TSE 2026年度女性领袖专访：Forge集团Linette Dao谈IFE展会重塑与行业未来

CHICAGO — Trade Show Executive (TSE) is continuing its highlight of the 2026 Women to Watch with Linette Dao, Senior Marketing Director, Industrial Group, at Forge. 

An anchor in her company’s marketing organization, Dao encourages insight-led experimentation and cross-functional collaboration, and has transformed how her team strategically approaches growth across numerous events. 

This year, she reimagined the International Fastener Expo (IFE), introducing a refreshed brand identity, a new host city, Phoenix, and enhanced networking experiences. 

TSE caught up with Dao to learn about her impactful work, what inspires her to contribute to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and more key topics. 

ANDREW: Can you tell us how you landed in the trade show industry and what has kept you here? 

LINETTE: I actually started on the media side of the business at UBM Canon, now Informa Markets, working in marketing services like lead generation, webinars, white papers and digital programs for our clients.  

It was a great crash course in B2B marketing, but I kept looking over at my colleagues on the events side and thinking, “That looks like something I’d really enjoy.” 

So I started asking questions. I talked to colleagues about what they did, how their shows worked and what it was like to market a live event. Eventually, I made the jump and I haven’t looked back. 

What hooked me was the energy. You can spend months looking at spreadsheets, registration numbers, email campaigns and floor plans, and then suddenly you walk into a convention center and it’s all real.  

Thousands of people are there connecting, doing business and experiencing something your team built from the ground up. There’s a little bit of magic and a lot of controlled chaos to it. 

I’ve also loved getting to reinvent myself every few years. I’ve worked across embedded systems, medical manufacturing, retail and now industrial manufacturing (decorated apparel, healthcare and fasteners).  

Every industry has its own personality, its own audience and its own nuances to figure out. 

That’s part of the fun for me. I get to keep learning a completely new world while bringing ideas and lessons from the last one with me. 

More than a decade later, I’m still here because I’m still learning. The industries change, the customers change, the way we market changes and there’s always another show around the corner to make better than the last one. 

ANDREW: What are some of the skills that have helped you move up in your organization, and how do you refine those skills?    

LINETTE: Curiosity has probably been my superpower. I ask a lot of questions, sometimes probably too many!  

I’m not afraid to be the person in the room who asks, “Why are we doing it this way?” or “What happens if we try something completely different?” 

As I’ve moved into leadership, I’ve also learned how important it is to think beyond marketing. I want to understand the P&L, what sales is hearing, what keeps our customers up at night and where the business is trying to go.  

The better I understand the whole picture, the better marketer and leader I can be. 

And I’m a big believer in feedback. I actively seek it from my leaders, peers and team, and I try to surround myself with people who think differently than I do.  

I don’t want someone to agree with every idea I have. I want someone who will make the idea better. 

One thing I tell my team often is that we can’t just rinse and repeat. Even when something worked last year, there should always be a question of, “How do we make it better this year?” 

ANDREW: Could you describe your work establishing a biweekly touchpoint for Emerald’s broader marketing organization and its benefits? 

LINETTE: One thing I’ve learned at Emerald is not to be afraid to reach outside of your immediate team.  

We have so many talented marketers working across completely different industries, and I’m always reaching out to someone to ask, “How did you do that?” or “Have you tried this before?” Sometimes it turns into a quick conversation, and sometimes it sparks a completely new idea. 

That’s the spirit I try to bring to our broader marketing touchpoints. As marketers, it can be easy to stay within our own teams and brands because we’re so focused on the next campaign or show.  

But you’d be surprised by how many of the same challenges a retail brand and a healthcare brand are trying to solve. 

Sharing what’s working and, just as importantly, what’s not, gives us perspectives we wouldn’t necessarily get from our own teams. Someone else’s solution may not translate perfectly to my event, but it might make me think about the problem completely differently. 

I think that kind of collaboration makes all of us stronger marketers. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel on every brand, and some of my favorite ideas have started with seeing what another team was doing and thinking, “Okay, how can we make that work for us?” 

ANDREW: How did you reimagine the IFE for 2026? 

LINETTE: IFE has an incredible history and a very loyal community, but the way people choose to spend their time and travel budgets has changed. Having hundreds of exhibitors under one roof is incredibly valuable, but our team knew the experience needed to be about more than walking a show floor.  

We wanted IFE to feel like the place where the fastener community comes together to do business, learn what’s changing, build relationships and talk about where the industry is headed next. 

Reimagining IFE for 2026 has truly been a team effort. We’ve challenged each other to look at every part of the experience and ask what we could do differently, what our community values and where we have an opportunity to make IFE even better. 

That’s really where “Power Behind the Build” came from. Fasteners may not always be the first thing people think about when they look at an airplane, a bridge, a car or a piece of machinery, but they’re quite literally behind so much of what gets built.  

We wanted to celebrate that and the people and companies powering the industry forward. 

Moving IFE to Phoenix for the first time gave our team an opportunity to look at the show with fresh eyes. For 2026, we’ve expanded education, introduced the International Fastener & Assembly Summit and created more intentional opportunities for networking and relationship-building.  

We’re also focused on the future of the fastener community and how we bring emerging professionals and the next generation of manufacturing, engineering and supply chain leaders into it. 

What I’ve learned working on IFE is that this really is a community. People have known each other for years, companies have grown up alongside the show and relationships matter.  

So reimagining IFE was never about changing everything people love about it. It was about honoring that foundation while asking, “What does the next generation of IFE look like?” 

And I’ll put on my IFE brand ambassador hat for a moment: If you’re part of the fastener, manufacturing or supply chain community and you’re thinking about attending or exhibiting, please reach out to me. 

I’d love to connect you with IFE and I’ll happily share my registration link! 

ANREW: What inspires you to contribute to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and can you walk through the inspiration behind Emerald’s Family Employee Resource Group (ERG) and its impacts? 

LINETTE: This one is personal for me. 

I’m a mom of two young boys, and becoming a parent made me realize how many people around us are quietly navigating caregiving responsibilities while also trying to grow their careers. 

Kaitlyn Fritz and I co-founded Emerald’s Family ERG because we wanted to create a community around that shared experience, but we also wanted “family” to be inclusive.  

Family can mean raising children, caring for aging parents, supporting a partner or navigating any number of responsibilities outside of work. 

What surprised me most was the initial response. There was so much interest from people looking for a community where they could connect with others navigating similar challenges. 

The best part was seeing connections form between employees who may never have met otherwise and giving people a place to share resources, experiences and some of the messiness that comes with balancing a career and a life outside of it. 

As I’ve taken on a new role, I’ve had to step back from being involved in the Family ERG, which has also been a lesson for me in recognizing that you can’t do everything at once. I’m incredibly proud that Kaitlyn and I helped create that initial community and, more importantly, showed there was a real appetite for connection and conversation around family and caregiving in the workplace. 

ANDREW: What is your motivation to continue striving for excellence in your work? 

LINETTE: I have a hard time leaving things at “good enough.” When I see something working, my brain almost immediately goes to, “Great. Now how do we make it better?” That can be a campaign, an event experience, a process or even how our team works together. 

I’m also comfortable experimenting. Not every idea is going to work, and I’ve certainly had my share that didn’t.  

But I’d rather test something, learn from it and adjust than keep doing something simply because “that’s how we’ve always done it.” 

As I’ve moved further into leadership, my motivation has changed a little too. I’m still incredibly driven by results, but I’m equally motivated by seeing the people on my team grow. Watching someone gain confidence, take ownership of something or come to me with an idea that’s better than mine — that’s a pretty great feeling. 

ANDREW: How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance to avoid burnout? How do you encourage others to do the same?   

LINETTE: If someone has figured out the perfect formula for work-life balance, I would love to meet them! 

I have two young boys, a career I care deeply about and a job that includes travel, so I’ve stopped thinking about balance as everything being perfectly divided every day.  

Some weeks, work needs more from me. Other weeks, my family does.  

And I have to give a big shout-out to my husband, who makes so much of that possible. When I’m traveling for a show or work gets particularly busy, he steps in and keeps everything moving at home. Work-life balance is definitely a team sport in our house. 

What I’ve become much better at is recognizing when I need to be fully present in one place or the other. My kids have also given me a lot of perspective.  

A marketing emergency can feel enormous at 3:00 p.m., but when you’re building Legos with a five-year-old at 7:00 p.m., you realize most things can wait until tomorrow.  

And the truth is, my five-year-old may not want to build Legos with me tomorrow. Work emergencies will always come and go, but these little moments won’t always be there. 

I’ve also learned that sometimes avoiding burnout is much simpler than we make it. Even on days when I feel like I don’t have 10 minutes to spare, taking a quick walk outside, stepping away from my computer or even doing 10 jumping jacks can completely reset my energy. 

Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to take the 10 minutes you think you don’t have. 

I try to give my team that same permission. I expect people to care about their work and be accountable, but being committed shouldn’t mean being available 24/7.  

Take the vacation. Go to the school event. Take the 10-minute break. Close the laptop. 

There will always be another email. My five-year-old will not always be five. 

Related. Meet the 2026 TSE Women to Watch: Amber Curtis

ANDREW: What do you think the next big thing in the events space is going to be, whether it be related to technology, work models, experiences, etc.?   

LINETTE: Personalization, especially when you combine it with AI and better data. 

People are becoming much more selective about where they spend their time and travel budgets. We can’t just say, “Here are 500 exhibitors and 30 sessions — good luck!” 

We should be able to help someone walk into an event knowing: These are the 10 companies I should meet. These are the three sessions most relevant to my business. Here are people facing the same challenges I am. 

AI gives us an opportunity to do that at a scale that would have been incredibly difficult even a few years ago. But I don’t think the future of events is less human. I actually think it’s the opposite. The more digital and AI-driven our everyday lives become, the more valuable genuine face-to-face interaction becomes. 

The technology should do the work in the background so the human experience can be better in the foreground. 

ANDREW: What strategies have you found most effective for building a strong professional network within the trade show community?   

LINETTE: I’ve never been someone who thinks networking means collecting as many business cards or LinkedIn connections as possible. For me, it’s about relationships. 

The funny thing about the trade show industry is that it feels huge until you’ve been in it for a while and then you realize everyone somehow knows everyone. 

The colleague you’re working next to today might be a client, vendor, boss, mentor or partner five years from now. So, I try to stay connected to people even when I don’t need anything from them. 

I also believe strongly in giving before asking. Make the introduction. Recommend someone for an opportunity. Share an idea. Celebrate someone’s promotion.  

Some of the strongest relationships in my career started with absolutely no agenda attached to them. 

And when you’re actually at an industry event, put the phone away and talk to people. We’re in the face-to-face business! 

ANDREW: What role does mentorship play in your career development, and how can other women seek and cultivate these relationships?   

LINETTE: Mentorship has been incredibly important to my career, but I’ve learned that it doesn’t always look like the traditional “Will you be my mentor?” relationship. 

I have people I go to for leadership advice, people who challenge my strategic thinking and people I’ll call when I’m working through a very specific problem. I’ve also learned a tremendous amount from peers and from the people on my own team. 

I’ve been fortunate to have leaders who saw potential in me, challenged me and sometimes pushed me toward opportunities before I was completely sure I was ready for them. 

For women looking for mentorship, I’d start small. Find someone you respect and ask them about something specific.  

Ask for 20 minutes. Get their perspective. Then, actually do something with their advice and follow up. The best mentorship relationships I’ve had developed organically over time. 

And once you’ve benefited from mentorship, turn around and do it for someone else. Someone opened doors for me. I want to make sure I’m holding some of those doors open too. 

ANDREW: How do you stay updated on industry trends and changes, and what resources do you recommend to your peers? 

LINETTE: There’s so much information out there that sometimes the challenge isn’t finding it; it’s figuring out what’s actually worth paying attention to. 

LinkedIn has become one of my go-to resources. I use it not only to follow marketing trends and see what other event professionals are testing, but also to stay connected to thought leaders within the industries I work in.  

Following what they’re talking about, what they’re sharing and what challenges are top of mind gives me a much better pulse on the communities we’re trying to serve. 

For me, LinkedIn also serves two purposes: It’s a learning tool and a relationship-building tool. I’ll often see someone share an interesting idea, reach out or start a conversation, and that can turn into a relationship or lead me to another resource I wouldn’t have found otherwise. 

I also get some of my best information from my marketing network. There is a lot of value in being able to reach out to another marketer and ask, “Have you tried this?” or “What are you seeing?”  

Those conversations tend to be much more useful than simply reading about the latest trend, because you’re hearing what actually worked, what didn’t and what they learned along the way. 

I don’t think staying current means trying every new thing. It’s about staying curious, listening to people inside and outside your industry, and then figuring out which ideas actually make sense for your audience. 

ANDREW: Is there anything else that you would like to add? 

LINETTE: If you had told me when I started my career on the media side of the events industry that more than a decade later I’d be leading marketing across multiple events and being recognized as a Woman to Watch, I’m not sure I would have believed you. 

I didn’t have my career perfectly mapped out. A lot of it came from being curious, raising my hand for opportunities and being willing to try something before I knew exactly how to do it.  

I think there’s something important in that, especially for women earlier in their careers. You don’t need to know exactly where you’re going to end up. 

Find the people you can learn from, ask the questions, take the opportunity that scares you a little and keep figuring out what you’re good at along the way. 

Now that I have two young boys, I think about my career a little differently too. I want them to see their mom work hard and care about what she does, but I also want them to see that success isn’t about having everything figured out.  

It’s about continuing to learn, being kind to people along the way and being willing to take a chance on yourself. 

This industry has given me opportunities I never could have planned for, which is probably fitting since I found my way into events because I looked over at another team and thought, “That looks like something I’d like to try.” 

I’m really glad I did. 

To get more 2026 Women to Watch Q&As, subscribe to TSE’s free e-newsletter on LinkedIn or through your email.        

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