La Shon Smith, Director, Exhibitions for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, started with the organization as the Call Center Supervisor for the Eye Care America Program in 2002. She transitioned to the Meetings and Exhibits division in the role of Exhibitions Coordinator in 2003. Promoted to Director in 2022, she is now responsible for all aspects of the Academy’s Expo and strives to ensure a successful Exhibition for the Academy and exhibiting companies.

Since 2017, she has been a member of the team handling the administrative and logistical tasks for the Academy’s Minority Ophthalmology Mentoring Program focusing on logistics for the program’s Student Engagement Weekend and exhibit hall tour during the Academy’s annual meeting.

La Shon has been serving her community since returning to the Bay Area after college. She currently serves on the Board of the African American Regional Educational Alliances (AAREA) of the San Francisco Bay Area working to improve educational equity and STEM education for African American students and families. She has helped AAREA to improve their advance and onsite registration processes for their annual Professional Development Summit for educators, and school administrators from across the state California.

Charlotte Pearson, CEM, joined T3 Expo as the Vice President of Sales, in October 2020, and is working out of their flagship facility in Las Vegas, NV. Charlotte is actively working with corporate clients, tradeshows clients and hotel partners to achieve maximum strategic success while producing events. She is responsible for sales management, strategic sales planning, and pre/show site/post show support on over 25 tradeshows and corporate live events per year.

Charlotte has been an active member of IAEE since 1992 and was the 2015 Chair of the CEM Commission. Charlotte also served on the IAEE Education Committee for several years and eventually chaired the committee. Charlotte is a CEM International Faculty member and teaches several times a year in the US, as well as internationally in Taiwan, Thailand, India, Malaysia and Korea.

Mary Ellen joined Edlen Electrical Exhibition Services in 2004 as National Director of Sales and was promoted to Vice President of Sales in 2008. She is responsible for overseeing Edlen’s national sales team as well as marketing Edlen’s services to show organizers and facilities throughout the United States.

Mary Ellen began her hospitality/trade show career with Sheraton Hotels & Resorts in Minneapolis and later joined Hyatt Corporation in San Jose, CA. She worked for GES for seven years and served as Director of Sales in the San Francisco Office prior to joining Edlen.

She is an active member of IAEE serving as an Officer and Board Member of the Northern California Chapter since 1999 and has served on several IAEE national committees.

Nancy Horner currently serves as the Event Execution Director for Freeman San Francisco focusing on financial analysis and strategic business operations.

Nancy began her career with Freeman Boston in 1990, relocating to the San Francisco branch in 2000.She has held several positions throughout the company in Exhibitor Services, Sales, Account Management and Branch Leadership. Nancy’s achievements are underscored by her superior organizational and relationship building skills. She holds a B.S. Business Administration-Management from Notre Dame de Namur University.

Nancy also serves on the Board of the IAEE Northern California Chapter, as a management trustee on several industry trust funds for our local labor unions and served as the point person for Freeman on the Moscone Expansion Project.

In her personal time, Nancy enjoys dabbling in genealogical research and exploring the coastal trails of Half Moon Bay with her husband and dogs.

Sandy Chapin, CEM, is a seasoned trade show professional with more than 30 years of producing meetings and events. Chapin is currently Director, Exhibitions & Events at SEMI. She is responsible for leading the overall management of planning and event execution for SEMICON West. Additionally, she oversees all event operations for SEMI Americas meetings and events. Chapin has worked in the non-profit and private business sectors. She has held various management positions in tradeshow management and has produced both trade and consumer events ranging from 100-20,000 attendees.

Prior to SEMI, Chapin was Group Show Director for Allured Business Media, a B2B publisher serving the fragrance, flavor, cosmetic, personal care and spa industries. She led the company’s event division and had the responsibility of managing the day-to-day operations of their event portfolio, which included sales, marketing, operations, and staff leadership. Additionally, she was responsible for new business development and during her twelve-year tenure at Allured launched, repositioned, and developed their event business that fostered growth and strategic partnerships. To her credit and expertise, she raised their revenue substantially with a 50% increase, ultimately positioning the company as a leader in the professional trade event category.

Additionally, Chapin worked for Corcoran Expositions, Inc. (CEI), a trade show management company, as Exhibits and Sponsorship Manager. There she developed programs for various trade association clients. Prior to CEI, Chapin was employed by the National Safety Council, a non-profit, non-governmental membership-based organization, as Sales and Marketing Manager, Conventions and Meetings.

Chapin is an active volunteer both personally and professionally. She is currently serving as a member of the board of directors for the International Association of Exhibitions and Events Northern California Chapter and on the Client Advisory Board for SF Travel. Previously, she served on the Midwest Chapter, a member for the International Association of Exhibitions and Events Sales Academy Committee, a Client Advisory Board Member for Team San Jose, and served on the St. Charles, IL Visitors Culture Commission.

Chapin received a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership from Lewis University and earned her Bachelor of Professional Studies in Hospitality & Tourism Management from Roosevelt University. Chapin is Certified in Exhibition Management (CEM). The CEM Learning Program strengthens the connection between business goals, personal expertise, and the human elements involved in getting the job done. The certification is a highly regarded designation within the trade show industry.

Terri Auricchio began her career with Freeman Las Vegas in 1994 on the Sales and Operations team. She closed her Freeman duties in 2020 with the Southern California Business Development team supporting several regions. Corporate events, trade shows, venue, and industry relationships with a clear vision of operating costs guided Terri to her next professional chapter.

The Virginia and DC area were Terri’s home, attending Longwood University and Old Dominion University with studies in Production Choreography and Computer Science. Now, she humbly holds her office and home in Las Vegas. She is currently Executive Director of Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Artificial Intelligence in Statistics (AISTATS) and founder of Auricchio Corp, Global Events and Technology.

Pandemic year 2020 was a year of growth, earning her CEM, founding Auricchio Corp, that led to serving on the 2022/2023 Board of IAEE Northern California Chapter. Wrapping up her pandemic career shift, she is now an Executive Director with a focus on partnership engagement, Diversity and Inclusion, and sponsor relations with a special interest in Academia, Sciences, Artificial Intelligence, and Technology, while aligning partner objectives with firm's business strategy to exceed goals while anchoring academia concentration.

Trevor Newman is a seasoned sales professional with over 10 years of experience in sales, events, MCI, and hospitality. He currently holds the position of Director of Citywide Sales at the Hawai‘i Visitors & Convention Bureau. In this role, Trevor focuses on securing citywide and convention business for the Hawai‘i Convention Center and its hotel partners. He oversees the U.S. west coast and Canada as his territory.

Trevor began his events career as a Marketing & Sales Information Specialist at the Blaisdell Center & Waikiki Shell, an entertainment complex in Honolulu. He quickly progressed from a Sales Coordinator to Sales Manager to Senior Sales Manager at the Hawai‘i Convention Center, where he managed accounts, surpassing revenue goals for local events and handling customer database management. .

He graduated from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, earning a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the Shidler College of Business. Trevor's notable accomplishments include being recognized as part of the 2022 Pacific Business News' 40 Under 40 and receiving the 2021 Young Professional of the Year award from the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii's Young Professionals Program. He has been an active member of the Chamber YP Program since 2018 and has served on its steering committee since 2020. Trevor has also contributed to the University of Hawai‘i Alumni Association as a member of its Board of Directors. .

Recently, Trevor relocated to the California Bay Area in 2023. During his free time, Trevor enjoys photography and traveling with his wife, seeking new adventures and experiences on the mainland. .