ETT Mentoring Programme - Get a Mentor to support your career development

Do you need support from senior industry professionals to push your career development? Are you looking for a mentor outside of your organisation?

The ETT mentoring programme is designed to support your growth and career development through a 6-month programme working with some of the top industry players who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge.

We will help partner you with the most appropriate mentor aligned with your needs. Becoming a mentee brings an array of benefits such as; access to mentor’s expertise; talking about your challenges to someone outside the organisation; vital feedback in key areas; learning specific skills and knowledge relevant to personal goals; sharper focus on what is needed to grow professionally and larger network with more people.

The ETT Mentoring Programme is our contribution to retain, engage and empower the best people in the exhibition sector. A milestone for ETT Club to provide support to all industry professionals who would like to have career advice and push their professional development with the help from senior industry professionals.

Mentee benefits

Inspiration
Talking about your challenges to someone outside the organisation
Access to mentor’s expertise
Vital feedback in key areas
Learning specific skills and knowledge relevant to personal goals
Sharper focus on what is needed to grow professionally
Larger network with more people

What to expect

Introduction to a mentor (see list of mentors below)
3 calls minimum over 6 month period
ETT Support throughout the programme

ETT Mentors

Lee Ali

Mentor

Lee Ali

Mentor

Lee Ali, Managing Director, Expo Stars

Lee Ali is an international speaker, entrepreneur, business coach, mentor, sales strategist and a qualified iMA practitioner. He is widely regarded as the go-to source for attendee engagement and lead generation at global tradeshow exhibitions, conferences and live marketing events.

Lee's passion from very early on in his business career has been understanding what makes people buy and how to truly connect with them so that they are deeply engaged with what you do. As well as contributing his valuable insights to industry press and media, Lee has been invited to speak at various conferences across the world on audience engagement including; UFI Asia Pacific Conference in Malaysia, Middle East Event Show in Dubai Sales and Marketing Expo in LA, The Business Show in London, Expo Expo! in Las Vegas, Exhibitor Live in Las Vegas, Event Tech Live in London and more. Lee also hosts the "In Conversation with Expo Stars" podcast interviewing experts from the tradeshow industry.

Lee founded Expo Stars Interactive, an award-winning exhibition engagement company, to support exhibitors worldwide to engage more attendees to their booth, convert them into qualified sales leads, raise their brand awareness, and deliver measurable results. Since 2007, the Expo Stars team have been supporting exhibitors at all the major global exhibitions including Arab Health, Mobile World, Congress, CES, GITEX, BAUMA, HP Discover, Cisco Live, Black Hat, Microsoft Convergence, Conn Expo and many more. Lee is also passionate about health and wellbeing. He is a qualified Reiki practitioner and incorporates the power of positive energy into his unique 5 E's framework for personal, business, sales and marketing success.

Damion Angus

Mentor

Damion Angus

Mentor

As Group Managing Director of Montgomery Group, Damion has spent the last fourteen years growing Montgomery as an ‘umbrella’ brand that represents the interests of over fifteen different companies. These companies manage a wide range of businesses across the exhibition industry covering trade shows, consumer shows, art and photography fairs, awards programmes, agency sales and consultancy. Montgomery is also a shareholder in the Johannesburg Expo centre.

In addition to his role within Montgomery, Damion is also heavily involved in the Association of Event Organisers (AEO) in the UK which he chaired in 2017/18. He is also a Board member of SISO.

Marco Barozzi

Mentor

Marco Barozzi

Mentor

Founder and Director of Expo Consulting, a company servicing the exhibitions and events industry since 1997, located in Bologna (Italy).

Prior to Expo Consulting, I spent many years at key positions in prestigious exhibition companies such as: the Blenheim Group, Miller Freeman and Reed Exhibitions. Country Manager of Fira Barcelona for the Italian market since 1998, I’m also an advisor to SMEs and event planners.

I collaborate as trade show marketing coach with public institutions in Italy and am a lecturer of the ICE/ITA (Italian Trade Agency) Faculty.

Among my skills: trade show promotion and sales, organization of events, marketing strategy, exhibition planning, exhibitor training, international sales, social media marketing.

I speak fluent English, French and Spanish, besides my native Italian.

Specialties: networking, event marketing training, government/institutional bodies liaison, team building and management, business development.

Tamar Beck

Mentor

Tamar Beck

Mentor

Tamar is the CEO of Gleanin - a community marketing platform for event organisers and has been in the industry for over 25 years.

Previous to co-founding Gleanin, she worked at Reed Exhibitions for 15 years, starting in sales and finishing as Portfolio Director. She is also one of the founding members of the Women in Exhibitions Network UK, believes passionately in the benefits of diverse leadership and is committed to supporting and empowering the next generation of industry leaders.

Alison Church

Mentor

Alison Church

Mentor

Alison is an experienced event marketing professional with 22 years' experience encompassing conferences, exhibitions, awards, publications, marketing and PR. She is as passionate about delivering exceptional events to both exhibitors and visitors as she is about travelling the world in her spare time.

As CMO at Easyfairs UK & Global, she ensures best practice and effective marketing strategies across its event & publications portfolio, including shows run in the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Algeria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy; as well as driving digital growth strategies and monetisation.

Before joining Easyfairs, Alison spent nine years at Venture Marketing Group working on its exhibitions, conferences, awards and publications, with a particular emphasis on building high level and valuable content across all products. Her early career included roles as a conference producer at Centaur and PR account director.

Mark Eddy

Mentor

Mark Eddy

Mentor

Managing Director, Newtork Consultancy Group

With over 25 years of experience in the exhibition and events industry, a proven track record of increasing business performance over time, expertise in managing and building international commercial teams, and a clear vision and passion to unite through a shared set of values and purpose.

In addition to a focus on leadership culture, strategic sales goals, and challenging entrenched thinking, Mark is a champion of ESG initiatives and heads up the ETT's sustainability group.

Mark is currently running his own consultancy, but previously served on the EMEA board of GES, a NYSE-listed creative agency and service partner to some of the biggest brands in the live events industry, for 13 years as Chief Commercial Officer.

Finally, Mark is proud to be a dyslexic thinker, a trait that is becoming more widely recognised and valued in the workplace – the ability to think flexibly, creatively, and solve extremely complex problems by thinking differently.

Stephan Forseilles

Mentor

Stephan Forseilles

Mentor

Group Chief Technology Officer” for “Easyfairs”. After studying computer sciences and a first life in the telecoms world, Stephan joined the exhibition industry 15 years ago. He is currently Group Chief Technology Officer for Easyfairs. He is also active in industry initiatives like UFI’s Digital Innovation Workgroup and MBB Consulting’s Exhibitions Think Tank. A regular speaker at live and online gatherings on event technology and digital transformation, he is passionate about helping the industry to get in better shape and more customer-oriented for the future.

Paul Grinnall

Mentor

Paul Grinnall

Mentor

Paul has been in senior management for over 30 years, he is a widely experienced professional from Publishing, Sports Management, Exhibitions, Conferences, Events, Festivals, Visitor Attractions, Concerts, Public Relations and Advertising Agencies. He has significant experience in Supply Chain Management, Intellectual Property Rights, Procurement, TV/Film/Radio Production, Management Consultancy, Sustainability and Retail, having led departments, business units and companies.

Wilbert Heijmans

Mentor

Wilbert Heijmans

Mentor

Wilbert has been a show organiser since 1999 running leading events in Europe, Far East and Middle East before becoming a service provider at Info Salons and now looks after the group with offices in Australia, Malaysia, Greater China and UAE. Wilbert is a business developer with adding and growing value for clients in mind.

Wilbert has been living in Dubai since 2007.

Sherry Huss

Mentor

Sherry Huss

Mentor

Sherry is a seasoned event professional with over 25 years in the event industry. She has run an event agency focused on developer events for the top technology companies (from 1996-2005), created and launched event brands (Web 2.0 and Dwell on Design) and Co-founded Maker Faire and grew the brand into a worldwide event and licensing program with 245 events in 45 countries (over a period of 13 years). She is now Head of Community at Freeman and is working to build and grow community inside and outside of the company. She creates experiences, connects communities and builds tribes, globally.

Jo-Anne Kelleway

Mentor

Jo-Anne Kelleway

Mentor

Dan Londero

Mentor

Dan Londero

Mentor

Dan is an experienced CEO having run global business units and businesses in Australia, China and the UK. He has established joint venture companies in China, India and Turkey with entrepreneur led enterprises. With over 22 years experience in the MICE industry focusing specifically on Conferences and Exhibitions he has been involved in every facet of the industry having run events, conceptualised and launched events, acquired and sold events (and event companies) and has done so internationally. He has also successfully established a number of start up businesses in Australia and China. Dan has sat on numerous company boards as either a director or chairperson in Australia and abroad. He was also a member of the global management board of Reed Exhibitions for over 13 years. Dan is passionate about leadership, strategy, stakeholder engagement and sales. Dan has a strong background in sales and sales optimisation and has a track record of leading highly engaged teams.

It is Dan’s ability to deeply connect with people and desire to see them succeed that underpins his approach to employee engagement, coaching and mentoring.

Dan’s motto in life is ‘Where there is a will there is a way’

Stephan Murtagh

Mentor

Stephan Murtagh

Mentor

Exhibitions & Exhibiting are my passion, in fact they are more than that…They are part of my DNA.

Being a small part of an Organisers,Exhibitors or Contractors success is what drives me every day...28 Years later and I’m as passionate today as I was right at the beginning.

Having walked thousands of miles of Exhibition halls across the globe has really given me a deep understanding of what it takes to be successful as an organiser, exhibitor or contractor.

From working with great clients, publishing books on Amazon and hosting podcasts globally about Exhibition...The passion for our industry continues to grow.

—> 28+ Years Experience in Exhibitions —> Trained in excess of 4,000 Exhibitors & many major Organisers & Contractors —> Keynote Speaker at Major Exhibitions —> Published Author Amazon - Exhibiting at Shows, The FlipChart Business Book —> Judge of the Confex Stand of the Show - International Confex ‘21 —> Qualified Trainer —> Founding Member of The Exhibition Think Tank Globally —> Trainer Entrepreneurs Academy & Professional Training Centre —> Member of IEOA - Irish Exhibition Organisers Association —> Shortlisted 2019 & 2020 in the Exhibition News Awards UK —> Member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce

Outside of business, my passions are Family, Rugby and am an avid reader...2-3 books per week...Mainly Biographies and Business Books...

I love to travel and am passionate about being passionate in everything I do...

My motto is and always has been... "You can`t really enjoy winning until you have experienced the pain of losing - It`s what makes you a better person"

Mark Parsons

Mentor

Mark Parsons

Mentor

Mark Parsons runs Events Intelligence, a little big data business which uses machine learning to understand similarities between companies and find new exhibitors at scale. For the last five years he has supported the strategy and deal teams at major organisers using data-led origination tactics. He has also worked with organisers to drive data-led thinking through structured workshops and training specifically focused on the fields of data science and M&A origination. He is a Chartered Accountant, holds an Executive MBA from London Business School, an MSc in Data Science from NYU Stern, and is presently studying for an MST in Entrepreneurship at Cambridge University. He lives in Warsaw.

Ashley Roberts

Mentor

Ashley Roberts

Mentor

A seasoned exhibition professional having worked in the exhibition industry for over 22 years with experience in launching and growing events across several continents globally.

I currently head CONNECT, an exhibition business with events in the Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates and the State of Qatar.

An area that I am particularly passionate about is investing in the current and future talent in our industry; through the sharing of best practice and real-world experiences, and facilitating networking in the global exhibition industry.

Alexandria Robinson

Mentor

Alexandria Robinson

Mentor

As Director of Special Projects at Messe Frankfurt Middle East GmbH, Alexandria has a remit for developing intensive and ambitious business strategies in line with the companies’ long-term goals. Her role involves leading and managing all new event opportunities and launches that currently sit outside of the existing show portfolios. This includes building investment plans, market research analysis and insight, budgeting and assessing opportunities and threats. Alongside this Alex also manages the outbounds sales team for the Middle East, selling to clients in the region to attend international Messe Frankfurt Shows.

Alexandria has amassed considerable knowledge and a wide range of industry experience, having worked on small to large scale exhibitions during her ten years with Messe Frankfurt, starting her career in the U.K some 16 years ago and working her way up from the grass roots level of sales.

Throughout this steep but rich learning curve she also gained a broad education and experience of specific Sectors from Consumer Goods (Stationery & Gifting), Textiles Interiors & Apparel, Interior Design and Security. Taken together with her previous industry knowledge of Automotive, Construction, Beauty, Food & Education this makes Alexandria an incredibly proficient and learned exhibition director. Her wealth of knowledge and her ability to relate well to people is also why Alexandria is often chosen to mentor new starters to the business.

Prior to her current role, Alex served as Show Director on Intersec and previously Paperworld Middle East, and as Project Manager for Streamline Marketing Group in Dubai. Alexandria holds a BA Hons in American History, Media & Politics and she studied at Northampton University (UK) and Winthrop University (USA).

Interested to join ETT Mentoring Programme as a mentor?

Give back to the industry – Retention – Engagement – Empower

Mentors benefits:

Learn from future leaders
Improve interpersonal, leadership and management skills
Increase your profile and the profile of your organisation
Build confidence
Gain personal satisfaction

ETT Mentoring Programme - Get a Mentor to support your career development

Do you need support from senior industry professionals to push your career development? Are you looking for a mentor outside of your organisation?

Mentee benefits

What to expect

ETT Mentors

Lee Ali

Damion Angus

Marco Barozzi

Tamar Beck

Alison Church

Mark Eddy

Stephan Forseilles

Paul Grinnall

Wilbert Heijmans

Sherry Huss

Jo-Anne Kelleway

Dan Londero

Stephan Murtagh

Mark Parsons

Ashley Roberts

Alexandria Robinson

Interested to join ETT Mentoring Programme as a mentor?

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