IAAPA North America Summit 2024
March 3 - 5, 2024
What is North America Summit?
It’s where you will propel your business forward, discover innovative new products, build lifelong connections, learn from thought-provoking speakers, and go behind the scenes to explore world-class facilities to see what’s working and how you can put best practices into action at your facility. Prepare for Success at the IAAPA North America Summit!
Fly out a day early to attend the first IAAPA Honors event – a new experience celebrating IAAPA Award winners.
EDUTour: Allegiant Stadium
Led by expert hosts, get an ultra-exclusive behind-the-scenes tour at Allegiant Stadium, a global events destination, and the home of the Las Vegas Raiders NFL team. Learn more about this state-of-the-art, fully enclosed, and climate-controlled venue for an experience that will give you a new perspective on sports and entertainment.
EDUTour: AREA15
Get ready to go behind the scenes and surround yourself with one-of-a-kind art, learn about their unique attractions, innovative design, and groundbreaking technology.
EDUTour: SpongeBob’s Crazy Carnival Ride
Ride the new SpongeBob SquarePants family dark ride at Circus Circus Las Vegas and experience how vibrant sets, special effects, animatronics, and vivid multimedia projections come together to engage guests and submerse them into the underwater world of SpongeBob SquarePants.
EDUTour: The Sphere Experience
Gain exclusive, unprecedented access, only IAAPA can provide, to the most immersive experience on Earth! This new medium will redefine entertainment and you will have a front-row seat to this fully immersive experience that utilizes multisensory, state-of-the-art technology.
View the highlights of your Sphere EDUTour:
WATCH THE VIDEO
Pricing Details
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Speakers
Matt Heller
After 22 years working in operations and human resources within the entertainment industry, Matt Heller founded Performance Optimist Consulting in 2011 with one simple goal - help leaders lead. He does this through personal coaching, interactive workshops, and large-scale learning experiences. He has written two books on employee engagement and leadership and hosts a weekly podcast focused on elevating the guest and employee experience.
Dan Pelson
Dan Pelson serves as chief operating officer (COO) for AREA15, the world’s first purpose built immersive entertainment district located minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. Offering live events, immersive activations, monumental art installations, extraordinary design elements, unique retail, ground-breaking technology, bars and eateries and much more, AREA15 continues to grow in Las Vegas and across the globe. Welcoming nearly 4 million visitors since opening its doors in 2020, AREA15 Las Vegas will soon expand across 20 acres to its north. In addition, AREA15 announced its first licensed pop-up location as part of Riyadh’s Boulevard World and its second permanent location coming to Orlando in 2024. As COO, Pelson provides the leadership, management and vision necessary to operate the immersive event, entertainment and retail district. Pelson is responsible for overseeing all operations, events, entertainment, finance, new business development and expansion into new markets. He reports directly to Winston Fisher, chief executive officer of AREA15 and partner at Fisher Brothers.
Pelson brings more than 25 years of executive experience from companies such as Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Corporation of America.
His career began at Sun Microsystems, where he was quick to recognize consumer potential of the internet leading him to many other entrepreneurial endeavors. He founded Word . com and then launched Bolt .com and eventually uPlayMe—an entertainment based social networking app acquired by a major music label, ultimately leading to his career in the music industry.
Pelson received his bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in political science and a master’s degree in business in administration from New York University.
Doug Lansky
After 20 years as a travel journalist, magazine editor and author, Doug has given acclaimed lectures at nearly 200 universities, given three TEDx Talks, presented at National Geographic Headquarters, for the United Nations World’s Tourism Organization, at Google Travel, Booking.com: The largest selection of hotels, homes, and vacation rentals , Amadeus, ITB Berlin and for over 100 top destinations around the world, introducing audiences to new insights and smart tourism concepts.
Jeff Fromm
Jeff Fromm is a 5X Author, Marketing & Innovation Consultant at LaneTerralever & Active Investor. Jeff has written at Forbes for ten years & conducted dozens of consumer research studies on consumer trends, sustainability and innovation including the first study of Millennials as Consumers with The Boston Consulting Group in 2010/2011. Jeff is an active investor in multiple brands including TFL (a live event ticketing SaaS brand specializing in employee and consumer loyalty) and Nature Focused Development (working on carbon management in collaboration with indigenous communities). Jeff holds a marketing degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jose Tolosa
Jose Tolosa is the Chief Executive Officer of Meow Wolf, a US-based innovative arts and entertainment company that creates mind-bending experiences through immersive and interactive storytelling. Previously, Jose was the Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer of ViacomCBS from 2019 through the end of 2021, and Chief Transformation Officer for Viacom from 2017 to 2019. Throughout this time he led the integration process for the merger of Viacom and CBS, and led both companies’ transformation efforts to accelerate the evolution of its businesses and organization. Tolosa joined Viacom in 2008 and acted in a number of global business development and strategy roles over his 14-year career at the company. He spent close to 10 years working on Viacom’s international business ultimately becoming Chief Operating Officer in 2015.
Before Viacom, Jose was a co-founder and COO at the HNMA Funding Company and held roles at The Parthenon Group, Bear Stearns and Co. and Claxson Interactive Group.
In his spare time, Jose is an avid supporter of art and DEI initiatives. At ViacomCBS, he was the executive champion of the employee resource group, SOMOS, which represented over 2,000 Latinos. And he sits on the board of Ballet Hispanico, the largest Latinx dance and cultural organization in the US, named one of America’s cultural treasures by the Ford Foundation.
A native of Puerto Rico, Tolosa holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Finance and Accounting