News

Join mdg at IAEE’s Expo! Expo! 2026

Senior vice president, digital Laura Davidson and group director, communications Sara Fellows will represent mdg in multiple sessions at IAEE’s Expo! Expo! 2026. Details can be found on the their website and below.

November 18, 2026 
Baird Center
Milwaukee, WI

Turning Creators Into Conversion Engines
Sara Fellows, mdg’s group director, communications and Jennifer Sloane, NAHB’s Assistance Vice President, Digital Development
Influencer marketing has become one of the most talked-about tactics in event marketing, but many show organizers are still asking the same question: how do we know if it actually worked? Using NAHB’s International Builders’ Show® as a real-world case study, Fellows and Sloane will break down how influencer strategy and onsite social media worked together to support attendee acquisition, build social proof and extend the energy of the show beyond the convention center. The session will focus on how creators were used before the event to generate interest and onsite to capture the experience in a way that felt impossible to ignore.

Agents That Actually Work: Inside RETCON’s Marketing Campaign
Laura Davidson, mdg’s senior vice president, digital and Brian Stephenson, Opus Origin’s Chief Marketing Officer
AI agents were supposed to transform how marketing teams work, but for many organizations the promised “AI magic” hasn’t quite materialized. Teams are using AI tools, but far fewer have embedded agents into the workflows where they can create meaningful business value. This practical session will show what operationalizing AI actually looks like through the lens of RETCON 2026. Davidson and Stephenson will share how AI-enabled and agent-led workflows supported the marketing program, from audience research and campaign planning through creative, activation, optimization and reporting and where human judgment remained essential. The real-world case delivered a 70% increase in paid attendance and 7.9% increase in total attendance vs. 2025, despite a shorter campaign cycle. The session will give marketers a tangible framework for deciding what to automate, what to augment and what should remain human. Attendees will leave with a practical way to audit their own marketing operation, identify their best first agent use case, estimate the capacity it could release and understand where human judgment should remain in the loop.

Beyond The Wow Factor: Designing Events Attendees Actually Want To Share
Ken Holsinger, Freeman’s Executive Vice President, Industry Research & Insights; Sara Fellows, mdg’s group director, communications; and Alex Judge Henry, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA)’s Senior Director, Marketing
Every event organizer wants to build the kind of experience people talk about long after they leave. Not just because it looked good, but because it felt important: the place where the industry showed up, the right conversations happened and the future of the market started to take shape. But that kind of relevance does not come from chasing trends or adding flashy activations. It has to be designed with intention and marketed in a way that helps people see why the experience matters. In this workshop, Holsinger, Fellows, and Henry will talk about how to build cool by design: using audience insight, event strategy and social storytelling to create experiences that feel worth the share.