Adrienne Tiritilli

Adrienne Tiritilli is the Senior Vice President of Trade Show at the International Housewares Association (IHA), where she leads all operations for The Inspired Home Show — the premier home and housewares trade event in the world. Held annually at McCormick Place in Chicago, The Inspired Home Show draws more than 2,200 exhibitors and tens of thousands of buyers from across the globe, making it the centerpiece of the $450 billion global housewares industry. In her role, Adrienne Tiritilli oversees exhibitor services, show operations, sponsor relationships, buyer engagement programs, registration systems, and the strategic direction of an event that defines how the housewares market connects each year. She manages a comprehensive portfolio that includes Buyers Club sponsorships, show floor logistics, exhibitor communications, and the partnerships with housing and travel providers like onPeak that support the thousands of attendees who travel to Chicago for the show each March.

Hospitality and Convention Career

Before joining IHA in 2015, Adrienne Tiritilli built a distinguished career in the convention and hospitality industry at some of Chicago's most recognized institutions. She held national sales positions at the Fairmont Chicago and the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, where she developed expertise in large-scale event coordination and client relationship management for major conventions and corporate meetings. Her performance in luxury hospitality sales caught the attention of SMG, the management company operating McCormick Place — the largest convention center in North America, with 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space across four interconnected buildings on Chicago's lakefront.

McCormick Place Leadership

At McCormick Place, Adrienne Tiritilli rose through progressively senior roles over more than a decade. She served as Director of Sales before being promoted in February 2012 to the newly created position of Assistant General Manager of Sales and Services. The title, announced alongside other leadership appointments at McCormick Place that year, highlighted the critical importance of both selling the venue to prospective clients and delivering exceptional service to the organizations that chose to host their events there. In that capacity, Adrienne served as the primary liaison between McCormick Place and its largest clients — trade show organizers, association executives, and corporate meeting planners responsible for events generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual economic impact for the city of Chicago. She also served on the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) board, the governing body that oversees McCormick Place, Navy Pier, and the Marriott Marquis Chicago, giving her a governance-level perspective on Chicago's convention and tourism infrastructure.

The Inspired Home Show

When Mia Rampersad, IHA's longtime Vice President of Trade Show, announced her retirement in early 2015, the association selected Adrienne Tiritilli to succeed her — a transition that brought together Adrienne's deep venue-side expertise with the show management responsibilities of one of the industry's most established trade events. At IHA, she has overseen the show's evolution through significant challenges and transformations, including the rebrand from the International Home + Housewares Show to The Inspired Home Show, the adaptation to post-pandemic exhibiting formats, and the continued growth of the event as a platform for product discovery, retail buyer education, and industry networking.

Photographing Adrienne

This was a magazine cover shoot, and the assignment came with something I rarely get: access to an iconic building. Adrienne spent years at McCormick Place as assistant general manager for sales and services before moving to IHA, where she now runs the show that fills that building, so making the portrait inside it let the location tell the story of what she does. Alongside the cover frame we shot an editorial series of her in action, making sure the hospitality the organization is known for was actually happening. That is the difference between stock executive headshots in Chicago and ones that mean something. It is also why, when I shoot headshots for women in leadership roles, my first question is what she wants the picture to say, and the same answer shapes her LinkedIn headshots in Chicago.

The Portrait

Adrienne Tiritilli's career represents more than two decades of leadership at the intersection of trade show management, hospitality sales, and economic development in Chicago. She has been instrumental in shaping how the city presents itself to the global business community — first as a venue executive ensuring McCormick Place delivered world-class service, and now as the senior trade show executive responsible for one of the housewares industry's most important annual gatherings. This executive portrait by Michael Schacht — black blazer, confident crossed-arm pose, modern office environment with geometric architectural lines — captures the authority and professionalism of a leader whose career has been built on connecting people, industries, and ideas at the highest level.