Event Marketer’s 2025 B-to-B Dream has been unveiled. Each month, we’re sitting down with one of our all-stars to talk trends, best practices and all things uniquely b-to-b.
Rachel Langley, VP-Events, Visa
Good job opportunities build careers, but great mentors shape them. Before she managed multi-million-dollar event budgets for Fortune 500 companies, Rachel Langley took her first career leap at the British-American Chamber of Commerce. There, her colleague and mentor, Pam Miller, taught her the ropes of building sponsorships and the nuances of client relationships, then passed the baton to her when she moved on from the organization.
“Pam taught me that quality matters in everything we do with clients, that creativity lives in both the grand gestures and the smallest details, and that true growth comes from having the courage to take smart risks,” Langley says.
The opportunity to put her own stamp on the nonprofit coupled with the natural entrepreneurial spirit she inherited from her mother, a wedding planner, ultimately inspired Langley to work and lead with a growth mindset. She’s proud to say that she’d held just about every role in the event industry, from an assistant to the svp to even owning an event consultancy.
Among key positions in her career, Langley served as svp at Univision, creating and leading the event marketing business unit, orchestrating more than 175 annual events, and earning a seat on the brand’s executive council. As AOL’s vp of events and employee engagement, Langley’s team supported the brand through multiple high-profile business evolutions. As AOL transformed from an ISP to a media trailblazer, her team engineered the first-ever Upfront, unveiling the brand’s content portfolio through immersive experiences that reimagined the brand for clients and unlocked new opportunities. Being at the forefront of this game-changing event strategy Langley says “was electrifying”—a defining moment that proved how powerful events can be in driving business growth.
“We were bringing to life properties and assets and value propositions in a way that absolutely changed the industry, and we were not alone in that. There were a lot of companies doing that and paving the way, and agencies and partners and designers that were saying, ‘Let’s turn it on its ear,’” she says. “That was a pretty magical time as an industry.”
Today, as vp-events at Visa, Langley directs more than 75 annual events to grow Visa’s brand and client relationships. She leads the content development for C-level meetings and events, and using her expertise in storytelling, creates experiences and impactful engagements with Visa’s sponsorships, including Formula 1, FIFA, the Olympics, and the NFL.
Fun Fact: Under Rachel Langley’s vision, Visa Payments Forum transitioned after 2022 from a virtual-only format to a live event that keeps on growing.
Langley is also the leader behind Visa Payments Forum, the company’s flagship partner event on the future of payments that in 2025 underwent a transformation to become a more impactful event, providing more value to attendees. To support the new direction, Langley developed a “Road to Forum” marketing strategy, which included a centralized hub for materials and weekly meetings with internal stakeholders focused on account executive (AE) readiness to help the salesforce engage and attract clients to the Forum, which ultimately sold out in two weeks.
“We started engaging with them in a way that we had never done before, educating them on the value statement of the program,” Langley says. “It was a different approach for us, and we did it smartly with good research, thoughtful internal education and marketing, and activating a sales team that allowed our relatively small events team to use hundreds of AEs on the front line who engage with clients, and to evangelize the program.”
Visa Payments Forum will remain in San Francisco next year and expand globally with a second iteration in Paris. But Langley also has her sights set on the next strategic evolution for the brand and the team around attendance curation. She envisions bespoke experiences featuring smaller groups of like-market clients who can dig into relevant and relatable opportunities through tailored formats and subject matter expert huddles.
It’s the kind of thinking Langley is uniquely suited for as someone with vast and diverse experience on the front lines of events and who has been both a student and “professor” of relationship-building in business throughout her career.
“That ingrained sense of accountability never leaves me, and I don’t hesitate to step in and solve problems,” she says. “I’m comfortable taking on any role required to ensure an event’s success. I’m fortunate to have an exceptional team that leads and owns their areas of responsibility. My experience across all facets of events makes me deeply appreciative of my team’s contributions and the importance of delivering exceptional experiences for our clients.”
DAY IN THE LIFE:
Photos: Courtesy of Visa
