Overall unemployment in the United States still might be down, but hiring in the trade show industry has continued to pick up speed though the summer and into the fall.

L.A. Mart proudly recently brought back Frank Joens as senior vice president and general manager of the venue in Los Angeles.

Joens returns to the L.A. Mart after a brief break in his decade-long tenure of service with the building. He began his career at the L.A. Mart in 2001 as director of marketing and then two years later was promoted to director of leasing, where he helped his team achieve a more than 90 percent showroom occupancy rate.

Derse made four new additions to its team:

Account Executive Bryan Kenny brings 22 years of industry experience. As in previous positions, Kenny will continue to manage existing client business, generate new business and work closely with clients to help develop their marketing programs.

Todd Sussman, creative director, has 16 years of design experience. He is focused on the creation of three-dimensional spaces from the trade show floor to interior space environments, and has won an Ex Award (sponsored by Event Marketer) and several Best of Show awards during his career (National Association of Broadcasters 2012, most recently).

In her account director role, Jill Waite will utilize 25 years in the brand marketing world to provide account leadership, program development and program management. She also will consult and guide Derse clients through all the service phases - from strategic planning and design to production and logistics.

As production supervisor, Louie Szi draws on 32 years of experience and previous leadership roles including shop foreman, project management, and production and operations management

VisitPittsburgh, the official tourism promotion agency for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, has hired Pittsburgh native Angela K. Corvello as its new director of convention Sales.

Corvello began her new position at VisitPittsburgh Aug. 20 She will assist the vice president of convention sales in managing the sales team responsible for convention sales for Pittsburgh and the entire Allegheny County area and also will handle a convention sales market, bringing future meetings to the Pittsburgh area.

Experient, the source for integrated meeting and event solutions, announces the promotion of Jenny Van Riper to director, association strategic account management, and welcomes the newest members of its sales team, Jim Nirmaier, strategic sales executive and Gordon Ransom, national account manager.

Van Riper most recently was manager, meeting and event operations for Experient’s Washington, D.C., office. In her new role, she will oversee all strategic account managers in the D.C. area and focus on continued growth of the association market.

Nirmaier fills the role of strategic sales executive on the association and government strategic sales team and will focus his sales efforts on the religious and faith-based market exclusively. He joins Experient from the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Convention & Visitors Bureau, where he was vice president of group sales.

Ransom is the newest member of the Experient Sales Network (ESN) - a team of independent business development specialists known as Experient National Account Managers (ENAMs) located in primary customer markets throughout the world.

He comes to Experient with a background in the Alaska hospitality business, where he was a partner and member of the Executive Management Committee of Alaska’s Boardwalk Lodge.

The Expo Group recently hired a new director of business processes and development, Corey Kelley.

Kelly previously worked at KAC, where he played key operational roles addressing systems needs such as inventory and asset management.