Posted on June 9, 2025
When was the last time you walked into an event and thought, “Wow, that was smooth”? No confusion. No clipboards. No awkward name fumble. Just… easy.
Chances are, you didn’t think about registration at all — and that’s the point.
Behind the scenes, someone (or a whole team) planned every detail of that moment. From personalized QR codes to pre-filled forms to real-time check-in dashboards, today’s registration experience keeps evolving.
And right now, there’s a group of professionals quietly making registration smarter, faster, and more efficient. We’re talking about the planners, tech leads, and registration architects who obsess over first impressions, optimize for flow, and still find time to test new tools before most of us have logged into the platform.
So we made a list to recognize 30 people who are the “Registration Heroes of 2025”
These 30 names have been recognized for their ideas, execution, and for raising the bar for what “signing in” can feel like.
Whether you’re planning your next flagship event or just rethinking your check-in process, these are the people worth watching.
Let’s meet them.
1. Leanne Velky – Founder & Registration Specialist, Leanne Velky, Inc.
If you’ve ever stared down a complex Cvent build and thought, “I need a miracle,” Leanne Velky is probably the person you were wishing for. A self-proclaimed “registration nerd” with over 15 years of hands-on experience, Leanne has built a name (and a business) around making the most complicated registration flows feel human, seamless, and downright intuitive.
Through her company, Leanne Velky, Inc., she partners with event teams to create high-touch, high-function registration sites, especially for those moments when you’re short on time, resources, or sanity.
She’s launched a global, multi-language reg system for Siemens in under a month & is guiding planners through tech they’ve never touched before. Leanne brings a rare blend of technical depth and event empathy.
As she puts it,
“My north star when building registration is creating the most personalized attendee journey possible,” she says. “I reverse-engineer the agenda, get granular with the attendee list, and design custom experiences for each group. That prep pays off later when we need to slice data or tailor agendas.”
2. Alex Adkins – Co-founder & Head of Events, Planwell
You don’t co-found a company like Planwell unless you’ve spent years living and breathing the details of event execution and for Alex Adkins, those details start with registration.
Alex has worn many hats in the event world like field marketing or conference technology. At Planwell, she leads a tight-knit team that crafts attendee experiences with precision and personality. Think curated guest lists, registration flows and strategy layered into every click for intimate field dinners or pipeline-generating tradeshow campaigns.
3. Guy Caiola – Director of Digital Products & Partnerships, Emerald
For more than two decades, Guy Caiola has worn many hats across the digital landscape — product management, marketing, strategy, and yes, a whole lot of code. But over the last few years, he’s focused that wealth of experience on a space that often gets overlooked in event design: registration.
At Emerald, one of the largest B2B event organizers in the U.S., he’s helped shape how technology improves registration to unlock richer, smarter experiences before they even arrive. And in a time when attendees expect seamless check-ins, personalized touchpoints, and event data that works double-time, Guy’s presence is more than technical—it’s foundational.
As he puts it: “Injecting new measures and analytics into in-person events is a very exciting prospect to me.
That mindset, pairing creativity with clarity, makes him a true registration strategist.
4. Katie McIntyre – Director of Strategy and Event Technology, Opus Agency
There are people who understand registration, and then there are people like Katie McIntyre, who make it feel like second nature.
Currently supporting efforts in Strategy and Event Tech at Opus Agency, Katie brings over a decade of experience translating complexity into clarity.
Ask anyone who’s worked with her and you’ll hear the same thing: Katie is calm under pressure, sharp in a brainstorm, and laser-focused on making any touchpoint feel seamless for the end user. Her advice?
“Late registration is a stressor for any event organizer, but it’s also an opportunity for big savings. Roughly 45% of attendees register in the final month, so we now focus campaign spend in those last 8–12 weeks — when the value prop is clearest. It’s better for us and for the audience.”
That kind of thinking pays off, not only in user experience but in marketing efficiency.
5. Greg Kockott – Chief Executive Officer & Founder, HelloCrowd
Few people bring both the technical know-how and planner-first empathy to event tech the way Greg Kockott does. As the founder and CEO of HelloCrowd, Greg has spent the last decade building tools that make registration and onsite workflows genuinely better for everyone involved.
From seamless ticketing and custom form creation to mobile engagement and post-event analytics, HelloCrowd is built for busy teams that need more control without more complexity. And that’s by design—Greg’s experience spans digital product development, marketing, and face-to-face events, giving him a rare full-picture view of how great registration systems actually run.
Greg’s approach is straightforward: simplify the tech so teams can focus on the moments that matter.
6. Melissa Park – Founder & Global Event Producer, Melissa Park Events
You don’t earn a nickname like “The Mel-Factor” without shaking up the status quo. With two decades of experience, Melissa is now a recognized name in the industry, having redefined what it means to deliver registration-driven event excellence.
At the heart of her signature style is a registration system designed to fuel sales and streamline the guest journey. And beyond the data and deliverables, there’s the energy. The sparkle. The “Mel-Factor.”
With a background that includes managing $10M+ portfolios, a stack of global awards, and a reputation as one of the industry’s most sought-after minds, Melissa is a walking masterclass in strategic showmanship.
7. Tim Barrett, CMP – Senior Director of Global Meetings, Destination South Meetings
For more than 25 years, Tim has been the steady hand and strategic mind behind some of the most polished events worldwide, with notable successes including immersive sales kickoffs and multi-day leadership retreats.
But don’t let the job title fool you. Tim is just as comfortable diving into the nitty-gritty of registration workflows as he is speaking on stage or mentoring the next generation of event professionals. Whether he’s advising on contract strategy, teaching at the University of Georgia, or troubleshooting projector angles at a Chicago ballroom SKO (yes, he really did that), Tim’s approach is always thoughtful, balanced, and built on firsthand experience.
That mindset shows up in everything he does, especially registration. And if you’ve ever walked into one of his events thinking, “Wow, that was smooth”—well, now you know why.
8. Martin Fretwell – Co-Founder, Event Driven Growth
Martin’s career has been defined by one big question: What if events weren’t just marketing plays—but actual growth engines? It’s a question he’s answered time and again through snowstorms in New York, and volcanic ash in Germany.
Now, as the co-founder of Event Driven Growth, Martin helps startups rethink their entire GTM motion—starting with smarter, tighter, more revenue-focused registration design.
Through his podcast and consulting work, Martin is leading a new generation of planners to ask better questions about attribution, buyer intent, and how to design for conversion instead of just attendance.
9. Jenny (Dotson) Anderson – Senior Director, Corporate Events 
Jenny Anderson has spent nearly 20 years turning big business goals into unforgettable event experiences and driving serious ROI in the process.
Currently overseeing a dream portfolio of events as Senior Director of Corporate Events at Lowe’s, Jenny is known for designing programs that move the needle, build loyalty, and spark joy. Her career spans leadership roles at BNI Global, Belk, and Bechtel Corporation—earning her awards, an Emmy nomination, and a reputation as an industry leader who gets it done.
To Jenny, great events balance business impact with emotional connection.
10. Tim Groot – CEO and Founder, Grip
When your mission is to make human connection scalable, registration is never just a checkbox. For Tim Groot, it’s the entry point to something bigger like smarter matchmaking, stronger interactions, and events that learn as they go.
As the CEO and Founder of Grip, Tim has spent the last decade helping event organizers rethink what success looks like in intelligent, measurable moments. With a background in international business and digital transformation (plus a surprising stint selling flower bulbs), he’s built a platform that pairs cutting-edge AI with something the event industry often overlooks: user intent.
Tim’s vision has powered some of the most forward-thinking CONFEX events globally, including Manifest, where every aspect of the event, from smart badges to AI matchmaking, contributes to a unified experience that begins at sign-up and scales from there.
When he’s not leading product innovation or joining UFI’s Digital Innovation Working Group, he’s on LinkedIn sharing real-world lessons from the frontlines of tech-powered exhibitions.
11. Ryan Costello – Co-Founder, Event Farm
Before “cloud-based event check-in” was even a thing, Ryan Costello was already building it.
Frustrated by the limitations of traditional tools while running events in D.C., Ryan did what most wouldn’t—he built his own platform. That side project eventually became Event Farm, a name now synonymous with experiential innovation in the B2B event world.
Under Ryan’s leadership, Event Farm reimagined the entire guest experience & has consistently pushed the envelope of what event technology should feel like: fluid, thoughtful, and undeniably human.
His obsession with great design shows in the details and this startup mindset has been the engine behind multiple ventures, even before Event Farm’s rise.
12. Evan Babins – Manager, Event Production at Scotiabank
Not all event producers think like analysts. Not all data nerds know how to craft moments that make 1,300 people pause mid-gala and say, “Wow.” Evan Babins does both—with heart, humor, and an arsenal of lessons from over a decade across agency and client-side roles.
Now leading large-scale event production at Scotiabank, Evan brings a rare mix of technical fluency and emotional intelligence to the table. He’s been named to just about every list that matters—from Eventex’s Top 100 to Bizzabo’s Top 55 Event Experience Leaders—and it’s easy to see why. His top advice is to:
“Don’t forget the small details. What you might think is insignificant could make all the difference to your guests. Don’t skip run-of-shows or day-of timelines — they’ll become your best friend on site. And feed your vendors and crew. Happy teams create standout events.”
To Evan, registration is where the experience begins. It’s where RoI and RoT (Return on Time) are already in motion. It’s where stakeholder trust starts. And it’s where he starts storytelling, long before anyone steps onto a show floor.
13. Leslie Hasvold – Sr. Director of Corporate Events, Cloudflare
Leslie Hasvold is the architect behind some of the world’s most gravity-defying brand moments for the world’s most disruptive companies, like Cisco Live!, VMworld, Dreamforce, Splunk and ServiceNow Knowledge. If you’ve ever been to one of those kinds of events, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Leslie’s work in action.
Leslie’s vision transforms complex event ecosystems into unforgettable experiences fueled by precision, originality, and just the right amount of edge. And regardless of whether she’s launching a global user conference or curating a high-stakes leadership summit, her events are legendary.
Now leading global events at Cloudflare and serving on the CEMA Advisory Board, Leslie’s career is a masterclass in scale, storytelling, and execution.
14. Antony “Ant” Hampel – Founder, Alive Event Agency
As the founder of Alive Event Agency, Antony has been crafting bold, emotionally charged experiences for over 15 years, from intimate boardrooms to stadium shows with 100,000-person capacities.
With a career that spans Prince concerts, Porsche product launches, Disney collaborations, and government activations, Antony understands how to make every single touchpoint count especially the first one.
From LEGO’s Brickman Tours to fashion festivals, from global tech rollouts to not-for-profit campaigns that move the needle, Antony’s work shows how registration can create and set the tone for the event.
Named Event Agency of the Year multiple times, with awards for Best Brand Experience and Celebratory Event of the Year, Ant has proven that when you mix creative obsession with strategic intent, the results speak for themselves—and they stick.
15. Claire Walden – Freelance Event Manager
With two decades of experience running corporate events across Australia, the UK, and beyond, Claire has quietly become the kind of behind-the-scenes powerhouse that every brand wants on speed dial.
From 4,000-person fun days to black-tie awards galas, leadership summits, and AGMs, Claire doesn’t just deliver events—she protects their integrity from start to finish. Registration included.
Claire has worked with everyone from global banks to public sector organizations, insurance giants, and legal powerhouses such as Clayton Utz, Barclays, AMEX GBT, and CIPS, among others.
16. Colleen Bisconti – VP, Global Conferences & Events, IBM
When you’re responsible for over 3,000 events a year, from flagship global experiences to precision-targeted third-party activations, your name becomes shorthand for excellence. For Colleen Bisconti, that name carries more than weight. It holds a legacy.
As Vice President of Events and Experiences at IBM, Colleen has redefined what enterprise event strategy can look like. Under her leadership, IBM rebuilt the foundation and modernized registration flows and unified touchpoints. And this resulted in fewer silos. Smarter systems. Stronger experiences.
But don’t let the title fool you. She’s a builder—a trailblazer. From launching IBM’s digital event platform years before the world went virtual, to reinventing the Think conference experience into a globally celebrated model of personalization, she’s made every interaction—from sign-up to show floor—matter more.
It’s no wonder she was inducted into the Experiential Marketing Hall of Fame and recognized on the Event Marketer B2B Dream Team. Her work blends strategy with soul, data with delight, and operational rigor with creative spark. And perhaps more impressively, she does it across a team of 300+ practitioners and a nine-figure budget without losing the human touch.
17. Debbie Brewer, CMP – VP, Strategic Events, ServiceNow
When it comes to high-stakes event portfolios, few people carry the kind of weight and grace as Debbie Brewer. With two decades of experience, a CMP certification, and a résumé that spans Dreamforce, WEF at Davos, and ServiceNow’s global experiences, Debbie doesn’t just lead events—she orchestrates empires.
Currently steering strategic events at ServiceNow, Debbie oversees programs that balance scale, intimacy, and innovation across digital, hybrid, and in-person formats. She’s been at the helm of some of the most ambitious, logistically complex, and culturally relevant moments in event history.
She continues to manage $50M–$60M budgets with the precision of a CFO and the eye of a creative director with teams that spans across continents, crafted multi-tier event strategies, and navigated the entire industry through the digital shift when it mattered most.
18. Elizabeth Gilstrap – VP, Strategic Events, Salesforce
Few people in the event world have a track record that spans Olympic hospitality, Dreamforce scale, and Sundance creativity and still manage to mentor the next generation while doing it. Elizabeth Gilstrap is one of them.
Currently leading the strategy and execution behind Salesforce’s World Tours and Dreamforce portfolio, Elizabeth is shaping the emotional core of how millions of people experience the Salesforce brand worldwide.
From Monster.com’s Olympic hospitality program to SXSW, the Indy 500, and now a global event engine that touches every continent, her real genius lies in people developing cross-functional teams, coaching marketers into leaders, and unifying silos across product, sales, and brand.
She oversees 12+ global events, manages a team of over 25, and remains the steady force when plans pivot, expectations skyrocket, and every eye is on the experience.
19. Jason Ware – VP, Events and Experiences, IAEE
If you’ve ever attended Expo! Expo!, you’ve already felt Jason Ware’s impact—whether you realized it or not. As the Vice President of Events and Experiences at IAEE, Jason is the master conductor behind “the trade show for trade shows,” turning industry gatherings into unforgettable benchmarks of creativity, efficiency, and community.
At IAEE, he’s not only responsible for steering the strategy, logistics, and execution of flagship programs. He’s also the heartbeat of stakeholder experiences, where he caters to attendee acquisition, sponsorship innovation, contract negotiations and community building.
And when it comes to registration? Jason treats it as more than just a check-in. It’s the first interaction, the first impression, and the first invitation into something extraordinary that sets the tone for excellence.
20. Vinodhini Deshetty – Event ROI Coach, Speaker & Instructor
For nearly 30 years, Vinnu has worked with all types of businesses like associations, agencies, and nonprofits to reimagine how events are planned, executed, & leveraged.
Along with that, she uses raw data, numbers and analytics to craft ROI & profit driven strategies for events. She divides her time between being a speaker & coach, an innovator, educator/trainer, and data advocate.
Vinnu shows up for the industry with honesty, empathy, and solutions. She’s the quiet powerhouse turning overlooked pain points into purposeful innovation and her clients are extremely lucky to have her in the room.
21. Mike Ferreira – Founder & CEO, Meetings Made Easy
You don’t just build a business like Meetings Made Easy—you live it. And for Mike Ferreira, what started as a bold move out of corporate America became one of the most trusted names in global site selection and contract negotiation for events.
With 600,000+ hotel room nights under his belt and two decades of hospitality and sales experience, Mike is the go-to registration strategist for brands that want negotiating power, flawless logistics, and no surprises.
As a Latino founder with deep hospitality roots, he’s transformed MME into a partner. One that knows registration is about more than blocks and contracts. Today, through Meetings Made Easy and Detroit Motor City DMC, Mike continues to push boundaries that are built on hustle, heart, and hotel know-how.
22. Cristina Lowenfeld, CMP, CMM – Sr. Event & Marketing Manager, Honeywell
Not every event professional can move with ease between high-stakes trade shows, internal leadership programs, customer hospitality at the PGA Championship, and Presidents Club incentive experiences.
With over a decade of experience spanning stadiums, summits, and sustainability showcases, Cristina has become the engine behind some of Honeywell’s most powerful brand moments. .
Her roots in hospitality are unmistakable. She knows how to make people feel welcome before they even arrive. But it’s her knack for strategy, melding marketing goals with every registration path, experience touchpoint, and post-event metric, that’s made her an irreplaceable force in the industry.
From Cleveland stadiums to Charlotte boardrooms, Cristina has built her career on crafting moments that feel effortless (even when they’re anything but).
23. Tiffany Velvet English – Senior Event Planner, LiveLife
If you’ve worked in events long enough, you know it’s not just about what happens on stage, it’s everything leading up to it. The emails. The invites. The energy in the room before the first speaker steps up. That’s the kind of experience Tiffany Velvet English has spent over 15 years perfecting.
She’s planned more than 500 events across industries while often juggling vendor negotiations, registration flows, onsite logistics, and post-event follow-ups without missing a beat. We’re talking sold-out rooms, growing waitlists, full-circle branding moments, and event strategies that actually move the needle on business goals.
Tiffany brings the kind of calm, sharp eye and heart-led detail that reminds everyone: this is how it’s done.
24. Mike Gunawan – Event Strategist, LiveLife
From the moment Mike Gunawan attended his first event in Singapore back in 2005, he knew something was missing — intentional design. Driven by a passion for meaningful connection, Mike built his entire career around the belief that great events are strategically crafted.
As the Event Strategist at LiveLife and a developer of the Strategic Event & Experience Design (SEED) methodology, Mike has helped 100+ marketers, agencies, and community leaders turn registration into real results with registration & attendance tactics, Live Conversation & Leads strategy, Continuous Engagement & Cost-Saving & Monetization. His approach focuses on guiding attendees through a full-funnel journey.
Mike believes events are more than touchpoints — they’re the new office, the new marketplace, and the new community hub.
25. Lisa Gregory – CEO, Gregory Event & Services
If you’ve ever walked into an event and felt instantly taken care of – your badge ready, directions clear, no lines in sight, chances are, someone like Lisa Gregory was likely behind it.
With more than two decades of experience, Lisa knows that registration sets the tone for every event. And in her world, it’s not something you delegate to a platform and hope for the best. It’s something you design with intention.
She scaled a nonprofit event from 125 to 750+ attendees through smart, intentional registration flows, and increased sponsorship revenue by 200% while nearly doubling event attendance — proof that a great registration experience drives results across the board.
And as the founder of the Event Professionals Network, she shares her wisdom freely, creating a space where other planners can grow and thrive.
26. Amy Walter – Head of Events, Atlassian
For Amy Walter, registration is never “just the check-in.” It’s the first chapter of the attendee experience. And with a $35M global events portfolio under her wing, she’s made a career out of getting it right — at an enormous scale.
As Head of Events at Atlassian, Amy leads a powerhouse team orchestrating experiences across continents. But it all starts with one thing: understanding who’s walking through the (real or virtual) door — and what they need next.
She’s built and led multi-channel attendee journeys that stretch far beyond the sign-up form. With over 17 years of experience, Amy has mastered the art of turning registration into a strategic engine for community-building, brand elevation, and customer journey acceleration.
27. Timothy Calder – Associate Marketing Director of Events, Achievers
As the force behind Achievers’ global event strategy, Timothy has spent nearly a decade transforming how people check-in into events and ensures they stay in — the brand experience.
From webinars to multi-city tours, and user conferences to expo stages, he’s designed registration touchpoints that do more than capture names. They build anticipation, prime engagement, and open the door to meaningful action.
Timothy has led the Achievers rebrand launch at UNLEASH America, strategically using registration flows to drive curiosity and deepen early-stage product awareness, pioneered collaborative, gamified moments at Recognition Next to elevate attendee commitment before the event even started
He also turned Achievers’ user conference into a content flywheel by using attendee insights from registration to inform speaker curation, session formats, and post-event distribution and most importantly built a playbook for registration that scales — across trade shows, thought leadership tours, webinars, and flagship events — without losing the human touch.
28. Kristian Papadakis – Founder, Presso Network
While some build event tech to keep up with the market, Kristian Papadakis builds it to raise the bar.
As the founder of Presso, Kristian works with some of the UK’s most discerning event organizers. They want sleek, powerful, beautifully crafted digital experiences that start at registration and carry through to every tap, scan, and connection.
Through PEA (Progressive Event Apps), his proprietary platform, he’s redefining what attendee registration can (and should) feel like: frictionless, familiar, and fully branded. One app. One experience. One journey—from sign-up to onsite to follow-up.
Presso doesn’t do cookie-cutter and neither does Kristian. He’s the go-to for event pros who care deeply about every second of the attendee experience, from first click to final connection.
29. Stephan Murtagh QBE – Director, The Exhibition Guy
You know him. Or at least, you’ve heard him.
Stephan Murtagh, aka The Exhibition Guy, has made it his life’s work to help businesses stop wasting money on exhibitions and start turning stands into serious ROI.
With over three decades in the industry, Stephan has lived through almost every event theory that exists. The 5 a.m. builds. The no-show leads. The bad booth neighbors. The “let’s just get through today” moments. And he’s turned all that into a methodology that actually gets results: The 7 Steps to Exhibition Success.
At the heart of it? Registration. Not just in the technical sense, but as a mindset — the start of a journey that sets the tone for every handshake, scan, and sale.
He’s coached hundreds of exhibitors and organizers globally to rethink how they promote, attract, and engage the right audience before they even show up.
30. Holger Omlor, DES – Director of Conferences & Events, Sparks
Seattle-based. Globally minded. Calm under pressure. Always up for a challenge.
If you’ve ever worked on a complex international conference, you know things rarely go exactly to plan. Holger Omlor knows this too and that’s why he plans for everything.
With a background spanning corporate, government, and nonprofit events, Holger brings strategic thinking, sharp instincts, and the kind of operational clarity that gets events across the finish line, no matter how many last-minute curveballs get thrown.
Some of his work includes, growing the EAIE Annual Conference to 6,500+ attendees and 250+ exhibitors, running one of the largest events in tech (the Grace Hopper Celebration with 30,000+ attendees and 400+ exhibitors) and pivoted entire conference operations online during the pandemic, all while keeping people and purpose at the center.
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap (For Now)
If there’s one thing all these Registration Heroes have in common, it’s this: they get that registration is more than just a backend task. It’s where the attendee journey really begins.
It’s the first impression. The first connection. The first sign that someone cared enough to make things easy, clear, and thoughtful.
These are the folks who think three steps ahead, the ones juggling tech, timelines, and people with equal parts precision and heart. And honestly? Some of the world’s greatest events wouldn’t run proficiently without them.
So whether you’re leading your own reg strategy or just found yourself nodding along thinking “yep, I’ve been there,” we see you. And we’ll keep telling these stories — because they matter.
Know someone who should be featured next? Let us know.
There are plenty more unsung heroes in this industry. We’re just getting started.
About the Author / Adedoyin
