Midwest Meetings (MM) recently connected with Mandy Davis-Aitken, vice president of meeting services at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Alexandria, Virginia. She helps plan and run the association’s 45,000-person meeting in Chicago every year.

MM: What got you involved in the meeting and event planning field?

MDA: I don’t think I even knew event planning was a career when I graduated college. I started in the Washington, D.C., association world as a temporary staff member and quickly learned about the world of professional conferences. I love solving problems and coming up with creative solutions, and quickly realized that it was rare to have a standard day in meeting planning. It turned out to be the perfect career for me.

MM: What is your event planning background? How has it translated into your success?

MDA: I learned how to meeting plan from the ground up. I started at the American Society of Clinical Oncology working with the education team on building an educational program and working with the speakers. It was there that I developed a love for being on site and dealing with the unexpected. I was lucky to connect with the vice president of meetings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology and she became a mentor to me, moving me over to the planning side of the meeting business, and teaching me everything I needed to know.

MM: What kind of mix of events do you plan?

MDA: As the vice president of meeting services, I lead a team in planning a wide variety of meetings — from our annual meeting of more than 45,000 members to our symposia, which can capture over 5,000 attendees, to smaller committee meetings and even event space rentals in our in-house conference center.

MM: What’s on your meetings and events docket in 2025?

MDA: The American Society of Clinical Oncology has seven symposia of varying sizes, including one in Asia, our annual meeting in Chicago, and a variety of committee meetings and retreats held throughout the year. We continue to see virtual attendance decrease and in-person attendance increase across meetings. We are focused on the attendee experience and building an event that not only meets our customers educational needs, but also offers lots of opportunities for community, connection and fun.

MM: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced over your event planning tenure?

MDA: It’s not unique — the entire event industry struggled during COVID-19, but we made the call to make our annual meeting fully virtual in late March of 2020, and still managed to get all the content posted and accessible during the planned dates of early June. Not only dealing with the cancellation of the in-person meeting, but also building a virtual meeting from scratch with no real plan to go from was an epic challenge.

Our vendors and staff really came together to pull off an impossible thing at a very difficult time. It was important to us to make sure that the crucial research disseminated at our meeting still got to doctors with no delay despite the challenges.

MM: What makes a Midwestern destination appealing to an East Coast planner?

MDA: The American Society of Clinical Oncology has a long-term contract with Chicago for our 45,000-person annual meeting. Chicago is a great destination for our international audience, with a variety of hotels, a great airlift and a convention center that fits our extensive space needs. We’ve also held smaller symposia in both Chicago and Minneapolis. The Midwest is a great location for summer and fall meetings, and its convenient location always results in great attendance for us.

MM: Tell me about your recent trip with Choose Chicago.

MDA: It was exciting to get to experience the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and see the city for an entirely different event than the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s conference. I gain inspiration from seeing other events and their solutions to problems. Even when the meetings are different from our own, there is always something to be learned or an idea to be had.

MM: Describe the Midwestern-based meeting or event you’re most proud of.

MDA: There is nothing like seeing our more than 45,000 attendees come into Chicago and take over the city. The city comes together to make it a great experience and the impact of the meeting is seen everywhere in those five days.

MM: What’s on the horizon for the events industry in the Midwest?

MDA: Chicago remains one of the premiere cities to host a meeting in the U.S. It offers a great airport, convenient location, and a top-tier destination services and convention center team.