Taryn Crowder, CMP
29, Assistant Director, Exhibits and Sponsorships, IDEA Health & Fitness Association
San Diego
It’s Crowder’s job to focus on fitness and wellness, but it’s through exercising her mind that she flexes her planning muscles. While based in Washington, D.C., she was tasked with expanding the Defense Logistics Agency’s high-profile conference. Crowder interviewed DLA staff and vendors to understand the event’s background and then turned that knowledge into forward-thinking project management and marketing. The result: Attendance was 340 percent higher in 2011 than it had been in 2009. Now, large-scale events are the norm for Crowder, who moved to San Diego in 2012 to help plan IDEA Health & Fitness Association events, which regularly bring in between 800 and 12,000 attendees. Managing the logistics for the fitness and nutrition expos requires negotiating and collaborating with big-name companies like Gatorade, Reebok and Under Armour to maximize their exposure and minimize their hassles. How does she do it? Two words: brain and brawn.
