Snöcap June 6, 2025
Snöball correspondent
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The world of events has been buzzing this week with Guru Media's Eventastic (it's happening on June 6 as well), Global Exhibitions Day 2025, UFI's centennial celebrations and more. Here's a recap in our weekly Snöcap, where we bring the peaks of news stories in exhibitions and associations.
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The top event stories that made waves:
- Eventastic 2025 kicks off - a virtual show that feels more energetic than a real one
- 2024 Was Warmest Year in '100,000 Years' - isla
- Messe Dusseldorf's Wolfram Diener elected UFI president for 2026-27, GED 2025 celebrated worldwide
- Easyfairs becomes new owner of leading high-precision trade show EPHJ
- NEC Group partners with Levy UK + Ireland to boost food and beverage portfolio
- Who is hiring?
Eventastic 2025 kicks off - a virtual show that feels more energetic than a real one
If you thought a browser tab could never rival the buzz of an in-person expo hall, Day 1 of Eventastic 2025 probably changed your mind.
More than 11,000 registrants joined RingCentral for eight hours of DJ-fuelled hype, brain-stretching sessions, and the kind of chat-stream chaos that makes moderators earn their coffee.
Here's a recap of what went down on Day 1:
At 10:30 AM ET the house lights flipped straight to “party mode.”
DJ Graffiti’s global roll-call—powered by StreamAlive’s live map—turned the comment feed into an emoji-tsunami as attendees dropped their cities in real time.
Thousands of pins later, host Jay Schwedelson declared, “We’re one dance floor.”
Schwedelson’s now-famous “Earned On-Demand” rule set the tone: only viewers who log 60 live minutes across the two-day event get the replay link.
The goal was to re-train virtual audiences to show up instead of treating conferences like Netflix. Early push-back in his LinkedIn comments melted away once people felt the FOMO.
Five sessions that stood out:
Kathryn Frankson (Designing a Winning Event Marketing Experience)
Her 3-step playbook: ① anchor every touchpoint to one emotion, ② script the first 90 s of registration for an instant “I’m in” win, ③ weave FOMO into each agenda block—delivering a 34 % boost in click-to-reg.
Nancy Harhut (HBT Marketing)
Unpacked five cognitive shortcuts that lift event-promo email clicks—endowment effect, anchoring, loss aversion and the “because” rationale topped the list.
Jordan Arnold (RingCentral)
Demoed a “Webinar Glow-Up” template: 3-minute teaser video → SMS reminder → live emoji wall; pilot users saw a 28 % show-rate bump.
Jay Acunzo (Unthinkable Media)
Argued that “title testing beats speaker prestige”—the session with the friend-worthy headline always wins the attendance battle.
Ashley Faus & Janessa Drainville (Atlassian)
Shared a live build of an AI-powered session scheduler that clusters personas by learning style, not job title. Early adopters cut agenda-planning time 40 %.
What's ahead - Snöball's pitch!
On June 7, Rachel Stephan, founder and CEO of Snöball, has a very interesting and hands-on tech demo of Snöball's peer-to-peer event marketing solutions. Don't miss it!
2024 Was Warmest Year in '100,000 Years' - isla's Temperature Check Europe report
The year 2024 marked the warmest period in 100,000 years, according to a new report from isla, the industry body for sustainable events, which analyzed climate impacts on the European events sector.
The Temperature Check Europe report examined nearly 1,000 events across 22 European countries to measure carbon emissions and climate-related disruptions. Event disruptions caused by extreme weather increased 86.5% compared to 2023.
The report documented 617 extreme weather events worldwide in 2024, with 219 attributed to climate change. Research found that 2,091 events were disrupted globally between 2004 and 2024, with storms accounting for 81.9% of cases.
"The environment is changing, and the event sector is not immune to these impacts," the report states.
Key emission sources by percentage:
- Audience travel: 39%
- Staff travel: 17%
- Production transport: 14%
- Build production: 12%
Event disruption rankings:
- UK: Second globally for weather-related disruptions
- Germany: Seventh
- Spain: Tenth
Compliance impact:
- Organizations with legal sustainability requirements are twice as likely to measure carbon footprints
- Same organizations are twice as likely to set reduction targets
The report identifies budget constraints, stakeholder buy-in and lack of education as primary barriers to progress. Exhibitions generate the highest emissions among event types, while activations produce the lowest.
Despite climate challenges, global clean energy investments exceeded $3 trillion in 2024, double the amount invested in fossil fuels.
The report recommends event organizers focus on production decisions and procurement practices where they have direct control.
Messe Dusseldorf's Wolfram Diener elected UFI president for 2026-27, GED 2025 celebrated worldwide
The UFI Board of Directors has elected Wolfram Diener, president and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf Group, as UFI president for the 2026-27 term.
Diener will join the UFI Presidential Trio as incoming president in November 2025 and assume the presidency in November 2026 at the 93rd UFI Global Congress in Bahrain. The decision becomes effective at the conclusion of the 92nd UFI Global Congress, scheduled for Nov. 19-22, 2025, in Hong Kong.
Diener has served as president and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf since July 2020 and has worked in the exhibitions industry for more than 30 years. Since November 2021, he has served as treasurer on the UFI Executive Committee.
"I am honored to take on the UFI presidency at a time of global challenges," Diener said. "We must be present where the economy needs us most: in emerging markets and at the crossroads of global exchange."
Global Exhibitions Day celebrated worldwide
The exhibition industry marked the 10th Global Exhibitions Day on June 4, 2025, under the theme "Exhibitions Unleash Potential." The event reached audiences in more than 100 countries and regions.
Global activations generated an online reach of more than 800,000 across social media platforms, according to UFI. The #GED2025 hashtag was used throughout the community to showcase exhibitions' role in driving progress.
The occasion was amplified with GED advocates sharing customized social cards through Snöball's global social campaign.
Next year's Global Exhibitions Day will take place on June 3, 2026.
"Global Exhibitions Day is a demonstration of the exhibition industry's unity and impact," said Hugh Jones, UFI president and CEO of RX. "Around the world, our community came together to showcase how exhibitions connect people, ignite innovation, and drive growth across industries, communities, and economies."
Easyfairs becomes new owner of leading high-precision trade show EPHJ
Easyfairs has acquired leading high-precision trade show EPHJ, the companies announced.
The acquisition follows the decision by EPHJ founders André Colard and Olivier Saenger to step back after 22 years. The Geneva-based show attracts nearly 800 companies and more than 23,000 visitors annually, focusing on watchmaking, jewelry, microtechnology and medical technology.
"After 22 years of passionate commitment, we felt the time had come to pass the torch," the founders said in a statement.
EPHJ will maintain its Geneva location and industrial focus under new ownership. Alexandre Catton will continue managing the trade show with the existing team structure unchanged.
"We are honored to take the reins of such an iconic event," said Roland Brand, CEO of Easyfairs for the DACH-Italy region. "Our ambition is to ensure continuity while providing it with the means to achieve greater international reach."
Easyfairs operates 30 manufacturing industry trade shows. The 2025 EPHJ edition opened Tuesday in Geneva.
NEC Group partners with Levy UK + Ireland to boost food and beverage portfolio
NEC Group, the UK's largest live events venue operator, has announced a partnership with Levy UK + Ireland to manage food and beverage operations across its venues.
Levy will oversee catering at NEC facilities including the NEC, ICC, Vox, Utilita Arena Birmingham and bp pulse LIVE. The partnership transfers 330 catering employees to Levy and includes plans to renovate outlets and hospitality spaces.
Levy operates at Excel London, The O2 and other UK venues. The company is part of Compass Group.
"We are looking forward to working with Levy to enhance our offering," said Mel Smith, CEO of NEC Group.
Jon Davies, CEO of Levy, said the partnership creates an opportunity "to create memorable experiences for the millions of visitors that come through the NEC Group's venues each year."
Who is hiring?
This section highlights the latest job positions in the events and associations industry. Here are some new roles that have opened up:
Augment Code
Head of Events
CrowdStrike
Executive Briefing Center Manager
Golden State Warriors
Director, Events
The Economist Group
Event Manager
Interested in learning how peer-to-peer marketing can boost your event registrations and audience engagement? Book a chat to know how Snöball can help .
