In May 2025, global exhibition organiser Terrapinn hired a digital and AI director. It is rare to see someone in a directorship level with AI in their title. While CTOs and other tech directors will deal with AI, this appointment really shows the direction Terrapinn, and the event’s industry as a whole, are taking towards an AI future.
The man in question is Asghar Maqsood. EN spoke to Sharon Roessen, COO of Terrapinn and the individual responsible for the new hire.
Why now?
Roessen tells us why now is the right time for such an appointment.
“We started the process last summer. Now is even more relevant than back then. In the last three months everything has started to go really fast. We are fortunate that it took a while to find somebody for the role – it feels like the stars have all aligned at the right time.
“AI is going to transform the workplace and possibly our industry. It will particularly transform internal processes a lot.
“We are very committed at Terrapinn to technology and innovation. We always want to be pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and moving the company forward. It is absolutely the right time to be doing it now and I don’t think we will be the last to make this kind of appointment in the industry.”
Experience
Maqsood has both strong technological experience as well as experience within the events industry having worked for Informa for two years. Among other reasons, Roeseen says these were the stand out reasons and also speaks of the challenges in recruiting for a role like this.
“It is a difficult position to recruit for. The traditional recruiters in our industry kept coming back with marketing people – they see the word digital and AI and think it is marketing. So there were a lot of people who were digital marketers but we didn’t need marketers.
“It was trying to find the right candidate that had the right balance between highly technical skills and also marry that with the requirements of our industry. He was working at Informa for a couple of years and in the end in came down to who already came in understanding the industry.”
His role and the benefits to Terrapinn
Hiring Maqsood has multiple benefits to Terrapinn. The hire helps to streamline processes, help the company learn more about new technology and AI and improving the event experience.
Roessen says: “In order to advantage of AI, it needed someone full time with a strategic mind on it. It is a about building and managing this stuff. His role is going to be building a team around him as well.
“It starts with process. There are many process efficiencies we can now bring in to the business. That’s where we are going to be starting. And we needed someone with a computer science background which he’s got.
“Then we will look at customer experience at events. Look at how AI can elevate attendee experience on site and elevate the whole event experience.”
Roessen speaks of the difficulties of what to call the roll and what, specifically, it should entail: “We debated long and hard what to call the role. We didn’t want to call it CTO because that can get bogged down in too much other tech stuff, but he is looking after our tech team.”
Getting things started
Having only recently started, Roessen explains he is exciting to get going: “He is ex Informa so has worked for a much bigger tech team there. He is very excited to have more ownership of the strategic direction – obviously at Informa, with such a large Plc, a lot of that is taken away elsewhere.
“He is absorbing lots of what we do. He is very keen to make his mark quite early, we have already signed up to new tech that he will be driving.”
A sign of things to come?
The appointment is unlikely to be an outlier. With the acceleration of AI technologies, it is already becoming a saturated market. Add the differing opinions and advice on how to use AI effectively, it can seem like a daunting task to stay on top of things. A person to lead and provide knowledge of this space seems more important now than ever. Roessen agrees tech teams are likely to grow in the near future across the industry.
“We currently have a tech team of six, he makes seven, out of a company of 450 people, who do 500 events. And we have 70 marketing people. I see those scales shifting. Seven tech people and 433 other roles – we are going to need many more tech people in the future and need someone to lead that for us. Someone like Easyfairs have 50 tech people so they are already a long way ahead than many of the rest of us.
“If other companies haven’t got a tech team already I think they are going to have to look at bringing someone in to build that.”
It is clear the appointment reflects Terrapinn’s commitment and direction towards new technology and AI. Having Maqsood front this monumental shift, not just company wide but industry wide, seems like a logical and timely decision.
How long will it be before all boards have someone dedicated to AI?
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