CaLae McDermott
35, Senior Manager of Conferences, NACE International
Houston
This Texas spitfire spends a lot of time thinking about the future—not surprising for someone who plans events for an association dedicated to protecting the environment. Presently, though, the senior manager of conferences at NACE International, The Worldwide Corrosion Authority, is interested in another kind of environment: that of the attendees. “I refer to our convention center as our home and challenge our frontline staff to treat each attendee like a guest in their home,” says McDermott, who spends most of the year supervising the annual Corrosion conference that, in 2014, set a record with 422 exhibitors and more than 7,000 attendees from 69 countries. That attitude is what impresses peers like Lisa S. Davis, director of global accounts at ConferenceDirect, who notes that McDermott made her mark running a 2010 citywide conference for more than 6,000 people in San Antonio without much experience. “Not only did she hit it out of the park, she consistently creates new experiences and has grown the conference in various cities annually ever since,” she says. To Davis’ point, McDermott developed an in-house strategy (as opposed to using a third party) for planning an event in South Korea that cut costs and opened the door for many future international events, including one this year in Abu Dhabi.
