Accelerate 2025
LOCATION: Las Vegas, NV, USA
DATES: July 16-19, 2025
ROLE(S): Food & Beverage Lead | Ancillary Meetings Lead
event overview
Accelerate is Pure Storage’s annual flagship user conference, bringing together customers, partners, press, analysts, and senior executives for multiple days of keynotes, breakout sessions, executive briefings, and networking.
Attendees: ~2,000
Audience: Customers, partners, executive leadership, press & analysts
Program Type: Multi-day enterprise user conference with executive and ancillary programs
F&B Budget: Multi-six figure program
Financial Outcome: Delivered under budget, generating five-figure cost savings without compromising experience quality
event scale snapshot
the challenge
Brought in late in the planning cycle with approximately two months remaining, the conference required immediate ownership of complex, high-visibility workstreams under a compressed timeline. The conference included:
A large-scale, multi-day Food & Beverage program with significant executive and attendee visibility
A growing number of ancillary and pop-up meetings running parallel to the core conference
High expectations from internal stakeholders, customers, and VIP audiences
The compressed timeline required someone who could assume ownership immediately, stabilize planning, and execute flawlessly under pressure
my mandate
Take full ownership of the Food & Beverage program, from strategy through onsite execution
Lead high-visibility stakeholder programs, including press, and analyst experiences
Act as a trusted extension of the internal events team, ensuring progress without added oversight burden
Midway through planning, I also stepped in at the last minute to assume program leadership of a white-glove onsite experience for Global Press & Analysts, a VIP audience of 40.
what I led & delivered
End-to-end leadership of all Food & Beverage strategy, planning, vendor management, and onsite execution
Managed nearly $1M in F&B spend, delivering the program under budget while maintaining quality and experience standards
Menu planning, logistics coordination, staffing oversight, and service execution across multiple days and venues
Program management support and execution for ancillary and pop-up meetings, including:
Global Press & Analyst onsite experience (VIP, white-glove program)
Close collaboration with executive-level stakeholders and cross-functional teams to ensure alignment across schedules, venues, and audiences
Post-event documentation and reporting to inform future conference planning
impact & outcomes
Successfully delivered a high-visibility, enterprise-scale F&B program for 2,000 attendees with limited critical issues
Owned and delivered a multi-six-figure Food & Beverage program with full financial accountability
Generated meaningful five-figure cost savings while maintaining premium experience standards
Seamlessly integrated late-added, high-touch VIP programs without disruption to the core conference
Provided calm, decisive leadership that enabled internal teams to remain focused on strategic priorities
Earned continued trust — resulting in a contract extension to lead additional events