The fall kicked off with a flurry of new hires across a variety of trade show sectors, including show organizing companies, display and contractor companies and convention and visitor bureaus.

Clarion UX (formerly Urban Expositions) named Desiree Hanson vice president of Fashion Events overseeing the Womenswear in Nevada (WWIN) portfolio. She reports to UX CEO, Greg Topalian.

In her new role, Hanson will oversee all sales, marketing and management functions for the semi-annual WWIN womenswear apparel trade show held at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

She also will work closely with former WWIN Show Director Chad Timney who has moved into a consultant role with the show.

The Spokane Public Facilities District (District) named current Spokane Convention Center General Manager, Stephanie Curran, as incoming CEO.

Kevin Twohig, District CEO, announced back in September that he will be retiring at the end of 2017. The District engaged Venue Solutions Group to lead a national search process and recently conducted a series of candidate interviews.

Curran, who has been an employee of the District since 2003, has served in many roles, ranging from event supervisor to assistant general manager of the Spokane Convention Center and INB Performing Arts Center to being named general manager in 2015.

Detroit-based Display Group recently added Andy Olis as chief operating officer (COO).   

Olis rejoins Display Group after spending 10 years in the professional audio-visual industry in various management and operations roles.

Olis has held several leadership roles in his career and has been successful in developing and achieving goals by implementing efficient sales and field best practices with clear performance measurements.

Previously, Olis was the general manager at Display Group and is being welcomed back with open arms for his homecoming.

TradeTec Skyline, a full-service B2B exhibit house specializing in trade show displays and services is pleased to announce the recent expansion of their project team:

• Krista McCloud, who joined TradeTec as an account coordinator in October 2015 has been promoted to the role of account manager.
• Haley Doss has joined TradeTec as an account coordinator.
• Victoria Scholly has joined TradeTec as an account coordinator.

Visit Baltimore, the official sales and marketing organization for Baltimore, welcomed Kireem Swinton to the convention sales department as director of convention sales development, Mid-Atlantic region and tradeshows.

Swinton brings a wealth of industry knowledge and strong passion for promoting Baltimore to his new role.

He will focus on sales development for citywide conventions from the Mid-Atlantic region, with an emphasis on new business development from the trade show market.

Sue Holle joined Hargrove as a director, National Accounts. She is responsible for operational oversight for all national trade show business, working with the internal sales team to introduce industry- leading technology and best practices to our clients, as well as developing new business relationships.

MC² hired on Aaron Miller as executive creative director.

In this role, he will work closely with the company’s chief strategy officer, national design director, designers and account executives to inspire, lead and motivate teams to create breakthrough face-to-face brand experiences.