François Fournier - Director of Global Events at DTN

Join our host Alejandro and the Techstars alumni tech founder community at this Web Series conversation with our special guest François Fournier.

Guest Background

François brings more than 20 years of experience in event marketing strategy, with a proven record of designing high-impact global event strategies that drive awareness, convert demand and boost community engagement. He has planned numerous high-profile trade shows, meetings and incentive programs in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific while working for corporate and non-profit organizations in the Financial Services and SaaS industries.

François is currently responsible for the proprietary and sponsored-events strategy within marketing, and leads a team of meeting planners for DTN, a global, data, analytics, and technology company that delivers trusted operational intelligence for organizations with complex supply chains worldwide. He manages DTN presence at about 75 industry trade shows and conferences, as well as oversees the execution of the annual Global Sales Kick-Off conference, and the President’s Club annual incentive programs for DTN’s top performers.

His most recent position was Global Head of Events for Fitch Ratings in New York where he led a large team of event planners and marketers responsible for the planning of 400 events per year, while managing an event marketing budget of $10M. Prior to Fitch, Francois worked for 6 years as Director of Trade Shows for an insurance technology association called ACORD where he managed logistics, marketing, exhibit and sponsorship sales. Prior to ACORD, François spent five years at Assurant, a global provider of comprehensive risk management solutions, where he was mostly responsible for planning meetings and incentives, as well as overseeing the implementation of a Strategic Meetings Management program across all Assurant’s business units.

Francois has developed over the years a method on how to measure the value and ROI of commercial events and has been sharing his knowledge and teaching event planners about advanced ROI measurement tools, as well as including ROI into post-event reporting and presenting results.

A native of Paris, François has a Bachelor’s degree in International Hospitality Management from the Lausanne Hospitality Business School, in Switzerland. He is a Certified Exhibit Manager (CEM) and a Certified Trade Show Marketer certification – Gold level (CTSM). François currently resides in Summit, New Jersey with his wife and two sons.