women through every stage of life. Link below.

This week I was reminded, again, of a quiet tension in our industry. I was invited to host a webinar and encouraged to submit again for next year’s conference. When I asked about compensation, the response was simple: 

“We’re a nonprofit. We can’t pay speakers.” 
No hostility. No bad intent. Just a structural gap.

Here is the reality.

For many of us, speaking is not a hobby. It is not a marketing line item. It is our profession. It funds our businesses. It pays mortgages. It supports families. Preparation, customization, research, delivery, and follow up are real work.

Nonprofit does not automatically mean no budget. 
It means different funding structures. 
That distinction matters.

This is exactly why the Speaker Collective exists. We are bringing speakers and event organizers into the same conversation to address this industry wide disconnect. Not to complain. To build workable models.

We have already worked with nonprofit organizers to explore alternatives:

➢ Sponsor underwritten education
➢ Strategic partnerships aligned with content
➢ Revenue share formats
➢ Clear scope and expectation alignment before confirmation

There are solutions. 
But they require transparency early, not after invitations go out.

Too often, organizers assume speakers will donate expertise.
Too often, speakers assume compensation is implied. 
The misunderstanding lives in that gap.

Fair compensation and strong education are aligned interests. Quality content strengthens events. Strong events attract sponsors. Sponsors fund programming. Sustainable models benefit both sides.

The Speaker Collective poll on compensation, scope clarity, and funding models is still open. Link in the comments (so LI does not kill the post again)

➢ If you are an organizer, your input matters.
➢ If you are a speaker, your input matters.

We need both perspectives if we want to solve this at an industry level.

This is not about one email. It is about building structures where education is valued, expectations are clear, and partnerships are sustainable. The conversation is happening. Join it. #SpeakerCollective

We are developing industry standards for speaker scope, compensation, and collaboration. Take the Industry Survey. Share your input.

After three Speaker Collective Think Tank sessions, one theme is consistent: the events ecosystem lacks clear, shared definitions around workload, preparation, budgeting, and value alignment. Speakers and planners are often operating with different assumptions, which creates friction on both sides.

Our Speaker Collective is now drafting Version 1.0 of the Speaker Value and Partnership Framework. To ensure it reflects reality, we are gathering structured input from speakers, event organizers, agencies, and education committees. The survey takes under two minutes.

https://lnkd.in/g63VmmdF

If you participate in programming decisions or deliver educational content at events, your perspective is essential to building practical, sustainable standards. Thank you for your collaboration. #speakers #eventorganizers

Today’s virtual event produced by Women in Cloud was a powerful reminder of what honest leadership sounds like. Scilla and Clara and myself did not offer polished soundbites. 

We shared real stories, the kind that come with trade-offs, boundaries, recalibration, and hard-earned clarity. We talked about caretaking without collapse. About what it actually costs to be the strong one. About the invisible load women leaders carry while still delivering at a high level.

What stood out most was this:
    Strength is not silent endurance. It is structured capacity.
    Scilla spoke about protecting focus in high-growth environments without disconnecting from humanity, while putting her 'cape' in the drawer, to rest. 
    Clara shared practical strategies for leading through complexity without absorbing everything around you.

The common thread was clear. Organization and systems over survival mode. Clarity over over-functioning. Boundaries that protect long-term impact.

These conversations matter. Especially in rooms where women are expected to carry more while showing less strain. Grateful to Women in Cloud for creating space for real dialogue. And grateful to share the stage with leaders who are redefining strength with intelligence, not just intensity.

If you attended, I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway. #fit4events

Sleep, Stress, and the Scale: Why Your Weight Is Not Just About Calories. As a bodybuilding athlete, I track sleep, HRV, resting heart rate, training load, and scale weight daily.


There is a consistent pattern:

When sleep improves, HRV stabilizes, resting heart rate drops, stress decreases, and within 24–48 hours, the scale trends down.

The pattern aligns with physiology.

Here is what the research shows and how it applies beyond bodybuilding.



1. Sleep influences what kind of weight you lose.

In a controlled study (Nedeltcheva et al., 2010), participants dieting on identical calories lost over 50 percent more fat when sleeping 8.5 hours compared to 5.5. With shorter sleep, a greater proportion of weight loss came from lean mass.

In a calorie deficit, sleep affects body composition quality.


2. Sleep alters hunger regulation.

Spiegel et al., 2004 showed that short sleep reduced leptin and increased ghrelin, increasing hunger and preference for calorie-dense foods.

Biology shifts. Appetite rises. Adherence becomes harder.


3. Sleep impacts metabolic regulation.

Sleep restriction reduces insulin sensitivity by roughly 30 percent (Buxton et al., 2010). It also elevates evening cortisol (Leproult et al., 1997).

Elevated cortisol promotes sodium and fluid retention. The scale can move 1–3 pounds without meaningful fat gain.

Fat mass changes gradually. Fluid shifts happen quickly.



‼️ Why This Matters for High Performers

If you train hard, travel often, lead teams, or operate under sustained cognitive load, nervous system demand remains high.

When sleep drops, stress chemistry rises. When stress chemistry rises, scale weight can increase even when nutrition is stable.

The common reaction is to cut calories or add cardio.

Often the more effective lever is recovery.

When the scale moves up, I review:

• Sleep duration
• HRV trend
• Resting heart rate
• Illness or travel stress

If those markers are off, I prioritize recovery before adjusting food.

Over time, the data is consistent.

The scale reflects stress load before long-term fat change.

Sleep regulates that stress load.

For body composition, cognitive clarity, and leadership performance, sleep functions as a performance variable.

---
Follow #fit4events™ Fit Mindful Mavens for more lived and tested performance strategies.

You know what’s dangerous? Going to the same events. In the same city. With the same people. Year after year.


You know everyone.
You know the players.
You know the rhythm.
And slowly… growth stalls.

This episode of Events: demystified Podcast that just dropped today, is a live conversation with Arthur Kerekes and Evan Babins recorded at GO WEST® Live in Edmonton, has one theme coming up:

Real networking doesn’t happen on stage.
It happens in hallway conversations.
In walking from the convention center to the hotel.
In being introduced to people you would never meet in your own market.

Evan talks about using his “keys to the west” to unlock new relationships.
Arthur makes the case for coming north:
Canada is hospitable.
The supplier ecosystem is strong.
The innovation mindset is real.
And yes… the exchange rate can work in your favor. Unless you’re the speaker billing in USD like I was. Then you feel it the other way around.

If you’re an event professional who feels stuck in a loop of familiar faces and predictable outcomes, this episode is a reminder:
New geography changes your thinking.
New rooms create new deals.
New conversations shift your trajectory.

The episode is now live now on our YouTube channel, on our website, on Spotify, and all the other places you consume podcasts on. Tune in if you care about where this industry is going and who you’re building it with, go listen.

Train to failure. That phrase built my body. It also rebuilt my life. And that got me thinking about this whole AI clone idea.


In bodybuilding, you do not grow from the easy reps. You grow from the rep that shakes, the rep that slows, the rep where your nervous system is screaming and your form is still clean. Failure is not collapse. It is data.

Every set to failure teaches you exactly where the edge is.
And that got me thinking about this whole AI clone idea.

Everyone wants to clone the winners. The billionaire investor. The tech founder. The polished success story with the clean narrative arc. But in the gym, I do not study the highlight reel. I study breakdown points.

Where did the form go?
Where did fatigue override discipline?
Where did ego take over execution?
That is where the real lesson lives.

If I could clone anything, I would clone failure patterns.

My parents’ mistakes.
My own blind spots.
The seasons where I overtrained.
The years I undercharged.
The relationships I mishandled because I was operating in survival mode.

Not to shame them. Not to shame myself.
To extract pattern recognition.

In the gym, progressive overload is intentional. You push slightly beyond capacity, recover, rebuild stronger tissue. In life, most people repeat overload without reflection. Same stress pattern. Same decision loop. Same outcome.

What if we could “train to failure” mentally the same way we do physically?
What if my kids could stress-test decisions against an honest archive of where I misjudged risk, tolerated too little, tolerated too much, trusted too fast, stayed too long?

Not a clone of my success.
A clone of my miscalculations.

Because the truth is, most growth did not come from the wins.
It came from the rep that almost crushed me but did not.

Bodybuilding taught me something simple: failure is feedback, not identity.
And if AI is going to scale anything, I hope it scales the unfiltered lessons from people who tried, missed, recalibrated, and went back under the bar.

That is the knowledge I would actually pay for.
Not how to look strong. How to become it.


👇 If you could clone one category of your life to learn from, would you choose your victories or your failures, and why?

The younger I get, the less I care about theatrics and trying to impress anyone. As great as this platform can be, it is also filled with bragging, polished narratives, and carefully curated success stories. This is not one of them.


This Friday, March 6th, Cindi and I are going live for International Women’s Day, to host a real conversation about the year that brought us here.

For the past five years we’ve hosted International Women’s Day live streams with incredible women across events, technology, leadership, and business. 

Those conversations were important. They created space to talk about gender equality, mentorship, and the realities women face in leadership.

This year we’re doing something simpler.

It’s just the two of us reflecting on the quieter parts of the journey that rarely make it into highlight reels. The parts where community building can feel lonely. Where ambition comes with a cost. Where priorities shift and the definition of progress changes.

The truth is that growth rarely looks polished in the middle of it. 
- Sometimes it looks like rebuilding. 
- Sometimes it looks like starting over. 
- Sometimes it looks like learning something new and realizing how much you still have to learn.

So instead of a panel and a polished script, we’re opening the door to an honest conversation, because the real story of progress is not the highlight reel, it’s the lived experience in between. 

If you’re around tomorrow afternoon, join us live.

We'll be streaming on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.  See you there.

Welcome to the 5th Annual Event for #IWD that Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, WMEP and I host annually.🎉

2022 was about gender equality and industry gaps
2023 was about women elevating women
2024 was about high-achieving women struggling too
2025 was structured, polished, panel-driven, strategic

This year?
Strip it down.
No panel.
No performance.
No polished talking points.
Just two chairs. 🪑🪑
Raw. Unfiltered. 
Honest conversation.☑️


Not all is great.
Not all is lost either.

That’s the theme.


We hope you will join us tomorrow, Friday at 3pm ET. Sign up below!!

https://lnkd.in/evn469wb

p.s. Please check✅ on 3 people today!!! XO

A couple of years ago I went to the team at Olympian Meeting with a simple idea: our industry has awards for creativity, technology, production excellence, but we did not have any awards to recognize wellness inside events. And that gap felt strange.

Because the reality is this: events are powered by people. The audience. The planners. The production crews. The speakers. The teams working long days behind the scenes to make everything happen.

If the humans behind the experience are exhausted, overwhelmed, or running on empty, the event feels it. So the idea was simple.

Create an awards program that recognizes the people and organizations intentionally designing events that support human performance, wellbeing, and sustainability inside the event experience itself.

That conversation became the Olympian Wellness Awards, created in partnership between Olympian Meeting ™️ and #fit4events™ Fit Mindful Mavens.

Today we announced the 2025 winners, 
and I want to take a moment to congratulate every one of them.

These professionals are proving that wellness in events is not about spa activations or feel-good programming, it is about thoughtful design and responsible leadership, that shows up in agenda architecture that protects cognitive energy, movement integrated throughout the experience, nutrition that fuels focus, spaces designed for comfort and connection, a production cultures that support the crews running the show.

In other words, wellness embedded into how events actually work.

The industry is evolving quickly. 
Technology is accelerating. 
Experiences are becoming more complex. 
Expectations keep rising.

The teams who will lead the next era of events are the ones who understand that human capacity is the real infrastructure behind every gathering. That is what these awards aim to recognize.

To the 2025 Olympian Wellness Award winners: congratulations. 

Your peers see the work you are doing, and the standard you are helping set for the future of events. And to the rest of the industry, the message is simple: wellness is not a side conversation anymore, it is part of how great events are designed.

Take a moment to recognize and congratulate the 2025 winners, link below.
Stay #fit4events™

This past Thursday, I delivered a session titled “AI That Works With You.” for the Event Professionals Network, The core message was simple: AI should not make events work harder. It should make them smarter.

If your workflow feels more chaotic after introducing AI, 
then AI is not the problem. Your structure is.

We reframed the conversation from tools to leverage.
An AI chatbot is not a strategy. Shortening your intelligence cycle is.

Instead of using AI to generate session titles, I walked through how to use it to define discovery dimensions before you design the agenda. 

Most events are still built on educated guessing.
   We assume why people attend.
   We assume what sponsors want.
   We assume what content will land.
That is expensive guessing.

When you cluster attendee objectives early and design around buying intent, you are no longer “adding AI.” You are informing revenue design.

During the event, we moved beyond surface metrics. Batch scans and app clicks tell you something happened. They do not tell you how it landed.

What matters is the human signal: energy, attention, cognitive load. We looked at how energy curves paired with transcripts create a feedback loop. 

Post event, we challenged satisfaction scores as the primary measure.        
  Attendees are evaluating return on attendance.
  Sponsors are evaluating return on investment.
  Leadership is evaluating budget justification.
Reporting must evolve.

And we widened the lens even further. If we are serious about AI as strategy, we must measure system impact, not just audience reaction.

AI has accelerated decision cycles. 
The real question is whether it has reduced strain or compressed it.

The strongest line from the session that I stand by:
AI fluency is not knowing every tool on the market. 
It is knowing where leverage lives.

To everyone who joined live, asked sharp questions, and leaned into the uncomfortable parts of this conversation, thank you.

AI that works sharpens systems and thinking. If it does not reduce chaos and increase clarity, it does not belong in your workflow. #AISpeaker

Thank you Lisa Gregory and the EPN team for having me.
---
PS: If your idea of an AI talk involves fewer buzzwords and more actual building, congratulations, you found your speaker. Let's connect. https://lnkd.in/gE_p3VW5

Honored to be featured in the latest issue of Bold Journey Magazine. We talked about what it actually feels like to be the only woman in the room for most of your career. Not the polished version. The real one. 

Control rooms at midnight. High-stakes shows. 
Earning authority through competence before anything else.
We also went deeper.
On grit that is built quietly.
On resilience that starts with nervous system control.
On why AI will magnify broken systems before it ever improves them.
On how bodybuilding shaped my leadership philosophy more than any boardroom ever did.
And on training for my first Ironman 70.3 when swimming is the one thing I genuinely struggle with.

The thread through all of it is simple: capacity is engineered. 
It does not appear by accident. 
Whether in business, on stage, in the gym, or in open water.

If you are navigating rooms where you are underestimated, or building systems that need to hold under pressure, this one is for you.

Read the full feature here:
https://lnkd.in/gfstX4Zq

Curious what resonated most with you.

IWD26 LIVE: Why authenticity and vulnerability save lives. Full On Demand on our YouTube Page Now.

The Pentagon blacklisted an AI company for refusing to build autonomous weapons. Jack Dorsey fired half his workforce and replaced them with AI agents, and OpenAI closed the largest private funding round in history at $110 billion. Here's everything #AInews this week, and why it matters.

The last week of February 2026 was AI's most consequential yet. The federal government blacklisted Anthropic after the company refused to remove safeg

Open article: The Blacklist, the Bloodbath, and the Blank Check: AI's Most Consequential Week Yet by Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, WMEP • 14 min read

The Blacklist, the Bloodbath, and the Blank Check: AI's Most Consequential Week Yet

Every year for International Women’s Day, Cindi and I host a live conversation centered around leadership, resilience, and women rising in their industries. We’ve brought together panels of powerful voices and explored everything from gender equity in events to vulnerability, burnout, and redefining strength.

This year, we’re doing it differently. We’re not doing a panel this year, and we’re not pretending it was a perfect year either. It’s just the two of us in a candid, grounded conversation about what this past year demanded, how it reshaped us, and what strength looks like when it evolves.

We’ll talk about recalibration, identity beyond achievement, joy without performance, and ambition that requires boundaries.

Not everything was great. Not everything was loss either.

If this year changed you in ways you’re still integrating, this space is for you.

Join us for an honest International Women’s Day conversation.

Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://lnkd.in/gD3GjGPK

Deci Evans, Julia Nigro and 26 other attendees

#IWD26: Not All Is Great. Not All Is Lost.

Event teams operate in compressed time, high stakes, and constant decision loops. We measure registration numbers. We measure revenue. We measure engagement scores.

Yet we do not measure what peak production cycles are doing to the humans running them. So I’m changing that.

I’m running a short resilience and AI workload study during an upcoming event cycle.

It’s simple:
A 1-minute survey. 
  Taken three times.
      Pre-event.
      Peak week.
      Post-event.
We’re measuring:
  Stress
  Mental intensity
  Recovery
  Sleep
  AI-driven decision load.

AI has accelerated workflows.
More output. Faster turnaround. Higher expectations.
But has it reduced strain… or just compressed it? 

This study isn’t about performance evaluation. It’s about system impact.

If we want sustainable careers in event production, we need real data about human capacity under pressure.

Responses are anonymous. Participants receive aggregated findings. If you’re leading or working on a high-pressure event and want to participate, comment “STUDY” or message me. 

Let’s start measuring what actually matters.

This week I’m joining the Event Professionals Network to talk about something our industry desperately needs right now: AI that actually works in the real world.

After three plus years pressure-testing AI inside live event environments, tight timelines, shifting requirements, real consequences, I’ve learned that the biggest wins don’t come from learning more tools. They come from changing the way we think about the work itself.

Most event pros are drowning not because they’re slow, but because their time is being consumed by the wrong tasks. AI can fix that. but only if we use it intentionally.

In this 15‑minute session, I’m sharing the mindset shift that separates teams who get real leverage from AI from those who stay stuck in “busy.” It’s simple, it’s counterintuitive, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

If you’re ready to reclaim mental bandwidth, reduce cognitive load, and build systems that support real decision-making under pressure, join me.

February 26, 2026; 9:25 AM PT - link in the comments #AIspeaker
---
👋 Hi, I’m Anca. I help teams harness AI for smarter workflows, stronger content, and better decisions without the overwhelm or the buzzwords. I offer one-on-one consultations, bespoke AI workshops, and keynote sessions. I also offer tiered consultation packages so your team stays ahead without wasting hours chasing trends. 📩 DM me for pricing.

#EventProfs #AIinEvents #Leadership #FutureOfWork #fit4events

People are still arguing ChatGPT vs. Gemini vs Perplexity. Meanwhile, the real shift is happening in the layer beneath them. The interesting work is in specialized AI tools that remove friction from specific workflows. 

Not general chat. Not generic prompts. Actual execution.

Here are three worth paying attention to:

1. Nano Banana
This one quietly changes the creative workflow. It lives inside Gemini and allows detailed image generation and editing with far more control than earlier tools. The real value is not just generating images. It is refining them without bouncing between five platforms.

For event pros, marketers, speakers, and founders, this means faster visual iteration. Social graphics, concept visuals, mockups, even creative direction drafts can be shaped quickly without waiting on a full design cycle.
Speed without losing creative control.

2. MailTester
Most people use AI to write emails. Few use AI to improve performance.
MailTester analyzes your newsletters and campaigns and gives structured feedback on engagement, clarity, deliverability, and conversion potential. That is where the leverage is. AI that edits your thinking is more valuable than AI that writes your first draft.

If you run events, sell workshops, launch cohorts, or promote speaking engagements, this is about ROI, not copy.

3. Instruct AI
This is where automation gets interesting. Instead of building complicated workflows in Make or Zapier, you describe what you want automated. The tool translates that into execution. The shift here is prompt-driven orchestration. The barrier to automation is dropping. Leaders no longer need to become no-code engineers to reduce repetitive work.

And that matters.
Because the future is not about who knows the most AI tools.
It is about who removes the most friction from their operating system.


AI maturity is moving from novelty to precision.
    Image refinement.
    Conversion optimization.
    Workflow automation.
Not louder tools. Smarter integration.

If AI is not reducing cognitive load or increasing measurable output, it is noise. Curious which of these you would actually plug into your current workflow? And more importantly, what are they optimizing toward?

Faster visuals.
 Higher email conversion.
 Smarter automation.
All useful.

But if you cannot clearly define what “return” means across your event lifecycle, you are just accelerating activity. That is where most teams stall.

---
If this resonates, the next step is not another dashboard or another tool. It is clarity. Before building anything, you need to define what “return” actually means for your event, audit the data you already collect, and identify where your reporting logic breaks down.

That is exactly what we do inside the 30-Minute ROA Strategy Diagnostic.
If you are serious about moving from activity metrics to Return on Attendance intelligence, schedule your diagnostic session. Link below.

From founder to CEO: delegate and take risks - There are a lot of people who call themselves CEO. 

There are fewer who evolve into it. 23 years in business. Multiple reinventions. What stood out to me most in this conversation: Cindy didn’t start Red Velvet to build an empire.  She started it because she got rejected. She scaled fast. She bought a fabrication company and admitted openly she didn’t know how to manage blue-collar operations yet.  That honesty matters.

We also talk about:

• Over-communication as culture strategy
• The friction that comes with generational and operational gaps
• The difference between president and CEO
• Letting employees leave and still cheering for them
• Why most leaders underestimate the emotional cost of scale

This is a real conversation about ownership, pressure, and growth. Tune into the full conversation on our website.

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Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, DES, WMEP

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The Battle

Brian Monahan

Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, DES, WMEP

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Anca Platon Trifan, CMP, DES, WMEP's LinkedIn Performance

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