Dahlia El Gazzar founded the agency after working with tech companies and event industry trailblazers awoke her to the need for speed – for closing the gap between great tech and adoption. She has an OMG-attitude about all things tech, audience engagement + event marketing. With more than a decade of event experience on both the professional planning side and as an association collaborator, Dahlia’s kinship with the industry and the audience is deep. Dahlia is known as the coffee-fueled go-to source for trend-setting solutions, event tech news, event marketing, + social media expertise. She thrives on netweaving, knows everyone, + she’s always thinking of new ideas.

Sherron Washington, M.A. is the founder and CEO of The P3 Solution a full-service marketing and communication (marcomm). She has built her firm around the principle of “marketing simple,” which instruct clients to embrace simplified methods to promoting their business. She has imparted her marketing wisdom and expertise for nearly 20 years and has been deemed by many as “The Marketing Whisperer” due to her uncanny ability to assist clients in developing innovative, results driven, yet simple solutions for their business. Sherron has written two books Market Simple: The Blueprint to a One-Page Marketing Plan, and The Oops Moment which teaches businesses how to develop quick and effective marketing tactics. 

As a speaker, trainer and professor, Sherron has an energetic style that captivates and educates simultaneously, sharing expert marketing insight in fun interactive sessions that engage the participants and enhance the learning experience. Sherron has presented at several conferences around the world including Inbound, Expo! Expo! and the International Baking Industry Expo. Sherron currently teaches Marketing and Communication courses at Trinity Washington University and for Goldman Sachs National 10,000 Small Business program. Sherron’s overall goal is to educate businesses on how to develop and execute better marcomm strategies that will help communicate and promote their brand effectively. 

Kristin brings 17+ years of event management experience to the Fast Forward team with a background in a variety of events across multiple industry sectors. She spent her downtime during COVID earning her CMP and recently earned her CEM.  As Vice President of Events, Kristin takes on the operational aspects of creating the events and experiences along with cross-departmental coordination with sales and marketing efforts to ensure the delivery of the promises and integrity of their brands. She curates content for her portfolio of consumer and trade hows; orchestrating every detail from building customized sponsor packages to ideation for engaging sponsor activations to boots on the ground and everything in between! If the devil is in the details, Kristin will find him and straighten him out. Highlights of her current portfolio include the award-winning San Diego Food & Wine Festival, SommCon Conference & Beverage Expo, Tasting & Tap Room Expo, Craft Beverage Expo, Women in Craft Symposium, and other events in the adult beverage and hospitality sector. 

With close to three decades in the B2B and B2C event’s industry, Michelle has driven strategies and teams through the launch and growth of trade shows, conferences, symposiums, consumer shows and festivals both domestically and abroad. Her career spans a range of industry sectors from outdoor to alcohol beverage, large top 200 association trade shows to small, independently owned launches. Her company, Fast Forward Events, launched in 2004 and through it she has led her team through the expansion of award-winning shows such as the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, SommCon, and acquisition of the Craft Beverage Experience, Craft Beverage Expo, and Women in Craft.

Michelle is a sought-after speaker at industry conferences and a recognized thought leader in the live event sector. Her influence transcends organizational boundaries, as she currently serves on the board of the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO), where she chairs the B2C Special Interest Group, and holds an Ex-Officio board member position with the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) while chairing the Public Events Council. She is a current board  member for the San Diego Events Coalition (SDEC) and the San Diego Tourism Authority as well as serving on the Board of Governors for Home of Guiding Hands.

Michelle lives in San Diego, soaking up the Southern California sunshine, sushi and tacos with her husband and two daughters, Harper and Elliot, and dog, Bowie.

Rich Vallaster, CEM, QAS, AAiP, is the Senior Director of Industry Strategy at Momentive Software (formerly Personify). With decades of experience in the events and association industry, Rich has partnered with leading associations, AMCs, trade shows, and events. He has held key leadership positions, including serving as Chair of the CEIR Research Council and as a board member of the International Association of Exhibitions & Events (IAEE). An active member of both IAEE and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Rich is recognized as a forward-thinking leader shaping the industry's future. His expertise has been featured in major publications, including The New York Times, Associations Now, Trade Show Executive, Skift Meetings, and Convene. 

Rich regularly presents at high-profile events such as ASAE Annual, Expo! Expo!, AMCI, PCMA, and various state SAE conferences. Additionally, he instructs in the IAEE Certified in Exhibition Management (CEM) program and is on the CEM Commission.

Michelle is a seasoned professional with more than 25 years of experience in the business event industry, specializing in conference marketing, experiential design, sponsorship and exhibit revenue growth, and sponsorship activation. Michelle has successfully guided numerous organizations in optimizing their event budgets while maximizing revenue streams. Her strategic insights and practical approaches have earned her a reputation as a valuable resource for clients seeking to increase revenue, partnerships, conference attendance, and industry presence.

I know what it’s like to have to rebuild your life & career after burnout. I know what it’s like for your job or business to edge out everything else sometimes by choice, sometimes by chance. I didn’t start a business to banish burnout because it’s trending. I started it because I know how hard it can be to live through & how it can spread throughout an organization like wildfire. Now armed with a PhD candidacy focused on business psychology & a national board certification in health+wellness coaching, my mission is to help high achievers banish burnout by creating conditions to thrive?.

Dr. Panos Moutafis has 12 years of experience in ethical artificial intelligence and is the CEO and Co-founder of Zenus.

He received his B.Sc. in Statistics from the Athens University of Economics & Business in Greece and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Houston. Panos has a dozen publications in leading journals and conferences and a book chapter in Face Recognition Across the Imaging Spectrum.

He has been internationally recognized as an expert in ethical facial analysis, with published articles in the Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Marketing Research. His distinctions include a TEDx Talk and the best paper award by the IEEE Homeland Security Conference Biometrics, Forensics, and Physical Security.

Annaji Sailer started in the restaurant facilities industry 25+ years ago where she worked in business development, sales and marketing.  Prior to joining the RFMA staff, Annaji managed restaurant national accounts for Cintas for 5 years.  During that time, she did committee work for RFMA and sat on their board of directors. 

She joined the staff at RFMA as Membership Development Manager in 2016.  Annaji’s experience as a vendor member, exhibitor and sponsor of RFMA quickly led to her taking over exhibit and sponsorship sales.  She has spent the last 4 years building a sales and sponsorship fulfillment team that she is very proud of.  She was promoted to Senior Director of Exhibits & Strategic Partnerships in January 2022.

Dahlia El Gazzar founded the agency after working with tech companies and event industry trailblazers awoke her to the need for speed – for closing the gap between great tech and adoption. She has an OMG-attitude about all things tech, audience engagement + event marketing. With more than a decade of event experience on both the professional planning side and as an association collaborator, Dahlia’s kinship with the industry and the audience is deep. Dahlia is known as the coffee-fueled go-to source for trend-setting solutions, event tech news, event marketing, + social media expertise. She thrives on netweaving, knows everyone, + she’s always thinking of new ideas.

Zenus Director of Marketing, Nick Borelli, leverages his background in experience design, event tech and digital marketing to help event professionals reach their full potential. His background includes decades of contributions to live and digital communication helping to facilitate his mission: bringing the world together through intentionally designed experiences. To further this mission, he has presented on a wide range of topics internationally, volunteered with numerous industry associations and contributed to dozens of publications. He has also served as a board member for a decade with the meetings and events industry non-profit, the SEARCH Foundation. Nick has been named a Changemaker by MeetingsNet, awarded International Volunteer of the Year by ILEA, and has won numerous marketing awards. He has served as an advisor for associations, conferences, technology companies and event suppliers. Nick is the instructor of the Enhancing Events with AI course with the Event Leadership Institute.

Gabriel is a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the events and tradeshow industries. He began his career managing global events before transitioning to designing interactive experiences tailored for the live events market. Today, he leads a specialized studio that crafts dynamic activations designed to captivate and engage audiences.

Snapmatic focuses on AI image generation -  creating visually stunning outputs that emphasize precision and consistency. We work with agencies and brands to create unique AI brand activations for product launches, brand engagement, experiential marketing and marketing campaigns - all around the world.

Seth Kenvin started and runs There.App Co. based on personal experiences organizing and managing live field activities like tradeshow exhibiting, professional off-site gatherings, and on-set media production. The company's solution is a singular and simple resource for project organization and communications including capabilities to chat live, share files, monitor task completion, manage schedule and access pertinent location data like where teammates are relative to what needs to get done. Seth has led the company's development of a (currently) 10-module collaborative suite, raising millions of dollars in venture capital, and completing successful pilots with customers in events, media, experience production and more.

Prior to founding There.App Co., Seth has been involved in starting multiple ventures including: Market7, Inc., which provided an application for collaborative media production with customers including Google, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Toyota, University Of Texas and Paramount Pictures; and BigBand Networks, Inc. (now part of CommScope) which provides infrastructure for broadband data and media services with customers including Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and Cox Communications. He's additionally been a consulting executive to companies in digital media production, wireless technology, mobile security, professional automation applications, and consumer applications about sports and politics. These experiences have included extensive field project execution which has been key to Seth's insights prompting the development of There.App.

Seth has additional prior experience in venture capital, investment banking and business journalism, including involvement in founding several organizations in those spheres. He has participated in billions of dollars of financial and commercial market transactions. His early career included engineering projects computerizing supply chain and manufacturing operations.

Besides his business interests and activities, Seth is an enthusiast about music, sports and writing, both as practitioner (especially blues harmonica, open water swimming, and sometimes-harsh book reviews) and fan (especially Elvis Costello, the San Francisco Giants, and whichever authors are currently on his bedside table, currently Patrick Rothfus and Marion Gibson).

Seth holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in engineering from Cornell University, and a Master’s degree in business from Stanford University.

Coming Soon!

Andrew is the Director of Sales at Accelevents, working with organizers to simplify their tech stack and increase functionality. 

Mark is a seasoned global executive with 40 years’ experience in the software industry. He has worked in large global companies and startups and brings a broad range of experience in executive management, COO, strategic planning, global sales, go-to-market strategy, and business development. Mark’s passion is breakout technologies like AI and their potential to impact our world and our quality of life.

Scott Owens is the Founder and CEO of Amego, the fastest-growing tech platform in the event marketing industry. With over a decade of experience managing technology for large-scale events at Salesforce and ServiceNow, Scott launched Amego to transform mobile attendee experiences at events across the globe. His leadership and vision have positioned Amego at the forefront of innovative event solutions, setting new standards for attendee engagement and event success worldwide.

Megan Saad is passionate about crafting meaningful event experiences, focusing on the power of impactful content. With years of experience as the Global Marketing Director for IAAPA, she excelled in driving global trade show attendance while balancing excellence with the pressure to meet performance metrics. Now, Megan partners with organizations to tackle challenges in event tech, helping them make the right choices to save time and optimize budgets.

Rachel is an event marketing strategist,event tech startup founder and industry speaker on topics that cover eventmarketing and influencer marketing. When meeting planners and associationprofessionals need to get more butts in seats, they call Rachel! She is a force to be reckoned with, whipping upcreative solutions to event marketing challenges for 22+ years. Always lookingfor new ways to supercharge attendee acquisition, she used the experience fromhundreds of campaigns to pioneer a new chapter in event marketing: theaward-winning Snöball event marketing platform. The secret to her success -fueling clever, cutting-edge digital marketing tactics with the human-2-humanvalues that the events industry is based on.