Fame and stardom are usually a result of hard work and talent as opposed to fate and happenstance. Granted, some people rise to fame courtesy of their last name, and others stumble upon it via a stroke of luck. But most successful individuals – from athletes and actresses to authors and musicians – earn their star status from sheer talent and utter determination. Not surprisingly then, the five winners of EXHIBITOR Magazine's 18th Annual All-Star Awards battled their way to the top of the industry by virtue of their hard work and accompanying accomplishments.

This year's winners include five outstanding marketers who employed their creative talents to generate everything from a 73-percent uptick in booth traffic to a 337-percent increase in leads. So please join us in congratulating the 2016 All-Star Award winners. In their own way, each of them earned their star status via stellar strategies that garnered out-of-this-world results.

PANEL OF judges
DONNA CASTILLO, senior global event manager, Atmel Corp., San Jose, CA
NOELLE LUCHINO FEIST, director of experiential and event marketing, Mindbody Inc., San Luis Obispo, CA
KATHLEEN GUNDERSON, CTSM, assistant vice president, events project manager, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Odebolt, IA
STEVEN MARCHESE, CTSM, manager, corporate events, Fujifilm Medial Systems USA Inc., Stamford, CT
TIM NAEGELIN, CME, event manager, Customer & Market Engagement Group, The Boeing Co., St. Louis
SUSAN SHUTTLEWORTH, exhibit-marketing consultant, McKinney, TX