Ask most trade show industry professionals why they chose their line of work, and most will tell you that they “fell into” the business rather than intentionally chose it as a profession. Jenn Heinold is no exception to this story. After graduating with a journalism degree with the intention of becoming a newspaper reporter, Heinold’s first job out of college was at a local non-profit handling media relations for her hometown of Cape May, NJ, where she still lives to this day. A National Historic Landmark city, Cape May hosts numerous events for visitors and locals such as Food & Wine Festivals, Antique Shows, and Musical Festivals, and through working with these events, Heinold soon discovered her new career path.    

“I wanted to move to a city, so I applied for a job with National Trade Productions just outside of Washington, DC and joined their team to work in marketing on [shows such as] GOVSEC, U.S. Law Enforcement Conference & Exposition, and READY!,” she explained. “I worked under a great entrepreneur, Denise Medved, and learned so much from my time there and made many lifelong friends at NTP.” 

While working as NTP’s marketing and communications manager, Heinold also had the chance to work with Jennifer Hoff, founder and CEO of full-service trade show and event management company Taffy Event Strategies, who gave the young trade show rookie plenty of opportunities to support NTP’s shows onsite, an experience that further cemented Heinold’s newfound enthusiasm for trade shows.    

After her time at NTP, and spending more than 15 years at Access Intelligence, where she most recently served as senior vice president of events, Heinold joined Taffy Events as COO in October 2021 and was quickly promoted to president a little over a year later.  

“I love so much about the trade show industry,” Heinold said. “I love being able to help companies grow their businesses and people grow their careers. I love being so close to the communities our events serve and being able to mold and shape events year in and out to make them better. And I’ve especially enjoyed launching events that complement existing events or fill a need in the marketplace.” 

TSNN had a chance to sit down with this dynamic industry powerhouse to hear about her accomplishments at Taffy Events, the mentors who have helped her along her career path, and why being a naturally curious person is a superpower. 

What has leading Taffy Event Strategies been like for you and what accomplishments are you most proud of?   

Associations and corporations hire us to produce their events and support their existing teams, so we are, by extension a part of their team and their success. Leading a company with that mission every day makes for many meaningful moments. During my short time at Taffy Events, I have been able to support the growth of many of our employees’ careers and professional development. It’s hard not be proud when you see people thriving. From a business perspective, we’ve supported our clients in their returns from the pandemic, helped them shape more meaningful event experiences, and better serve their membership through events.  

We also started a new service offering supporting event launches, [and] we have launched two new events thus far, [including] the inaugural Flooring Sustainability Summit in July 2024, which brought together leaders in green building standards, flooring manufacturers, and key government agencies to advance sustainability practices in construction. It was an inspiring event; we actually hosted one day at the U.S. Capitol.  

In April of 2024, we announced the launch of High Performance Expo, a new B2B trade show focused on performance racing and motorsports [launching] in June of 2025 in Charlotte, NC. The outpouring of support on both the local and national level has been almost overwhelming. We definitely found an underserved market that needs and deserves an event to call their own [and] I’m proud to lead the team building that.  

How did your previous professional roles prepare you for your current leadership position?  

I wouldn’t be where I am today without my time at Access Intelligence and the opportunities Don Pazour and Heather Farley provided me when I was there. Don and Heather are excellent leaders, and Don has this amazing ability to connect with and make every employee know how important they are to the bigger mission.    

During my years Access Intelligence, I was able to launch, grow, fix, and acquire portfolios of products that served communities year-round. I worked on practically every event model there is, learned from my counterparts leading their own portfolios, and became hyper-focused on the value of and how to monetize data. I was surrounded by such a smart team; they lifted me up and I hope I did the same for them.    

Name a mentor or industry leader who has impacted your career and how. 

I have so many! Jennifer Hoff, who founded Taffy Events on her own, is an inspiration daily – she is a brave, smart, and caring leader. Jen built Taffy Events, and I am so grateful every day for her trust and confidence in me.    

I owe a lot of my leadership style and skills to Macy Fecto, Chief People Officer at Access Intelligence. Macy really instilled an employee-first culture at Access Intelligence and taught me how to handle difficult conversations with grace and empathy, yet equally with the ability to set goals and have accountability with my team. She has a gift with people, and she gifted me with so much practical wisdom––I use it all of the time!  

What are the biggest challenges of being a woman at the helm?   

Refilling our tanks! As women we tend to give so much; we make ourselves accessible to our teams, our exhibitors and attendees, our leadership, our families, our neighbors…the list goes on. And in that, we sometimes forget that we are worthy of time, attention, and care for ourselves.  

What’s one piece advice would you give to women in the events industry wishing to follow a leadership path?    

Most paths don’t follow a straight line, so respect the journey and learn along the way. It sounds kind of cliché, but we’ve all had parts of our careers that have been tough – whether it’s a challenging boss, an employee who is struggling, or a show that’s facing headwinds, navigating through those challenges really helps you home in on your leadership strengths and weaknesses and usually helps you get to where you want to be.    

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?  

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. When I first started on the SATELLITE show at Access Intelligence, I was really intimidated by satellite technology – it wasn’t really tangible and it was highly specialized, so I learned the market by asking exhibitors questions that helped me understand the ecosystem, what was driving business, and where their next customer was coming from.  

Now, as I leader of my team, I want to know, “What are the pain points in your day-to-day?” and “How can our tech stack or internal processes be improved?” I’m asking our clients, “What buyer segment of your audience is underserved by your show and how can we build a strategy to attract them?” and “What disrupters are there in the market that will impact your show in the next 3-5 years?” Being naturally curious keeps things fresh and interesting and enables you to make informed decisions. 

Know a dynamic female event industry leader who deserves some time in the spotlight? Please reach out to lisa.savas@informa.com and danica.tormohlen@informa.com.

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