The Intelligent Show Floor: Turning Event Data into Exhibitor ROI & Revenue Velocity
Speaker
In her current role as CEO of Clarion Events North America, Liz oversees the strategic direction for the Clarion North American business by focusing on customer and behavioral insights, commercial effectiveness, digital platform development, and innovation. In addition, she is responsible for product strategy development where she partners with Clarion’s portfolio directors to identify growth opportunities to enhance our existing events and develop new digital offerings. Her forward-thinking mindset constantly has her eye on the customer experience and how to continuously evolve what our events, media and products offer to increase the value we provide face-to-face and digitally.
Liz earned her bachelor’s degree from Niagara University, a master’s degree from the University of New Haven and a digital marketing certificate from Cornell University. She is active in her community where she volunteers, assisting her sons’ sports teams throughout the year, managing communications and events. Liz is the Chair of SISO’s Marketing Special Interest Group and is on the Board of Directors for SISO and the Board of Directors for UFI. Liz has been named to The 100 Most Influential People in the Events Industry, The Virtual Event Industry Smart 100 List and Event Content Professionals to Follow list. She is also an active member in the Women In Exhibitions Network North American Chapter and is a member of several Event Technology Advisory Boards. Liz lives in Connecticut with her husband, two boys, two dogs, and a cat.
SUMMARY
Liz Irving shares how Clarion Events is evolving beyond traditional events into a data-driven, customer-first platform focused on delivering real, measurable outcomes. At the core is a shift from selling lead lists to providing actionable buying signals—helping customers clearly understand ROI and make smarter decisions. Through the launch of Converge Plus, Clarion is connecting data across events and media to create continuous engagement, richer insights, and AI-powered intelligence. The journey wasn’t without challenges—messy data, imperfect launches, and team growing pains—but it reinforced key lessons: move fast, build with customers, and pair technology with human support. Ultimately, the focus is simple but powerful: success comes from deeply understanding customers and becoming an essential partner in their growth.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00 – 00:01:30] Opening & Company Context Liz Irving introduces Clarion Events’ core values—passion, care, imagination, and trust—and highlights the company’s focus on innovation, creativity, and leveraging technology to enhance customer experiences. She sets the stage by emphasizing the importance of making every connection meaningful and continuously improving event value.
[00:01:30 – 00:03:00] The Core Challenge: Proving Customer Value Irving frames the central problem: customers expect more and demand clear, provable ROI. While companies excel at selling and executing events, they often struggle to demonstrate measurable outcomes. Without this proof, budgets are at risk.
[00:03:00 – 00:04:30] Limitations of Traditional Lead Models She critiques the traditional “badge scan = value” model, explaining that lead lists are often shallow and unhelpful. Customers are left with raw data and no guidance, leading to poor conversion and difficulty justifying spend.
[00:04:30 – 00:05:30] Reframing the Opportunity Clarion shifts its mindset from selling leads to delivering “buying signals” and actionable insights. The goal is to provide defensible narratives and richer data that show the full customer journey and drive better decision-making.
[00:05:30 – 00:06:30] Customer-Centric Product Development Over 18 months, Clarion worked closely with customers to understand pain points and co-create solutions. This iterative process ensured the product addressed real needs and delivered meaningful value.
[00:06:30 – 00:08:30] Launch of Converge Plus Irving introduces Converge Plus, a connected analytics platform that aggregates data across events and media. It enhances lead retrieval, tracks customer activity, builds ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and uses AI to surface insights and next-best actions.
[00:08:30 – 00:10:00] Early Launch & Key Learnings The rollout across initial events revealed challenges: messy data became visible, perfection had to be sacrificed for speed, and teams needed to adapt quickly. The importance of real-time iteration and customer feedback is emphasized.
[00:10:00 – 00:11:30] Technology + Human Enablement Irving stresses that technology alone isn’t enough—teams must actively support customers to ensure adoption and value realization. Engagement, onboarding, and usability are critical to success.
[00:11:30 – 00:12:30] Scaling & Future Vision Clarion is expanding from events into media, creating a continuous engagement model that connects all customer interactions. The focus is on AI-driven predictability, smarter targeting, and evolving value-based pricing models.
[00:12:30 – 00:13:30] Closing: Customer Success as the North Star Irving concludes by reinforcing that the ultimate goal is not just improving events or media, but driving customer success. By deeply understanding customers and embedding into their growth, companies can create lasting value and stronger partnerships.
