Rising star: Allison Carpenter makes “40 Under 40” list from Connect Association

Allison Carpenter

Allison Carpenter, director of exhibits and sponsorships at the National Defense Industrial Association, has been named to Connect Association magazine’s “40 Under 40” ranking for 2018, publication officials announced Aug. 6.

The honor highlights top young professionals nationwide in the events industry. Peers in the events world nominated Carpenter. Nominations were reviewed and evaluated by the Connect staff based on references, industry involvement and other resources. 

Carpenter is certified in exhibition management and is a certified meeting professional and leads a team that manages about 10 NDIA events each year. Among these events is the giant annual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, done for U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., and which saw record attendance this year of more than 13,400 people.

Now in her eighth year at NDIA, she credits the Arlington, VA, defense nonprofit for helping her flourish. For instance, Carpenter created a standardized, tiered sponsorship program for applications across NDIA’s operation business center event portfolio. In its rollout, the program resulted in a 31 percent increase in sponsorship revenue and a 37 percent reduction in sponsorship expenses. For this, she received NDIA President’s Award.

“We value our roles even more because of the association we work for and what it means to our nation’s warfighters,” Carpenter said of her team and her job at NDIA. “There is no better place to see the networking that takes place between industry and government than on the exhibit-hall floor of an NDIA event.”

Most recently, Carpenter implemented Sli.do, an audience interaction tool that lets event speakers interact more directly with attendees and which has upped audience participation immensely.

The entire list of recognized honorees and individual profiles can be found here.