Flat Revenue Is Not Retention: Indiya Okam on NRR in the Events Business

Heather Holst-Knudsen is a distinguished figure and expert in the events, media, marketing and technology sectors. Using her extensive experience, she guides clients in adapting to structural economic and market changes, seizing the chance to innovate and evolve. She specializes in digital and data disruption and opportunity, exploring how these overarching factors can impact revenue growth,customer-centricity, operational efficiency, profit margins, and the overall valuation of companies in both public and private markets. Her journey began at her family business, Thomas Publishing Company, where she honed her skills. She further expanded her expertise by holding positions at early industry giants Miller Freeman, Reed Elsevier, and IDG. Returning to Thomas Publishing, Heather founded and spearheaded Manufacturing Enterprise Communications, an integrated media portfolio connecting buyers and sellers in the manufacturing and technology sectors. Starting in 2015 and spanning the next seven years, she leveraged her expertise as a revenue and business leader in various SaaS businesses, including Feathr, Gleanin, Brella and Edflex. Heather is deeply passionate about digital innovation, data monetization, and AI and how these strategies fuel revenue growth, profitability, and company valuation. To serve and create value for clients in these areas, she launched H2K Labs, dedicated to generating and leveraging value through data for media, business information, events, and adjacent technology and service markets.

Indiya Okam’s professional journey spans premium manufacturing, healthcare distribution, SaaS, and B2B events, with each chapter shaping her approach to revenue growth and commercial leadership.

She began her career at Sappi Fine Paper, where she learned the fundamentals of consultative selling, channel management, and value creation. By helping customers better understand how purchasing decisions affected their own brands, she contributed to a 47% increase in profitability across the premium portfolio.

Indiya then spent nearly a decade at Medline Industries, building the regional Home Health and DME/HME business and capturing more than 70% market share. A move into healthcare SaaS at WellSky gave her experience with recurring revenue and full-cycle enterprise selling. Later, as Vice President of Sales at Owens & Minor, she led within a $2 billion healthcare enterprise, balancing revenue growth with margin, deal structure, cost to serve, and profitability.

Today, Indiya serves as Group Vice President at RX Global, leading the U.S. B2B commercial organization for one of the world’s largest event companies.

Across these roles, the most persistent challenge she has navigated is revenue predictability. In relationship-driven businesses, pipeline can become subjective, and forecasting can become a collection of opinions. As a mathematics major, Indiya has focused on bringing greater rigor, process, and accountability to the science of revenue.

She has also worked to identify unrealized value by better understanding customer objectives, market dynamics, retention, pricing, and expansion opportunities. Indiya believes sustainable growth comes not only from winning new customers, but also from retaining existing customers, expanding those relationships, and consistently improving the value the business creates and captures.