Lee Ali

Lee Ali is the founder of Expo Stars Interactive, an award-winning global trade show performance agency based in UK. Lee and his team now support exhibitors in over 100 cities across 53 countries to optimize their exhibition engagement and achieve measurable results through the provision of strategic consultancy, booth staff training and professional booth staff.

Lee is also a mentor and coach for SME business owners, business psychologist, sales strategist, and an international speaker at industry conferences and exhibitions.

PRESENTATION |

Beyond the Badge

You’re in a room full of industry friends. Familiar faces. Familiar conversations. Or so you think.

Because even in a room full of people you know, there are always new connections waiting to happen. New stories to discover. Fresh ideas hiding behind a badge you’ve seen a hundred times before.

In this session, serendipity becomes the matchmaker. Through a fast-paced, facilitated and high-energy experience, you’ll be paired with different IFES members to spark real conversations beyond the usual event small talk.

Lee Ali and Han will guide the journey with thought-provoking and sometimes unexpected questions designed to uncover the people, passions, experiences and ideas behind the business cards.

Whether you meet someone completely new or discover something surprising about someone you thought you already knew, one thing is guaranteed:

Like Guadalajara last year… it’s going to be a lot of fun.

PRESENTATION |

Advanced Strategies for Mastering Intercultural and Interpersonal Communication

Building on our previous workshop, “Decoding and Mastering Communication Styles to Optimize Your Performance,” at Masterclass Frankfurt, this advanced session delves deeper into the intricacies of both intercultural and interpersonal communication. After building a foundational understanding of communication styles, it’s time to refine your skills and explore advanced strategies to further enhance your interpersonal and professional relationships.

In this engaging and insightful follow-up workshop, Lee will guide you through sophisticated techniques for navigating complex communication scenarios and leveraging cultural and interpersonal diversity to your advantage. You will gain a more profound understanding of how cultural nuances and personal interactions shape communication and learn to apply this knowledge to achieve even greater success in your personal and professional life.

We will explore:

Additionally, this session will focus on:

Join us for this comprehensive session to continue your journey towards mastering both intercultural and interpersonal communication. This workshop is designed to be interactive, with opportunities for discussion, practice, and personalized feedback. Don’t miss this chance to elevate your communication skills to the next level!

Rico Bakker

Rico Bakker is a Keynote Speaker, content creator, and author of “The Power of a Bad Idea.” He helps organizations break free from conventional thinking and unlock new perspectives on creativity and innovation. Rico is known for his unique style that combines a strong message with entertainment. Through humor, storytelling, and interaction, he creates an experience that is both insightful and engaging.

PRESENTATION |

The Power of a Bad Idea

During this interactive keynote, Rico shares how bad ideas and absurd thought experiments can fuel creativity and lead to innovative solutions. By embracing the unrealistic and unexpected, participants learn to break free from fixed thinking patterns.

Rico challenges audiences to question their assumptions. He catches participants in their own assumptions and deliberately throws them off balance. At the same time, he provides practical tools to break free from these patterns and think differently. Instead of just learning what to think, it’s also of great importance to learn of how to think. Our brains are built for efficiency, but those same patterns can limit innovation.

Auxane Boch

Dr. Auxane Boch is a cyberpsychologist and AI-ethics researcher examining the psychological impacts of interactional systems—AI as a social agent, social robots, video games, and extended realities. As Associate Research Director at the Technical University of Munich’s Institute for Ethics in AI, she coordinates the EU-funded MSCA doctoral network alignAI, driving cross-disciplinary training, policy engagement, and industry collaboration. She is a Friedrich Schiedel Fellow, co-leads the Immersive Realities working group at the TUM Think Tank, and volunteers as an ambassador for both Women in Games and Women in AI Germany.

PRESENTATION |

The Friendship Algorithm: Will AI Replace My Friends?

From chatbots that listen to social robots that “care,” AI is rewriting the rules of companionship. But what does this mean for human relationships? This keynote explores the ambivalent social impacts of AI – how these technologies can simultaneously create communities and deepen isolation, offer support and erode intimacy. AI’s social effects are never neutral: they emerge from the complex interplay of design choices, cultural values, and human vulnerabilities. We’ll explore phenomena like the “illusions of intimacy” in AI companions, the polarising effects of algorithmic curation, and how algorithmic sociality (e.g., dating apps, social media) reshapes authenticity and connection. The talk challenges us to move beyond dystopian fears and utopian promises, and instead ask: How do we design technologies that augment – not replace – the profound, messy, and irreplaceable beauty of human relationships?

Hannah Cox

Hannah Cox is the founder of the Better Business Network, a community of purpose driven businesses, and betternotstop a B Corp certified sustainability consultancy. In 2025 she ran 100 marathons in 100 days across India for climate and social justice, raising over £106,000 as part of her goal to raise £1 Million for people and planet. She speaks about human connection, collective action and how communities and human connection, not corporations, change the world.

PRESENTATION |

Project Salt Run: What 100 Marathons in 100 days Taught Me About Connection, Community and Why Business Has to Change

In 2024 Hannah Cox had never run a marathon. Eighteen months later she ran one hundred of them, back to back, across India, retracing a forgotten 4,222km colonial boundary called the Inland Customs Line. She raised over £106,000 for climate and social justice charities, and came home with a clearer understanding of what business is actually for.

This talk brings that story to the IFES stage and connects it directly to the work in the room. Hannah will share the meaning behind Project Salt Run, the three lessons 100 marathons taught her about human connection, and why she believes the exhibition and events industry is one of the most important sectors in the world right now.

In an era of rising loneliness, hybrid burnout and AI flattened communication, the people who design the rooms where humans meet are not in a nostalgia business. They are building the infrastructure for trust, collaboration and collective action. Hannah will challenge the audience to own that role, and share how the Better Business Network is putting it into practice across the UK.

Expect a story driven, honest and energising session that leaves delegates proud of what they do, clearer on why it matters, and connected to a growing global community of purpose driven businesses doing the work alongside them.

Helena Klaus

Helena Klaus is the Founder of Sales in DACH, a leading sales enablement ecosystem for B2B teams in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
She started her career as an SDR, overachieving in 10 out of 12 months, and later exceeded her annual quota as an AE by over 345%. Alongside her sales career, she trained as an actress in London and New York, a background that shapes her unique approach to combining psychology, performance, and structured sales execution.
Starting with zero pipeline and zero brand, Helena built Sales in DACH into a network of over 2,000 sellers and leaders, helping teams generate pipeline, accelerate deals, and outperform targets.

PRESENTATION |

A Scalable Outreach Setup in a World of LinkedIn, TikTok & Instagram

Most sales teams are stuck between two extremes: Outdated outbound that gets ignored or random content that doesn’t convert.

In this keynote, Helena breaks down how modern sales teams can build a scalable outreach system in 6 Steps that combines structured outbound with cognitive psychology.

Han Leenhouts

Keynote Speaker & Exhibition Expert

Professional Summary
Han Leenhouts, founder of Sales & Pepper, is a distinguished international keynote speaker and trainer specialized in exhibition performance, sales training, and live communication. With over 30 years of hands-on industry experience, including more than a decade in stand building, Han has personally guided thousands of companies globally towards measurable exhibition success.

Key Expertise

• Exhibition and trade show performance training
• Visitor engagement and exhibitor strategies
• Storytelling and presentation skills
• Pitch development and execution
• Mindset selling and value-based sales

PRESENTATION |

Beyond the Badge

You’re in a room full of industry friends. Familiar faces. Familiar conversations. Or so you think.

Because even in a room full of people you know, there are always new connections waiting to happen. New stories to discover. Fresh ideas hiding behind a badge you’ve seen a hundred times before.

In this session, serendipity becomes the matchmaker. Through a fast-paced, facilitated and high-energy experience, you’ll be paired with different IFES members to spark real conversations beyond the usual event small talk.

Lee Ali and Han will guide the journey with thought-provoking and sometimes unexpected questions designed to uncover the people, passions, experiences and ideas behind the business cards.

Whether you meet someone completely new or discover something surprising about someone you thought you already knew, one thing is guaranteed:

Like Guadalajara last year… it’s going to be a lot of fun.

PRESENTATION |

Boothmanship – The Art of Engaging Visitors

Why Boothmanship Matters
A well-designed booth attracts attention, but it’s the interactions with your booth staff that truly make a lasting impact. This workshop will show how effective boothmanship turns visitors into lasting business connections.

Enhance Customer Experience
Friendly, knowledgeable staff elevate visitor experiences and build long-term relationships, ensuring repeat business and referrals.

Takeaways: 

• Learn how well-trained staff boost exhibition success.
• Add value to your services with boothmanship training.
• Gain practical tools to enhance booth staff performance and elevate your exhibition presence.

Format: Interactive workshop with case studies and hands-on scenarios.

Master boothmanship to drive future business!

Charles Pappas

Covering the exposition industry as Exhibitor magazine’s Senior Writer since 2002, Charles Pappas has won nearly 50 national/regional ASBPE, MAGGIE, and TABBI awards. He is also one of the preeminent authorities on the World Expo. He was a consultant to Expo 2020 Dubai, Expo 2027 in Belgrade, and Minneapolis’ upcoming 2031 International Horticultural Expo.

Pappas’ books, “Flying Cars, Zombie Dogs, and Robot Overlords” and “Expo 2020 Dubai: The Definitive Edition,” probe how world exhibitions have shaped history and transformed everyday lives. His latest book, “Nobody Sits Like the French,” shows how the Paris we all hold in our minds is the ripple effect of the seven World Expos hosted by the City of Light.

PRESENTATION |

Steal This Idea: Six Trends from Expo 2025 & One Lie

If you did the equivalent of an Ancestry.com analysis on the exhibition industry, every booth and every exhibit at every convention center from McCormick Place to Messe Dusseldorf over the last 175 years had its design origins in the World Expo.

The most recent one, Expo 2025, took place in Osaka, Japan. Here are six trends from that event that are trickling down to the exhibition world, and how you can steal them.

Sebastian Witt

Sebastian Witt is a Partner and Senior Consultant at jwc GmbH, a leading advisory firm specializing in the international exhibition and congress industry.

With extensive experience across the entire industry value chain, jwc supports governments, venues, organizers, and private equity firms by providing strategic insights and expertise. The firm has established itself as a trusted knowledge source, having successfully conducted over 300 projects in more than 40 countries worldwide.

In addition to his role at jwc, Sebastian chairs the Industry Partners Working Group at UFI, where he contributes to shaping industry best practices and fostering collaboration among key stakeholders.

PRESENTATION |

The global exhibition market – facts, figures and trends

In this session, Sebastian will provide a strategic overview of the global exhibition industry, highlighting key economic and market developments across major exhibition markets worldwide. The session will examine the performance of the industry’s leading organizations, including insights from the global Top 40 exhibition companies, explore emerging industry trends shaping future growth, and review the latest pricing developments and revenue strategies.

Together, these perspectives will offer a comprehensive view of the opportunities and challenges influencing the global exhibition industry today.

Simon Damböck

Simon Damböck studied business administration with a specialisation in trade fair, congress, and event management. After positions with an industry association and on the agency side, he now works for a renowned exhibition design and construction company that has been operating worldwide for over fifty years. He also holds teaching positions at several universities, works as a lecturer for selected continuing education providers, and is the author of a trade fair tutorial for the international association UFI.

The Damböck group of companies has been involved in brand communication as well as the design and execution of high-quality exhibition stands for well-known clients in Europe, the USA, the Far East, and Asia for more than 50 years, including many market leaders. With over 160 permanent employees at locations in Shanghai, Munich, Milan, Linz, Salzburg, Kassel, Passau, Rosenheim, and Neufinsing, the group ranks among the 20 largest providers in the industry in Germany and among the five largest owner-managed companies in this sector in Germany. It has also received numerous awards in design competitions

PRESENTATION |

What makes us the Unique Buying Reason for our clients?

Geopolitical instability, economic slowdowns, digital disruption, AI, sustainability demands, changing consumer behavior, and new expectations around how people consume media and experiences – all of this is reshaping the events and trade show ecosystem.

At the same time, clients are asking harder questions:

• Why should we invest in live events?
• What measurable value do we get?
• What makes one partner more valuable than another?

And perhaps the biggest question of all:

• “What is today’s unique buying reason to appoint us?”

Panelists

• Robert Sarcevic, Global Business Services, Siemens AG
• Harald Kirchschlager, Executive Director Corporate Strategy & Development, Messe Munich
• Simon Damböck, CEO, Atelier Damböck

Moderator: Joerg Zeissig, CEO Holtmann+ & President IFES

Harald Kirchschlager

Harald Kirchschlager has spent over 15 years driving impact within organizations undergoing deep transformations. He has successfully led and delivered comprehensive business and organizational development projects across both major global corporations and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Currently, he heads the Corporate Strategy & Development division at Messe München, where he and his teams spearhead the future-ready positioning of the organization and its global trade fair portfolio.

He brings a powerful and passionate combination of project management, strategic vision, and digital expertise to change processes. Harald is particularly fascinated by the potential of emerging technologies and their measurable value contribution – spanning from the core of the business straight to the end customer. Drawing on his extensive background in international M&A projects, management consulting, and line management, he seamlessly integrates strategy, transformation, program management, and holistic leadership.

Career Milestones at Messe München GmbH:

• 2022 – Present: Executive Director Corporate Strategy & Development
• Interim Role: Head of the Corporate Governance Staff Department
• September 2017: Joined as Director IT Strategy & Governance (successfully designing and steering the corporate IT transformation)

PRESENTATION |

What makes us the Unique Buying Reason for our clients?

Geopolitical instability, economic slowdowns, digital disruption, AI, sustainability demands, changing consumer behavior, and new expectations around how people consume media and experiences – all of this is reshaping the events and trade show ecosystem.

At the same time, clients are asking harder questions:

• Why should we invest in live events?
• What measurable value do we get?
• What makes one partner more valuable than another?

And perhaps the biggest question of all:

• “What is today’s unique buying reason to appoint us?”

Panelists

• Robert Sarcevic, Global Business Services, Siemens AG
• Harald Kirchschlager, Executive Director Corporate Strategy & Development, Messe Munich
• Simon Damböck, CEO, Atelier Damböck

Moderator: Joerg Zeissig, CEO Holtmann+ & President IFES

Robert Sarcevic

Robert joined Siemens in 2006 as a Marketing Consultant and took on various roles in marketing, sales, business development, and communications over the following years.
In July 2019, he moved to the Communication Services (CMS) department of Siemens Global Business Services as Director Fairs.
CMS acts as the central service provider for live communication at Siemens, offering a wide range of services from consulting, planning, and execution to the follow-up of physical, hybrid, and virtual formats.

In 2021, CMS was restructured: Interdisciplinary teams replaced previously separate units such as trade fairs, events, etc., in order to better integrate comprehensive communication solutions.
Since this realignment, Robert has been leading one of the newly formed groups for Live Experiences and is a member of the CMS management team.

With a great passion for marketing and communication, he is actively involved in various professional networks and working groups related to trade fairs and events.
He lives with his family in Nuremberg, is active on Social Media, as well as at many trade fairs and other events, enjoys traveling, maintaining friendships – and repeatedly vows to not just consume sports passively.

PRESENTATION |

What makes us the Unique Buying Reason for our clients?

Geopolitical instability, economic slowdowns, digital disruption, AI, sustainability demands, changing consumer behavior, and new expectations around how people consume media and experiences – all of this is reshaping the events and trade show ecosystem.

At the same time, clients are asking harder questions:

• Why should we invest in live events?
• What measurable value do we get?
• What makes one partner more valuable than another?

And perhaps the biggest question of all:

• “What is today’s unique buying reason to appoint us?”

Panelists

• Robert Sarcevic, Global Business Services, Siemens AG
• Harald Kirchschlager, Executive Director Corporate Strategy & Development, Messe Munich
• Simon Damböck, CEO, Atelier Damböck

Moderator: Joerg Zeissig, CEO Holtmann+ & President IFES

Jörg Zeissig

Joerg Zeissig has been the CEO of Holtmann+ since 2019, transforming the company into an Experiential Marketing Agency and leading provider of exhibition construction and live communication. Before joining Holtmann+, he held various international management positions, including many years at Leipziger Messe, where he contributed significantly to the internationalization of several business areas starting in 1997. He later headed the company’s Asian subsidiary in Singapore, expanding its global network and strengthening its presence in key markets. Following his work in the trade fair sector, Joerg took on senior roles in the event and exhibition services industry, including positions at Expotechnik (today ET Global) and as managing director of two companies specializing in event and media technology. Since 2025, he has also served as President of the international industry association IFES, where he supports the global development of exhibition and event services. With more than 25 years of experience, he advocates for sustainable, innovative, and future-oriented concepts in the event industry in numerous councils.

PRESENTATION |

What makes us the Unique Buying Reason for our clients?

Geopolitical instability, economic slowdowns, digital disruption, AI, sustainability demands, changing consumer behavior, and new expectations around how people consume media and experiences – all of this is reshaping the events and trade show ecosystem.

At the same time, clients are asking harder questions:

• Why should we invest in live events?
• What measurable value do we get?
• What makes one partner more valuable than another?

And perhaps the biggest question of all:

• “What is today’s unique buying reason to appoint us?”

Panelists

• Robert Sarcevic, Global Business Services, Siemens AG
• Harald Kirchschlager, Executive Director Corporate Strategy & Development, Messe Munich
• Simon Damböck, CEO, Atelier Damböck

Moderator: Joerg Zeissig, CEO Holtmann+ & President IFES