Our Team
Bonnie-Day Nagy, Chief Operations Officer
Bonnie-Day Nagy is the Chief Operations Officer for CONECTRA Global Conference Consulting and Vice President – North America for aQedina. With over 20 years of experience in the Meetings and Hotel Industry, and having planned and implemented conferences in 18 countries and on 4 continents, she is well accustomed to interacting with the most demanding and discerning customers. Her clients have included two Presidents of the United States, the White House Travel office, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Secretaries of Health and Education, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, The Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE), Loyola University Medical Center, The American Institutes for Research, the Campbell Collaboration, C-Change (National Dialogue on Cancer) and multiple dignitaries from around the world.
Having lived and worked for many years in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, she has a unique understanding of the cultural differences and the diverse environment that effect the planning and implementation of international meetings.
As a result of her intricate involvement in meeting procurement, planning and successful event execution, both as planner and strategist for corporate and non-profit organizations in the US and as Director of Sales for hotel chains such as Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Conrad International Hotels and Rotana Hotels & Resorts in the US, Europe, Africa and Middle East, Ms. Nagy describes the relationship between CONECTRA and aQedina as perfect symbiosis.
“As conference strategists, our team’s goal is to elevate our clients’ experiences to the next level, taking “good” to “exceptional” and turning a client/service provider relationship into a true partnership on all levels. aQedina is that missing link between our Clients, CONECTRA and our hotel partners – proactively providing hotels with the tools and training required to deliver their part of the exceptional service that we have come to expect.”
aQedina is that missing link between our Clients, CONECTRA and our hotel partners – proactively providing hotels with the tools and training required to deliver their part of the exceptional service that we have come to expect.
Shannon Farmer, Operations Director
Shannon Farmer is the Operations Director for CONECTRA Global Conference Consulting. She is a meeting and hospitality professional with over 18 years of experience in conference planning, sales and catering training and project management. Prior to being promoted to Operations Director, Ms. Farmer served for 5 years as Registration Manager for CONECTRA, overseeing pre-event logistics, onsite registration management and staffing. She has been instrumental in the continuous development of CONECTRA’s excellence in operations planning modules and policies.
Prior to becoming part of the CONECTRA team, she was the Senior Training Manager at Marriott International Headquarters where she was responsible for training hotel conference and sales departments across the US in sales and catering specific applications and software technologies, to include the development and implementation of project management manuals and processes. Previously, Ms. Farmer was intricately involved in the scheduling, logistics and on-site registration phases of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Standards of Conduct Training for 1,900 employees and overall logistics and contract support.
Kimberley Hovda, Project Director
Kimberley Hovda is the Project Director for CONECTRA Global Conference Consulting. She is a detail-oriented team leader with over 10 years experience in conference planning, event recruitment, speaker management and market research.
Prior to working with CONECTRA, Ms. Hovda served as Director, Marketing & Meetings for the Homeland Defense Journal (HDJ) where she planned and managed over 100 homeland defense and IT Security events, from small workshops to large conferences. Her responsibilities also included determining the event ROI, the procurement of conference & workshop brochures, meeting websites and overall event marketing efforts. Ms. Hovda also served as Manager, Grants Products, for INPUT, where she created and revised business plans detailing product content, functionality, planned enhancement, marketing & sales strategies, and competitive analysis. Her focus was on sales team recruitment, training and advancing productivity, effectively demonstrating product value to prospects and clients.