Award Winning Event Strategist Driving Growth and Transformation For YOU | Plug-and-Play Project Manager | Technology Enthusiast | Always Curious

Shaping the Future of International Meetings | Collaborative Growth | Event Transformation

Curiosity - Innovation - Storytelling

As the Regional Director for North America at ICCA, I am passionate about driving growth and fostering collaboration within the global meetings and events industry. ICCA has stood at the forefront of shaping the future of international association meetings since 1963, and I'm honoured to be part of a team that champions innovation, sustainability, and advocacy on a global scale.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of strategizing, planning, and executing transformative events—from intimate gatherings to international conferences. My career has been built on an unwavering commitment to innovation, creative problem-solving, and a collaborative approach to ensure that every event exceeds expectations. Along the way, I've been fortunate to be recognized with honours such as "Planner of the Year" by Smart Meetings and a spot on the "40 Under 40" by Connect x BizBash.

But more than accolades, it's the connections I've built and the stories we've shaped together that truly inspire me. It was the Guinness World Record attempt to host the largest online event gathering, GMID Goes Virtual, in 2020, which connects almost all the industry associations across the globe. It was #EventprofsBreakShit that I co-founded in 2021, seeking an honest, authentic, but joyful way to explore event technology. 

These are the real rewards of our work, and they underscore the power of collaboration in our industry.

At ICCA, we're not just organizing meetings—we're creating spaces where ideas flourish, communities grow, and the future of our industry is redefined. I'd love to connect if you're interested in exploring how we can collaborate, build meaningful partnerships, or simply share ideas. Let's work together to amplify the value of international meetings and create sustainable, innovative solutions for the future.

Are you ready to shape the future of international association meetings? Let's connect and make an impact together.

Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng

Gleanin

Customer Advisory Board Member

Generate more attendees for your events with #CommunityMarketing from Gleanin. Sign up for a free account: https://www.gleanin.com/

Contact The Elderly

Contact the Elderly is a national charity and organises monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for people over 75 who live alone with little or no support from family and friends.

Richmond Co-Ordinator/Volunteer

Women in Exhibitions

Director

Eskenzi PR and Marketing

One of the best known high-tech public relations and digital marketing agencies in the UK and across Europe - Eskenzi is a prolific, adventurous, creative agency with a team of self-motivated, hugely energetic and creative thinkers who are driven to succeed for their clients.

Board Advisor

Reed Exhibitions

Responsible for a portfolio of events which at one time totalled 10 - all in the IT/Comms sector - including Infosecurity Europe and Storage Expo.

Group Events Director

Event Director for Infosecurity Europe, e-business Expo, e-commerce Expo

Event Director

Event Manager

Sales Manager

Elsevier

Worked for Elsevier Advanced Technology in Kidlington Office as Ad Manager on III-Vs Review

Ad Manager

CEO of Gleanin | We ❤️ events | We help event marketers get new attendees

Generate more attendees for your events with #CommunityMarketing from Gleanin. Sign up for a free account: https://www.gleanin.com/

15 years of event experience from individual project to portfolio management, which includes overall financial responsibility and management of sales, marketing, operations and finance. Also managed a number of launches and acquisitions (including due diligence and integration).

Specialties: Individual and team management; small to large-scale project management; financial management; strategic planning; negotiation (internal and external); key account/relationship management; creativity; trouble-shooting (teams, individuals or projects).

Tamar Beck

No-shows at free-to-attend events are, on average, 60%. 

Sixty bloody percent.

When I worked in trade shows, we'd call that a 40% pre-reg to attendee conversion rate. 

That's a lot of time and marketing budget wasted...... 

Demoralising for marketers and makes planning a nightmare.

Skift's Barbara Scofidio just published an article about how to build attendee commitment and it includes 10 smart strategies to get your registrants to show up. 

One of my favourite ideas (apart from No. 7 😉) is getting past attendees and new registrants into a Slack channel together before the event. 

Let the veterans talk up the event with the newbies, help build connections early, and make it social before it's even started.

I also loved the incentives for referrals idea (obviously). Offer a decent something to people who bring colleagues along. 

People are far less likely to bail if they've got their mates coming, and this is how you turn your attendees into an extension of your marketing team.

Surely it's easier to convert people who have already registered into committed attendees than it is to convert randoms into registrants?

Worth a read if you're interested in trying some new tactics: https://lnkd.in/edK6Shrw

OK, this is the last call....

Over 90 people are booked to attend, and there's just a handful of tickets left for what looks set to be the party of 2025 - The Event Tech Christmas Party!

A classy venue and an even classier set of sponsors (😜), you don't want to miss this shindig!

2nd December, 6pm–11pm

- Christmas buffet
- Welcome drink
- Private bar
- Views over the Thames
- Good conversation with GREAT people

A lovely way to wrap up the year, with laughter and a little festive chaos with friends and peers.

Grab yourself one of the last tickets (and see who else is going) here: https://lnkd.in/eDwdWxxi

Here’s a hard pill to swallow for event organisers…

👉 Nobody cares what you say about your event.

You’re probably the least trusted person to promote it. At least in the eyes of someone who has never attended before. That’s the harsh truth.

Sure, you might be the most talented copywriter in the industry. You might have the slickest promo video and the biggest ad budget.

But in a world drowning in digital SPAM, your self-promotion is often filtered out.

The decision to attend an event happens because someone they know, like, and trust signalled to them that it’s worth going.

– A social post they wrote.
– A comment they made in a thread.
– A post they put in a Slack community.

Whatever the action… it sounded authentic, it was their voice, and it was their decision to promote. Not yours as the event organiser.

It oozes TRUST. And trust is the most important currency in modern event promotion today.

It’s the only sustainable way to secure "net new" attendees.

The fresh faces who show up not because you targeted them, but because someone else vouched for your event.

And when that someone has influence, it compounds. It creates a flywheel.

Today, your event's success depends on who is willing to stake their reputation on recommending you.

We call it COMMUNITY MARKETING.

And, at Gleanin, we’re on a mission to build this new playbook of event promotion.

DM me if your marketing team wants to see more of what’s coming in 2026.

Who's joining Sasha Frieze and me at 2pm (UK) today?

Having got my hands on a pre-publication copy, I've read "The Chief Event Officer's Playbook" cover to cover, so I get to ask Sasha questions I think you'll care about.

Streaming on LinkedIn Live (via a new Goldcast feature 🤞) so Sasha can answer your questions in real time.

And I'm giving away 5 free copies to those who give us the best chat, so stick around to the end.

Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/epQsb8N7

Stop shouting.

☝️ Best advice for event organisers today.

Especially those screaming into the void filled with SPAM and AI slop.

Those net new attendees you want can’t see you. They can’t hear you. They simply ignore you.

Because the only people they listen to are those they know, like, and TRUST.

You can’t buy this trust with a bigger ad budget or by sending more emails. 

You've got to EARN it.

Word of mouth should be top of your priority list when it comes to event promotion.

5 marketing questions to think about…

1 - How are you activating WoM?
2 - What are you doing to encourage the community to talk about your event?
3 - How are you working with sources of influence?
4 - What are you doing to make it easy for speakers, attendees, and sponsors to spread your story?
5 - How are you standing out in a feed full of noise?

Trust is the rarest currency in marketing today. It doesn’t come from logos.... it comes from real people sharing real experiences.

That’s how you get those net new attendees.

It's budgeting time. And before you "AI transform" your event marketing team into oblivion...

Please call the best professional marketer you know and trust.... For objectivity, make sure it's not one on your payroll. Nor one with something to sell you. 

Someone who actually knows, ideally through professional training AND lived-experience, what good marketing is.... and isn't.

AI is a tool. A game-changing one and one that can make good people even more effective and productive. 

But it doesn't think.

It can help you draft copy, spot patterns, generate ideas. 

But it's never been a customer, an attendee, a marketer.

It's never felt trust erode. Never made a purchasing decision based on its gut or feared the consequences of getting things wrong.

Never felt a single feeling or emotion ever.

It'll have a good stab at telling you whether your positioning is dogsh*t or whether your messaging will resonate with actual humans, YOUR audience. 

It'll give a confident answer... But should you trust it with those big strategic decisions?

What if no-one left in your new skeleton, low cost, highly efficient marketing crew is qualified to know the difference?

Then..... AI transformation isn't going to be your only challenge.

A top class restaurant wouldn't fire its chef and replace them with someone who's really fast at Googling other people's recipes and using the microwave... 

Efficient? Yes. Effective? Absolutely not.. Watch that restaurant crash and burn.

And leaders assuming they can replace the people that do understand marketing principles with someone who's "good at ChatGPT" is just as crazy.

Think before you cut.

taplio

The Battle

Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng

Tamar Beck

Followers

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Performance ScoreTamar Beck's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng

Tamar Beck

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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);}Tamar Beck's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreTamar Beck's LinkedIn Performance