Ley Recognized by The Expo Group at the Trade Show News Network Awards
Herndon, Virginia (November 17, 2014)—The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is pleased to announce Jeff Ley, USGIF vice president of business development and exhibitions, was named a 2014 Expo Group Show Manager of the Year (SMOTY).
Ley was named SMOTY for tier IV events—those with 701 to 1,500 booths—and received his award Nov. 15 at the Trade Show News Network (TSNN) Awards Gala at the Cleveland Convention Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
“This award appropriately reflects Jeff’s dedication and hard work year after year for all USGIF events, not the least of which was working through the challenges presented with the postponement of the GEOINT 2013 Symposium as a result of the federal government shutdown,” said USGIF COO Aimee McGranahan. “Jeff continues to raise the bar each year, and our team is very proud that he is being honored with the SMOTY Award. It is very well deserved.”
Since 2000, an independent panel of judges selects SMOTY recipients, and any individual responsible for the production of a trade or association show in North America is eligible to win, regardless of any affiliation with The Expo Group.
“It is an honor to be recognized by leaders in the event industry,” Ley said. “Although this is an individual award, it truly takes a great team to put together an event the size of the GEOINT Symposium. I have faced a variety of challenges throughout my career, to include 9/11 occurring on the opening day of DSEi 2001 in London, which is the largest defense exhibition in the world. However, the 2013 government shutdown was the most difficult challenge I’ve yet to overcome. We were less than a week away from kicking off GEOINT 2013 when we had to postpone the event.”
Ley and USGIF are currently planning Foundation events for 2015, including the GEOINT 2015 Symposium, scheduled for June 22-25 in Washington, D.C. Most recently, the Symposium attracted more than 4,300 attendees and 282 exhibiting organizations.
About USGIF
USGIF is a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community with government, industry, academia, professional organizations, and individuals who develop and apply geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges. USGIF’s mission is to build the community, advance the tradecraft, and accelerate innovation.
For more information, please visit www.USGIF.org and follow USGIF on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
