Melinda Kendall, a veteran events marketing and management professional, will assist BPA Worldwide in ramping up its Events Audit Division, which provides services for exhibition and conference organizers and their exhibitors and sponsors.

Kendall has been brought in to advise BPA on its initiative to build this already growing segment of the organization’s business, as Acting VP, Events Audit. “There is increasing demand for events ROI accountability from major marketers in the IT space and other industries, and increasing realization among event producers of the need for sound, independent auditing of attendance and attendee demographics,” said Glenn Hansen, president and CEO of BPA Worldwide. “With our unparalleled expertise in auditing rich audience data, we believe that this is the right time for BPA to build on our existing events membership base. And with her solid experience in events management and marketing, Melinda is certainly the right person for this initiative. We are delighted to have Melinda’s expertise, and proud to be working with the events industry in its important efforts to provide sound metrics to exhibitors and sponsors.”

 Most recently, Kendall was senior VP, marketing for MediaLive International. In addition to overseeing corporate branding strategy and centralized marketing services, she spearheaded industry auditing/measurement initiatives. She led the creation of the Information Technology Event Measurement and Audit Council (IT EMAC), which established event auditing standards for the IT market. She took these standards to her role as a task force member of the International Association for Exhibition Management (IAEM), which, as a result, has created audit standards for all industries and the consumer sector. Prior to MediaLive, Kendall served as managing director for Xtreme Direct; VP, marketing and development for StayWell (publishers of consumer health information); VP, corporate marketing and VP, Internet events for ZD Events. Kendall first became involved in auditing in relation to B-to-B magazines, during her first career, in circulation at Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.

 BPA also participated as a member of IT EMAC and the IAEM’s event auditing standards task force. BPA’s current events auditing members include MediaLive (COMDEX, NetWorld+Interop, VoiceCon and others), Advanstar (Frontline Solutions) and PostNewsweek Tech Media (FOSE show). Its audit service offerings extend to B-to-B and consumer events of all types, as well as trade shows.