Elizabeth Giron
Director of Sales
Bixel & Company, a DMC Network Company
Elizabeth joined Bixel & Company after working for The Ritz Carlton Hotel company. She has been a key asset to Bixel & Company for over 10 years. Her comprehensive hotel sales and marketing background is complemented by her passion for customer service, love of unforgettable events, and quest for unique experiences. Elizabeth develops strategic partnerships with hotels, convention centers, clients, and vendors in order to keep Bixel & Company ahead in the marketplace. Elizabeth’s personality and creativity enable her to exceed with clients’ goals by crafting and executing perfect programs. She loves checking out all of the latest and greatest venues, exhibits, and restaurants that Southern California has to offer with her friends and family.
Brent Bushnell
CEO & Roustabout
TWO BIT CIRCUS
“Cultivating creativity and engaging audiences like never before”
Brent Bushnell is a master of interactive experiences and immersive entertainment. He is CEO and co-founder of a band of nerds building a network of micro-amusement parks filled with lasers, fire and robots. The first site opens in downtown Los Angeles with haptic and social VR, robot bartenders, an interactive supper club and more. This engineer/entrepreneur/clown has an insatiable appetite for novel entertainment and much to share about immersive experiences.
To Brent, live events offer the rare opportunity to fully surround a guest with an experience. Unlike videos, books, websites or apps, events touch all the senses leading to impressions with the potential for real life change. But sadly, many events have gone stale, failing to innovate on the model. There are, however, a new breed of events supported by technology and innovative thinking, and their novel approaches are unlocking a new wave of experiences just in time for a shift in consumer appetites towards interactive and hands-on. In this session we’ll survey some of the latest approaches, what’s working and what needs work. Brent will inspire innovation, creativity, and a whole new reality!
Carina Hessmer
Director of Experience Design
Entire Productions
A born novelty seeker, Carina has always had a taste for the unique. Her refusal to settle for the ordinary and mundane has her consistently conceptualizing means by which to elevate any experience or project to its next level. As Director of Experience Design at one of the city’s top entertainment booking agencies, her current work is focused on developing and designing unique event experiences for clients such as Google, Apple, Genentech, Oracle, VISA and CISCO. Her travels and fascination with cultural & geographic diversity fuels and inspires her unique & creative approach to design.
Her past work has included the revitalization of the famous Hamlet Property in Big Sur, the development of a sustainable executive retreat spanning 400 acres adjacent to Hearst Castle, setting up the groundwork for an eco-business incubator, as well as a restaurant & catering company merging the expertise of 5 star Chef, Eric Olson, with local, foraged, sustainable and medicinal foods.
Clint Upchurch
Senior Account Executive
With over 20 years of corporate event experience, Clint brings a unique background of design, hospitality and strategic thinking to the clients he serves as well as to our industry as whole. He is a a past Vice President of Membership on the Board of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of ISES as well as currently holding a chair position with the Southern California Chapter of MPI. Clint also teaches an event certification course at Cal State Long Beach as well as being an educator at international industry conferences.
Clint’s creative approach to each project inspires him to produce experiential marketing programs and brand activations along with business meetings and hospitality events. He works tirelessly with his clients to become ingrained into their corporate culture allowing him to address the specific needs of each client. This is the key to what makes Clint a success at what he does.
Clint recently won a Special Event Gala award recognizing his work on the 4,000 person YPO GLC. Additionally, Clint managed “Eat Street” for Downtown Summerlin’s 4 day Grand Opening as well as their VIP event for 1,500 which also garnered a Gala Award.
Clint and his team got approval for the first ever fireworks show on a commercial building in downtown LA when EE produced the grand opening and street festival for Skyspace LA with an 18,000 person day long block party featuring entertainment that included Snoop Dogg in addition to a VIP party with over 8 headline entertainers including Bryan McKnight. These spectacles also garnered a Gala award.
Jeannie Power, CMP, DES
Co-Founder, Event Planner, & Event Technologist
Event Elements
(a.k.a. @evntgrrl and event tech ninja)
Jeannie is a dynamic player in the event industry, with almost 20 years of experience. She started her first company, Event Elements, in upstate New York in 2004. Jeannie is a leading expert in the rapidly changing event technology field. With both event planning and technology expertise (and obsession with the newest tech gadgets!), Jeannie is able to speak to language of the event planner, and bridge the gap when it comes to event technology.
She earned her CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) from the Convention Industry Council in 2007. Jeannie enjoys the challenge of creating a customized and engaging attendee experience by thoughtfully integrating event technology. She has over 10 years of experience in online event registration management using a variety of software systems. Jeannie also has extensive experience integrating mobile apps and gamification into meetings and event design and has a Level 1 certification in Gamification Design. She is intrigued by the psychology behind integrating game thinking and mechanics into non-game contexts to solve problems and achieve goals. Jeannie is also a social media fangirl and is addicted to sharing information to improve the hospitality industry.
Jeannie is a Past President of Meeting Professionals International – Virginia Chapter and continues to play a key role in the organization. She is a speaker on event technology, speaking at events such as CMP Conclave, Smart Meetings, HSMAI MEET National, Reston Herndon Meeting Planners and the Virginia, Tennessee, and Philadelphia Chapters of Meeting Professionals International.
Sharon Fisher
Founder
Play With a Purpose
Sharon Fisher, founder and IdeaSparker at Orlando-based Play With a Purpose, is a professional “experience maker” who runs hundreds of events per year. When allher friends were getting real degrees, she chose to major in “whistle blowing” as her father called her degree in Recreation. Chosen as one of Entrepreneur Magazines Young Millionaires, she has proven that the passion for play works. Sharon’s reputation for leading the industry in creating teambuilding, community service, and icebreaker events has led to 20 years in business. Now the next evolution is putting play on the broader meeting platform—gamifying meetings, making them more engaging and relevant, and adding experiential learning programs to bring learning alive.
