XLIVE is proud to present its first-ever list of Emerging Leaders in Event Tech. Our group of 2021 winners includes young event professionals — in both B2B and live events — whose innovation, creativity, and drive are pushing the industry forward. We will be featuring all of the winners over the coming weeks, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for what they do next!
Mia Masson’s first experience with events was working in the planning and communications team for an NGO that runs several large annual events. She shares that she’s always had a passion for writing and communication, and she loved the feeling of pulling off a big project, feeling rewarded, and then immediately starting to plan for the next one.
Her previous company used Swapcard for a couple events back in 2019, and she was inspired by the Swapcard project manager who trained her on the platform to apply for a job at the event tech company. Masson started at Swapcard in March of 2020 as the content director for Evolve, their virtual event series and 365 online community that aimed to help the industry pivot to virtual and showcase Swapcard’s capabilities.
Since then, she has been promoted to Head of Content, and she loves her role of researching, networking, learning from industry peers and strategizing content for the events community. “Every time I get to interview or speak on a panel with someone I look up to, it's a career highlight,” she says. “Each time I'm asked to speak on a podcast or during an event, I still feel very special that people value my opinion. I was so proud to be interviewed by Diversity Ally for Swapcard's spot on the Diversity Trail this year, and to launch Evolve in the middle of a pandemic. I try to celebrate both small and big successes.”
Masson has helped grow the Evolve community to 13,000 eventprofs from around the world and has also produced several high-profile industry reports to help planners succeed in their virtual and hybrid events. Now that live events are returning, she is “getting on stage and helping spread thought leadership in the industry with Swapcard as a platform,” she says. Before the end of the year, she will be speaking at Event Tech Live 2021 and PCMA Convening EMEA 2021.
DEI is also an important part of Masson’s mission, and she has pushed more for diversity and inclusion in Swapcard’s events and content, including curating the most diverse speaker lineup in the industry for Evolve Homecoming.
Masson shares that one of the most challenging aspects of the last year and a half was starting a new role during the pandemic and not getting to spend time in-person with her colleagues. “It was remote work right away, and I missed that human contact,” she says, but she was able to stay in constant contact with her team and connected with them virtually. Another challenge has been the all-too-common feeling of imposter syndrome. “I know it affects many people in our industry, and that's why it's important for me to talk about it openly,” she says.
For Masson, the best part about working in the events industry is the collaborative and welcoming spirit of her peers. “I feel it’s less competitive than other industries because eventprofs value best-practice sharing and learning together over individual success,” says Masson.
She notes that while this may be a side effect of the pandemic, the vast majority of the industry chose to share their experiences, and she feels very fortunate to be a part of it. Some eventprofs that she respects and admires include Julius Solaris, Carina Bauer, Rachel Wimberly, Dahlia El Gazzar, Liz Caruso, her boss Daniel Glickman, Swapcard CEO Baptiste Boulard, Kathryn Frankson, Jaime Bennett, Chloe Richardson, Maggie Barton-Baird, Will Curran, Ashanti Bentil Dhue, and Caroline Hicks.
When it comes to the future of events, Masson believes that “the future of the industry is an ever-connected, engaging world of online relationship-building peppered with memorable face-to-face experiences and more accessibility and sustainability for all involved. Virtual is not a temporary solution, but a complement to what we've been doing forever, and it's here to stay, like it or not. In my opinion, the future will be much more tech-centric and data-driven. We can't afford to go back to the old way of doing things.”
Masson is looking forward to deepening her content marketing expertise as well as learning more about community building and focusing on further improving Swapcard's original research content. “I also want to make sure that I leave a legacy of kindness, openness and honesty within my own team and in the places where I speak and share knowledge,” she says.
In order to decompress from her work, Masson loves to cook and bake. She also travels as much as she can, and she listens to podcasts and reads in her free time.