Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast from marketers.

We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode.

We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out.

All right, we are here for a very special edition of Do This Not That podcast. We are live at IMEX. This is my first IMEX. So what is an IMEX? IMEX, to me at least, is the world's largest event about all things, events. Event planners, where you pick your destination. I mean, thousands and thousands of people. It's wild. And who do I have here with me? I have two amazing people. I have the senior vice president of research and other stuff like Ken Holsinger from

Freeman. Freeman is like the company. If you've ever put up a booth or looked for research on

anything related to events, anything related to exhibitions, anything you know who Freeman is.

They are like the giant company.

They're amazing. And then I have Crena Bauer. Crena Bauer is the CEO of IMEX. It's all her fault. Everything at this event, all these thousands of people's almost wild booth, 600,000 square feet of exhibit hall space here. It's all her fault. It's amazing. And we're going to be talking about some new research. And the reason I love events is the in-person events is that we think about AI taking over. We're all going to be clipping robot toenails. In-person events are going to be the thing that win the day. It's going to be the industry to be in. And we have the two most amazing people that are talking about. So Ken, Karina, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks for having this. Yeah, thank you. Great to be here. Amazing. All right, Queen, first I want to ask you, did I get it right?

Can you explain everybody? are talking about it. So Ken, Karina, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks for having this. Yeah. Thank you. Great to be here. Amazing. All right. Koreen, first, I want to ask you, did I get it right?

Can you explain everybody? What is an Imex? You caught it spot on because when people ask me for the elevator pitch, I say it's a mega event for event people. Okay. But it's all focused on the business events industry. So that's one sort of facet. It's not festivals. It's not consumer events.

And really what we do is we bring the whole supply chain of events globally

together with all the people in the world that are planning events in different ways. So as you say,

they might be looking for venues, they might be looking for tech, or they might want to learn how to really design an event for the best outcomes for

their attendees. So every spectrum of the industry, every segment of it right from across the

globe is here in Las Vegas. And we also do it in Frankfurt in the spring. I got to tell you, I've been to a lot of events.

I've never been to an event like this. So kudos to you. Thank you very much. Everyone's got it put on their bucket list. It is pretty wild. And so Ken, I want you to talk for a minute about this trends report. Because what we're here to talk about is this trend report and what we're seeing in the event world in in person events all the things so what is it and then i want to dig into what you're

finding well first i love report and what we're seeing in the event world, in person events, all the things.

So what is it? And then I want to dig into what you're finding.

Well, first, I love the perspective that you're bringing coming in from the marketing community

into this space because it really is at the heart of the Omnuchannel that needs to be advanced.

You talked about AI and the proliferation and what's going on.

We know from a number of rounds

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