The First 52 Dossiers: The Ongoing List of The People Building the Gathering Economy

I love writing these because a profile lets you get to know the people in our industry in a way a badge or a LinkedIn headline never will: how they got here, what they got wrong along the way, and what they are building now. Every profile also carries two things I can’t help adding. The first is what I would serve if I threw a party in that person’s honor, and the second is a song that captures who they are.

This is only the beginning, and I am always looking for people to profile, so send me your suggestions at David@gatheringpoint.news. I am also experimenting right now with formats, techniques and unique story ideas like the history of event fashion and the 50 Biggest Flops in Event History, so this is a good moment to subscribe at GatheringPoint.news/subscribe and watch the work and our business evolve in real time.

Scan the list below and see who you may have missed. These are the first 52 of my Wisdom Bank profiles, and the full collection lives in two places: on GatheringPoint.news here on Substack, and at smallbitearchitecture.com. Also check out the reference library for the gathering industries. Gatheringarchictecture.com and my fun new project in the works Satiricalswag.com. If you want to see the actual wisdom bank, check this out.

WEEKEND WISDOM BANK: Carina Bauer

Janet Dell: Freeman Builds Worlds

Julius Solaris: The American Dream, Italian Style

Joyce Leveston: The Woman Who Knew Every Phone Number in the Building

The Wisdom Bank: What Is Club Ichi—and Who Is Liz Lathan?

Amy Calvert and the Board That Is Dragging the Events Industry Into Tomorrow

Jaclyn Bernstein: a Destination Management Company in NYC: She Doesn’t Just Plan Events, She Makes It Feel Like Home

Ben Erwin: The Voice of God’s Boss

Lea Karam, Brands & the Science of Connections

Mark Brewster Wants the Events Industry to Write the Survey First

How Jacob Cohen Donnelly is Building a Love Brand For Media Operators

Convene Hospitality Group’s Ryan Simonetti Is Redefining Where the World Meets

Howard Givner: The New Mayor of the Event Agency World?

Martha Donato Builds the Town, Then She Runs It

Event Design Guru Bryan Rafanelli Takes Events to a New Level

Marco Giberti and the Gathering That Funds

Femi Oke and the Case for the Professional Moderator

Belonging by Design: Andrew Roby and the False Divide Inside the Event Industry

Paul Miller and The Business of Information Flow

Iain Morrison and the Invisible Architecture of Events

Why Mike Duignan Built the Centre for Events & Festivals—and his latest gift for event pros

Sam Lippman and the Rooms Where the Exhibition Industry Talks to Itself

Richard Attias Builds Bridges

Liz Irving: Steadiness in the Age of Convergence

James Lancaster and the Rules of Engagement

Monique Ruff-Bell:TED’s Empress of Engagement

Michael Barnett and the Architecture of Being Seen

Greg Topalian and the Long Game of Instinct

Michelle Mason: ASAE’s Gatherer of the Gatherers

Carl Winston and the Discipline of Building Something That Wasn’t Supposed to Matter

Wired for Wonder: Dahlia El Gazzar and the Gospel of Curiosity

Adam Parry, Event Industry News Co-Founder, and the Quiet Reordering of the Events World

Nicole Peck: The General of Warmth

David Allison and the New Values of Events

Hervé Sedky — Leading the Events Industry’s Rarest Gem

The Facilitator Whisperer: Why Adrian Segar May Be the Most Important Event Designer You’ve Never Heard Of

Doug Emslie — The Marathoner of Modern Exhibitions

Laurie Kirby Built the Room Where Festival Creators Go to Think

Don Welsh: The Coach and "Showman" in Chief

An Event Empire in Formation: Heather Holst-Knudsen and the Art of Reinvention

The Archaeologist of Place: Vic Isley and the New Power of Destination Leadership

Miguel Neves, Editor-in-Chief of Skift Meetings, is here to listen, question, and disrupt the industry’s mirror maze.

Colja Dams: Still Making Magic

David Landgraf: The Quiet Architect of Gatherings

Michelle Russell: The Editor Who Taught an Industry How to Listen

The Exhibition Industry Global Strategist Jochen Witt Opens Up About The Evolution of Exhibition Power

The Rise of the Outcome Architect: Nicola Kastner and the Corporate Event Power Shift

The Hardest Move a Founder Makes Isn’t the Exit. It’s What Comes After.

Philip Dufour: Washington’s Global Host of Influence

Jennifer Collins: The Reunion Instinct

25th Anniversary: The Beach, the Crowd, the Crisis: Lee Brian Schrager and the Story Behind America’s Wine & Food Festival Boom (and Slowdown)

Sasha Frieze: Events Are Being Rewritten—And You’re Probably Still Running the Old Playbook

Arturo Guillén:The Scoreboard Nobody Built But Is Needed For The Event Industry to Prosper

Michelle Metter: Next-Generation Thinking for Event Leaders.

Walter Carmizon: From The Show Floor to Space

Cindy Y. Lo: When Local Experiential Agencies Match National Intelligence, They Win