Lessons In Leadership Thoughts from the Zeitgeist The Third Horizon Letting go of urgency and embracing spontaneity. After years of applying the McKinsey Three Horizons framework to articulate a business growth strategy, I find myself considering my own career — my own life — in these terms. I’ve enjoyed 35+ years serving the events industry, always trying to manage resources and find the right balance […] Written by BPH July 11, 2024July 11, 2024
Lessons In Leadership Thoughts from the Zeitgeist Embracing Weird I’m planning for what’s next. It’s hard to remember a time when I wasn’t trying to cram more action — work, play, socialization, learning — into every fleeting minute of my life. It’s a habit I developed early in life and frankly, I thrive on being busy. I don’t think I’m a workaholic. But I […] Written by BPH May 23, 2024May 23, 2024
Lessons In Leadership The Big Ask Should event organizers provide curated connections? The significance of the latest Freeman Trends Report is that it gives trade show organizers insight into how to help exhibitors realize more value for their investment while elevating their own. In a recent post, we considered how to optimize the exhibitor experience by providing a prix fixe menu […] Written by BPH May 9, 2024November 6, 2025
Lessons In Leadership Thoughts from the Zeitgeist Optimizing the Exhibitor Experience It’s time to offer all exhibitors white-glove treatment. In a previous post, I talked about the results of the Freeman 2024 Exhibitor Trends Report and the implied mandate for the events industry to switch its focus from Return on Investment (ROI) to Return on Objectives (ROO). There’s a common misconception that exhibitors attend events primarily […] Written by BPH April 25, 2024April 25, 2024
Lessons In Leadership The Calculus of Event Experience You can chase ROI, or you can lead with ROO. I am a huge proponent of data-based business management. And for the most part, that boils down to ROI — analyzing the return in value for the resources invested. This is a useful selling tool for many marketing channels, where a simple formula delivers the […] Written by BPH April 11, 2024April 11, 2024
Posts You Won't Want to Miss Thoughts from the Zeitgeist Dumpster diving? Sometimes “sustainable” simply means “worth saving.” If you happen to be walking out of a convention center after a major trade show and discover Elizabeth Fretheim dumpster diving, don’t be surprised. To be fair, she calls it research. Elizabeth leads the Freeman Sustainability and Strategy team and she says you can learn a lot about […] Written by BPH June 21, 2024June 21, 2024
Thoughts from the Zeitgeist Irreconcilable Differences We can’t always agree to disagree. When a colleague and I disagree on a plan, decision, or other action, we can generally agree to disagree. Having a difference of opinion is okay. In fact, in an organization that seeks diversity of opinions, academic disciplines, social differences, and cultural backgrounds, some disagreement is useful and should […] Written by BPH December 1, 2021December 1, 2021
Live In The Time of Quarantine Unexpressed Expectations = Planned Resentment Recovery begins with a realistic recalibration. There’s a psychological phenomenon that I refer to as “unexpressed expectations = planned resentment.” In all walks of life — social, business, family, recreational — people are disappointed, become angry, and are sometimes disillusioned because an outcome falls short of their hopes and dreams. And they don’t connect their resentment with […] Written by BPH July 28, 2021July 28, 2021
Live In The Time of Quarantine A Good Problem to Have Ramping back up in the new world order. It seems ages since we started having those tough discussions about furloughing our amazing team members. And now we’re approaching summer again. At long last, our clients are talking about the return to in-person live events. That means our leadership team can make plans to ramp up and […] Written by BPH May 26, 2021May 26, 2021
Live In The Time of Quarantine Let’s Play Ball! It’s time for spring training. Maybe it’s spring fever, maybe it’s that second vaccine, but I have this unshakeable feeling that our industry is coming out of a deep thaw. That is good news for everyone. But it’s going to take longer for some businesses to return to action than others. And that means that […] Written by BPH May 17, 2021May 17, 2021
Lessons In Leadership relationships I Love Andy Cunningham Third in a series of tributes. Long before I had the privilege of engaging with Andy Cunningham as part of the Freeman Design Council, I knew her in the Silicon Valley days. I was in awe of her. She was the powerhouse PR consultant who deployed strategy to beat the tech bro’s at their own game […] Written by BPH March 16, 2026March 16, 2026
We Are All Designers Building Bench Strength In America, the language of team sports has been readily adopted by the business world, and it’s not hard to see why. The exhilaration that comes with striving for and achieving big goals through a group effort is easily captured in the metaphors of moving the ball, making the big play, and scoring. Whether it’s […] Written by BPH March 9, 2026March 9, 2026
Connecting Lessons In Leadership relationships I Love Jonathan Seybold Second in a series of tributes. I was lucky enough to be mentored by Jonathan Seybold when I was too young and naïve to understand the intentionality that went into everything he did. One of the original thought-leaders in digital publishing and technology transformation, he anticipated game-changing platform shifts before they became mainstream. Today, he […] Written by BPH March 2, 2026March 2, 2026
Boardroom Thinking The BOD Member’s Role in Times of Uncertainty I find it interesting to think about how the roles of Board Members have shifted with the changing times. Certainly, across my own career span, I’ve seen more talk about long-term value creation and less about short-term profitability. But change itself is an unwieldy commodity and even smart people can be reduced to transactional thinking. […] Written by BPH February 23, 2026February 23, 2026
relationships I Love… Periodically, especially when I need an antidote to the headlines, I reflect on certain people I hold in the highest regard. These people aren’t related to me and don’t owe me anything, but they have enriched my life in countless ways. Respect isn’t a strong enough word; I love these people. So, I decided to […] Written by BPH February 12, 2026February 12, 2026
Boardroom Thinking We Are All Designers BODs and Digital Transformation It occurred to me the other day that asking a business leader about digital transformation is like asking a fish about water. Change is what we live and breathe. According to Forbes, 70% of the surveyed C-Suite executives indicated that AI agents are already transforming their organizations’ internal operations. And 30% of CIOs said they […] Written by BPH February 9, 2026February 9, 2026
