When we set out to write this book at the end of 2020, we were thrilled to explore the future of the industry but were also still in shock. Event professionals had done it; we'd done it: Somehow we as an industry had managed to get through one of the most difficult professional and personal years of our lives. We had seen first-hand the toll taken on our customers, our employees, and our peers. We had seen event leaders lose headcount and budget when in-person events were canceled at the beginning of the year and then fight tooth-and-claw battles to prove the value of their programs in a virtual and hybrid world.

If we're being honest, we also saw event technology companies like ours implode from a dwindling customer base or simply not innovating quickly enough to meet the demands of an unprecedented event landscape. And while we were proud that Bizzabo had weathered the transition to a hybrid world so well, we felt a bit of survivor's guilt for the companies, the teams, the vendors, and the event professionals who didn't.

Writing this book—speaking to our friends in the industry, consulting with our team members, squeezing in time amid the hustle of C-suite life to talk through a chapter, a datapoint, a trend—was a kind of therapy. It was a process of reminding ourselves of just how much opportunity there is and will be in this industry we call professional events.

With that said, we owe our most sincere thanks to Nicola Kastner, Colleen Bisconti, Monique Ruff-Bell, Dana Pake, Orson Francescone, and Marco Giberti for generously giving their time for conversations throughout the writing of this book. We'd also like to thank the 50-plus guests from the IN-PERSON Podcast whose conversations were an invaluable reference. A special thanks to Rexson Serrao, Sean Doyle, and Andrea Long, whose words we reference in these pages. We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have the opportunity to consult the perspectives of these event experience leaders.

Of course, without our customers we would not have been able to get to this point to begin with. Thanks for believing in us when things were at their roughest and trusting us to be partners with you all as we navigate the exciting (and sometimes nerve-wracking) future of the industry.

And we could say the same of our Bizzaboers. The past two years have been challenging. But through it all you have been our rock. We mean it. In the face of so many challenges, you have driven the company forward so that we can better serve our industry and the human beings in it who depend on us for their events and their jobs. And you've done it all like Bizzaboers do: with compassion for fellow team members, empathy for our customers, a high bar for excellence, and a willingness to try out new ideas and to share your own with us.

We are also extremely grateful for the support of our investors who believed in us in our early days and those who have participated in more recent funding rounds. Thank you for pushing us and for dreaming with us. We are only getting started.

Thank you also to Jared Lindzon, Michelle Bruno, and Mike Sholars for their assistance in bringing this book to life. And a special thanks to the one and only Brandon Rafalson—a true Bizzaboer whose dedication and thought leadership made this book possible.

We can't help but also squeeze in a few more very important thank-yous: To our amazing wives (Tal, Tal, and Sivan), who provide us with unconditional and endless support, and to all of the many kids—thank you for adding so much joy to our life.