Nora Ellingwood
Nora Ellingwood is an award-winning senior operations executive known for delivering best-in-class event experiences. As one of the most well respected leaders in the events industry, she is known for her passionate commitment to deliver her client’s vision and for her signature upbeat personality and can-do attitude.
First hired as a receptionist for MAGIC (later acquired by Advanstar, UBM, and now Informa Markets), Nora’s enthusiasm, strong work ethic, and willingness to explore new opportunities took her from answering phones to overseeing operations for multi-million-dollar tradeshow events. Under Informa Markets, Nora directed countless large-scale events attended by thousands of people in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York. She played an integral role in the company, continuously winning awards for her work and leadership. Most recently at the TSE Gold 100 Awards & Summit, Nora won the iconic crystal Grand Award for Largest Semi-Annual Trade Show of 2018.
In her next exciting career chapter she launched Nora Ellingwood Consulting, making her extensive experience and constructive business philosophy accessible to anyone. Nora believes that empowering your staff is the first step toward building a strong, effective team. She creates an open, positive environment in which to build authentic, loyal relationships, foster collaboration, and ultimately result in a team that is truly enthusiastic about their common goal.
A true California girl, Nora grew up in Burbank in a fully bilingual family, and is as comfortable speaking Spanish as she is English. With a lifelong passion for basketball, and a more recent passion for wine tasting, Southern California provides the perfect setting to pursue these interests in the company of family and friends. She takes pride in watching the growth of the talented professionals in marketing, sales and operations she has had the honor to mentor over the years. Her dedication to helping the youth of today achieve their goals inspired her to found CLIMB, an organization focused on providing life coaching to young adults. Nora credits her work ethic to her mom, the support of her husband, her mentors, her best friend, and the love of her two daughters.
What People Have Said
“Nora is an incredible leader, mentor, player coach and co-worker. I have had the pleasure of working with Nora for 15 years and she has made a huge positive impact on all the colleagues she has worked with. Nora is solution oriented, extremely strategic and always has a positive "can-do" attitude. I personally would not be where I am today without Nora's mentorship.”
— Kelly Helfman, Commercial President for Informa Markets Fashion
“Nora is an extraordinary event operations professional, with a deep bench of experience in large scale trade shows. She is respected and well liked by colleagues, peers, direct reports, vendors, and senior management. There isn't a challenge, obstacle, or hurdle that Nora can't meet head on, with a smile and determination to solve and overcome it. If you're looking for experience, strong people & project management skills, and a positive force of energy and enthusiasm for your team, Nora is a perfect choice.”
— Tracy Harris, Senior VP at Informa
“Nora and I worked together for about fifteen years. She originally ran show operations for the fashion group of trade shows. In the world of trade shows, where the show cycle is typically a year or more, the fashion industry works in cycles that are measured in weeks. Nora organized a team of over twenty professionals and looked after everything from booth assignments to all venue and vendor services. She ultimately took over the order entry, billing, and collections processes and teams and brought efficiency and effectiveness to this sector. Pursuant to an acquisition, Nora picked up additional responsibilities for show operations in other industry sectors. She has shown herself to be a remarkable team leader as well as being terrific at developing people. In short, she is a true professional. I am delighted to recommend Nora without reservation.”
– Tony Calanca, Principal at Calanca & Associates, LLC
“It is easy to say Nora knows the Show Industry - she does. She is also a consummate professional and treats all with dignity, respect and kindness. She is smart, funny and not afraid to dig in and do whatever it takes to get a job done. Challenge? Crisis? Problems? This wonderful lady takes all in stride and comes up with a viable solution. Her staff loved her and I consider myself lucky to have worked with her for so many years!
— Lorri Monty, Show Director of Operations at SEMA
“During her time at Advanstar, Nora was a model team member. In addition to her Operations skills, we could always rely on her to assume any role that needed to be filled. As the primary on site customer contact, Nora also played a significant role in building and maintaining our customer service process and team. Whether she was part of a team or leading it, she approached and completed each task consciously, paid attention to the details, and always connected the dot to the big picture of what we were trying to accomplish.”
— Joe Loggia, Retired CEO of Advanstar
“It is my pleasure to recommend Nora Ellingwood. I had the opportunity to work with Nora for many years as she was the main point of contact for some of our largest, most valuable groups at Mandalay Bay. Nora was always a true partner that the team enjoyed working with multiple times a year. She always had a positive attitude and remained calm, even during high stress times. She was responsive and organized, which made servicing her groups a joy for the hotel team. I am confident Nora will be an asset to any organization or team.”
– Stephanie Glanzer, CMP, Chief Sales Officer & Senior Vice President at MGM Resorts International
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