Our Organization:

Immediate Past Chair

VP Global Conferences & Events, IBM

Colleen Bisconti is IBM Vice President Marketing, Global Conferences and Events. She leads IBM’s worldwide events strategy and the professional career discipline for an extended team of 400+ event marketers across the globe. The team executes 6,000+ in person and digital events including both proprietary and 3rd party activities. She led the ongoing evolution of the overall event strategy that included the creation of IBM’s single flagship global conference, IBM Think, with over 30,000 attendees annually. Colleen has over 25 years experience in the IT industry and is known as an innovative and passionate marketing leader with extensive management experience. She has a proven track record for the successful development and execution of marketing strategy, demand generation programs, event strategy and execution, and channel development to drive revenue results with a long history of leading high-performance teams. She is results oriented and succeeds by working across matrixed environments and external organizations. Colleen is passionate about team culture and creating exceptional attendee experiences.

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Board Member at Large

Chief of Staff, Global Events & Oracle Studio, Oracle

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Board Member at Large

Sr. Director of Events, RMS Moody's

Bridgette is a seasoned event professional who is currently leading the industry events and experiences team for Cisco’s Global Events operations organization. During her time at Cisco, Bridgette has worked on events ranging from the Olympics to product launches to advisory boards and Cisco proprietary events.
Prior to joining Cisco, Bridgette worked in the medical device industry and the GPS telenav industry where she made many great contacts that are also CEMA members. Her love of events started early at a startup and has never stopped. No matter the size of the company or the size of the event, the amount of passion and drive is the same!
Bridgette currently lives in San Mateo, California with her husband and 3 kids.

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Board Member at Large

Sr. Director, Global Event Marketing, Splunk

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Board Member at Large

Global Technology Marketing Executive

Stefanie Maragna brings more than 25 years of event, sales and marketing experience to the CEMA board. As the VP Corporate Marketing & Events at Sage, Stefanie is responsible for the Customer Advocacy, Partner Marketing, Analyst Relations and Field Marketing Events for Sage Intacct. With more than 25+ years in sales, marketing and event experience, the backbone of her career has always been within the technology event space working with Mincom (in Australia), before moving to the USA with Mark Logic, Host Analytics, Sage Intacct and Sage.

Stefanie or Stef as she prefers, has an infectious personality, and strategic focus and passion for CEMA and the events industry, and her diverse background has allowed her to better understand the needs and motivations of all the stakeholders who are involved with events, from marketing to sales to partners and executives. Her love for events has given her many opportunities to bring new and unique experiences to customers and colleagues across all event marketing programs. She enjoys mentoring and supporting the next generation of event “marketeers” and was named as one of SmartMeetings’ “100 Women Who Inspire Us” and “Hall of Fame”.

When Stef takes time away from the corporate scene, she lives on her Sonoma County ranch with her husband, 5-year-old little boy and Australian cattle dog Cody. You will find her cooking, gardening, beekeeping, raising chickens, supporting many local charities, and drinking wine of course! Stefanie loves travel and when she is not spending time in her home country Australia, she takes the opportunity to travel the world learning and experiencing new cultures.

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Board Member at Large

President, MC-2

ith over 20 years of experience in the event space, Ben Nazario is no stranger to building unique and strategic programs around any brand and its industry tailored to the identified customer segment. Currently with MC² as its Chief Growth Officer, Ben’s primary focus resides in overseeing the company’s domestic and international growth through multiple facets of the business including Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Creative and Strategy. With Ben’s addition to the board, CEMA will see a leadership figure challenge the means of normality through his charisma, energy, and passion for reaching new heights.

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Board Member at Large

Global Account Executive, Global Sales Organization, Marriott

Global Account Executive, Global Sales Organization, Marriott International
Based in Denver, CO, Dan is responsible for the leading the global relationship with Marriott’s top strategic partners. Originally from Phoenix, AZ, Dan spent 12 years in San Diego before relocating to Denver in 2015. Along with his wife, Courtney, and 3 young kids, Dan enjoys taking advantage of the Colorado outdoors, attending concerts, or cheering on his favorite hometown sports teams.

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Board Member at Large

Vice President of Operations, Lenos Software

Jodi Morrison is Vice President of Operations at Lenos Software, heading up global customer support and professional services. She joins Lenos with 20+ years corporate event leadership experience overseeing technology and operations for Oracle Open World, NetSuite SuiteWorld, Modern Business Experience, and Modern Customer Experience, to cite a few. Jodi's work has taken her around the world managing the production of Oracle’s global live events. She is now applying her experience and expertise to assist enterprise customers with their adoption of a holistic enterprise-wide marketing, meetings, and event software solution platform.

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Board Member at Large

Senior Director, Global Event Management & Strategy, Illumio

Professionally, Leslie Hasvold has been in the Bay Area event industry for 25 years and her career has spanned from small surgeon trainings to large scale technical user conferences. She has had the pleasure of working across the globe and in all elements of the event programming cycle. She has established herself as a leader in her organizations both literally and by the virtue of her breadth of expertise. Finally, she is a virtual event hipster, having supported those since before COVID-19 made them cool.

Personally, she divides her time between CA, NV, and OR. She has four dogs to love, has been an avid traveler since long before she found this amazing career, and has a LEGO obsession that is inappropriate as a childless middle-aged woman.

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Board Member at Large

Director, Strategic Events, Ring Central

Sara Straw, CMP is no stranger to the event marketing industry having spent the last 14 years immersed in all the fun and chaos of all we love and do. As the Director of Strategic Events at RingCentral, Sara is responsible for developing the company’s global event strategy as-well-as overseeing a team of rockstar event marketers who manage all internal, hosted, and 3rd party events. Prior to joining RingCentral, Sara was responsible for a portfolio of global events at leading SaaS companies, F5 Networks and Sage Software, plus leading background screening provider, Sterling Talent Solutions.

When she is not busy producing lead generating events, Sara enjoys spending time with her 21 nieces and nephews and running her solo travel coaching and design company, STW Planning LLC. Sara is the founder of the Solo Travel Woman Society, a global community of women focused on sharing knowledge and empowerment as it relates to travel. In 2020, Sara published The Ultimate Solo Travel Woman Guide, and became the host of The Solo Travel Woman Podcast.

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Board Member at Large

Director of Sales, Worldwide Accounts, Hilton

Jessica Colmenares is Director of Sales, Worldwide Accounts at Hilton. She is responsible for managing a portfolio of customers, mostly in the technology segment, to help them align their priorities and find the perfect solution for their meeting & event needs. Jessica is passionate about delivering meaningful and memorable experiences for her customers and finding innovative solutions that support their objectives. Her proven ability to build relationships beyond the point of sale has allowed her to engage differently at higher levels of her customers' organizations. She is a team player who shares ideas and approaches that have worked, willing to take advice to think differently, and always has an appetite to learn. She is a team player who values the gift of collaboration and is committed to achieving common goals.

For the past 27 years, Jessica has worked for Hilton. She’s been a member of the CEMA community for 11 years. The connections and community of CEMA have afforded her the opportunity to stretch herself and understand how the initial thoughts, planning, and execution of in person engagements have lasting impact well beyond the event. Jessica resides in the Bay Area with her husband Paul and has two active boys. She has a passion for running, the beach, and travel.

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Board Member at Large

EVP, Client Services Delivery and Operations, Opus Agency

Across a portfolio of world-shaping brands, including Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and many more— Paula Grayson and her Opus Agency teams are accelerating the power of shared experiences. As a member of the Opus Agency executive team, and Executive Vice President, Client Delivery & Operations, Paula leads our Event Management, Event Technology & Registration, and Client Services Delivery Operations teams. Together with her teams, she strives for operational excellence in pursuit of innovative solutions so that Opus Agency’s processes and way of working are collaborative, easy, successful, enjoyable, and future-focused for our clients and our employees.

Paula joined Opus Agency in 2000 as a project manager and discovered a passion for events that has fueled growth for her, her teams, Opus Agency, and our clients.

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Board Member at Large

Manager, Event Operations, Tyler Technologies, Inc.

Using almost a decade of event industry experience, Heather has contributed to the development of a robust trade show portfolio involving 700+ tradeshows, the creation and implementation of a Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP), and operational oversight of meetings and events for Tyler Technologies. While her current focus is on event strategy and function growth, her core passion remains at the heart of the industry - creating unique and memorable experiences at every scale.

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Board Member at Large

Senior Director, Corporate Events and Sponsorships, Smartsheet

Jeremy is an Australian native with a diverse professional background as a marketing leader, strategist, and storyteller. He is currently Senior Director of Corporate Events and Sponsorships at Smartsheet, where he leads the team that creates and delivers their growing portfolio of experiential marketing activations.

He previously worked on the Global Events Team at Microsoft for eight years, where he was responsible for delivering business audience programs from small high-touch executive events through to scaled programs for tens of thousands of people globally. Prior to his time in the Tech Industry, Jeremy founded a company in New York City that produced and managed shows in the Entertainment Industry. Highlights include a Tony Award nomination for co-producing a Broadway musical, General Managing the New York Musical Theatre Festival for 4 years, and dozens of Off-Broadway Productions, Galas, and Launches.

Before migrating to the U.S he was a Producer and General Manager in Australia (an extension of his first career as a professional entertainer on both stage and screen), where he imported and toured award-winning artists across Australia and New Zealand, and General Managed touring musicals throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

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Board Member at Large

Director Global Partner Events & Vendor Funding, Dell Technologies

Kara Wooten is a passionate and pragmatic marketing professional with more than 20 years of marketing experience, specializing in strategic planning for Dell Technologies’. Driven to create content and experiences that make an impact, Kara has an avid customer-first approach to everything she does, from vendor management, production and design, communications, event planning, and execution. She thrives in fast-paced, changing environments and is not afraid of ambiguity. A problem solver by nature, Kara runs to chaos. She is currently responsible for developing Dell Technologies’ global partner event strategy and how Dell tells its transformative story to the marketplace through world-class events and engagements. In addition to setting the global strategy, Kara and her team also drive efficiencies and consistency in experience to Dell Technologies top-tier partners at all advisory boards, and worldwide programs and industry events in their regional field teams. Before her current role, Kara spent her first four years helping to build the Dell Technologies energy vertical globally and the next four years driving campaigns and engagements for Dell Technologies OEM North America. A University of Houston alumna with a BA in Marketing, Kara has a diverse background across the oil and gas and technology sectors. Her proficiency extends to product and partnership marketing, field marketing, strategic planning, and event management. Outside of her professional endeavors, Kara enjoys life in Tomball, TX, with her husband Bryan and their three sons. The family’s passion for sports, outdoor activities, and live music, enriches their lives beyond the boardroom.

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Board Member at Large

Senior Program Lead, Cisco

Lisa Logan is a Senior Program Lead at Cisco, managing C-level events and shows that create memorable and impactful experiences. Inspired by the evolution of events over the past decade, Lisa is excited to embrace the next generation of innovations. Known for her outgoing and social nature, she enjoys connecting with new people and sharing ideas. And, she has also discovered that her introversion has helped to hone her focus, creativity, and attention to detail, making each event unique. Living in Sonoma, CA, she is dedicated to a lifestyle of hiking, gardening, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings with her dog, Remy.

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