Episode
The Business Side of Events Nobody Talks About with Stuart Ruff-Lyon
- Published
- May 8, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2731
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Summary
It was the last day of RISKWORLD 2023. The show had been the best one yet. Danica Patrick was about to take the stage for the closing keynote. Then Stuart Ruff-Lyon got pulled from the show floor and walked, without explanation, to a room where the Chief of Police of Atlanta was waiting. Two miles away, there was an active shooter on the loose. Four hotels on lockdown. Two shuttle routes stopped. Nine thousand attendees in the building. In this Dynamic Dialogue After Show, Megan Martin and Stuart Ruff-Lyon go through the whole story, minute by minute, from the walk down that hallway to the decision to cancel the finale, to what RIMS did publicly afterward that the entire events industry should study and copy. But this episode is bigger than one incident. It is the full behind-the-scenes career of the person who turned a 60-year-old conference into a global brand, survived a ransomware attack on the morning of a show, led his professional association through a pandemic as board chair, and now oversees events, sales, and marketing for one of the most recognized societies in the world. This is what it looks like to go wide from the inside. What You'll Learn: What was happening in the RISKWORLD command center in Atlanta that 9,000 attendees never saw Why RIMS made their entire crisis after-action review public and what that decision cost them and gave them How Stuart went from Director of Meetings and Events to Chief Commercial Officer at the same organization and what he had to learn that no job description ever mentions The real story behind rebranding a 60-year-old conference, from the research and outside firms to the board conversation and the pandemic delay that almost derailed the launch What RIMS' 365-day strategy actually looks like in practice, from selling next…