Northern California - Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose

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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. 

In 2022 she joined the Board of the Northern California Chapter of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events and accepted the Board Chair position in 2024. She completed her Certified Exhibition Managers (CEM) Certification in 2023. 

Since 2017, she has been a member of the team handling the administrative and logistical tasks for the Academy’s 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 of California.

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.

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.

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.

 providing our clients with the highest level of service and expertise.

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.

Taylor Medina serves as the Exhibition Specialist for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.  In her role as Exhibition Specialist, Taylor provides administrative and organizational support to the exhibitions department, exhibits, and promotional opportunities in support of the Academy's Annual Meeting each year. A Bay Area native, Taylor graduated from San Francisco State University in 2017 earning a Bachelor of Science in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration. During/after her time at San Francisco State, Taylor has worked for a destination management company, in catering, a hostess in a Michelin star restaurant, hotel sales, and more. She plans to return to school to earn her Master's Degree within the next few years. When she's not working, Taylor enjoys relaxing at home with her boyfriend and their dogs, reading, and hiking.