For 10 years, EM has been championing b-to-b all-stars, delving into their career journeys, portfolios, best practices and industry forecasts. Meet this year’s crew: The 2026 B-to-B Dream Team.
Dannielle Simpson, North America Event Marketing Manager, Chiquita
Dannielle Simpson’s pathway into event marketing is one that many can relate to: “I accidentally fell into it,” she says.
She started as a pre-med student at Florida State University, but the opportunity to run an off-campus housing fair steered her in a new direction. Simpson ended up running the event for 50,000 students with great success, prompting her to look deeper into the events world. At an awards event for Monster.com’s Diversity Leadership Program, she encountered an experiential activation by Target that floored her.
“I had never really seen anything like that before, so I just started asking questions,” she says. “When I graduated university, I got my first opportunity as a brand ambassador with Doritos, working a trade show and handing out samples. On my break, I was walking around looking at different trade show booths, and I just started thinking, ‘How can I do more of this?’”
From brand ambassador, Simpson then moved on to team lead, field manager and marketing manager. She picked up more experience at agencies and worked with brands like Levi’s, Dr Pepper, Snapple, 7-Eleven, T-Mobile and Florida Blue on everything from concepting to execution. She also holds an MBA from Florida International University.
“I really started from not understanding or even knowing about the industry, to working my way up slowly throughout the years, trying to get to that place where I was the one coming up with the idea and then seeing it realized in real life,” she says.
Now, Simpson is almost two years into her role as North America event marketing manager at Chiquita, where she manages trade shows and consumer-facing activations, about 20 to 50 events of various sizes a year. She reports to the global cmo and works with a marketing and events coordinator and agency partners.
One of Chiquita’s biggest shows on the calendar is the International Fresh Produce Association’s Global Produce & Floral Show. Attendees at last year’s show in Anaheim, CA, got to enter the Chiquita Square and meet Miss Chiquita and Banana Man, step into the “We are Bananas” photo booth, try banana-powered snacks, sip beverages from the Barista Bar, and recharge in The Pink Lounge, dedicated to the brand’s Small Change, Big Difference breast cancer awareness campaign.
“It was really a storytelling booth. We had elevated the experience to be more immersive,” Simpson says. “We tried to lean in more on the Chiquita story because we really wanted an emotional connection… Dwell time is important, so for [attendees] to linger says that they connected with what we were offering at our booth.”
Chiquita’s activations also lean into surprise-and-delight elements like interactive dancing games to encourage b-to-b attendees to “loosen up a little bit and have fun in the moment,” Simpson says, adding that appearances by Miss Chiquita, the brand’s iconic character, attract passersby, while the character’s one-on-one conversations help visitors feel welcome at the booth.
As a fan of events, Simpson is constantly going out into the field to experience them for herself and see how other brands are innovating in the space. Catching her eye at the moment is how brands are using digital integrations to turn their events into live content studios to capture authentic media. Moving away from generic giveaways to personalized items is also something she’s seeing resonating with attendees.
“On the trade show side of my career, I’ve always been more conservative with the footprints, and with this organization, I’ve been able to be more creative and tell a deeper, bigger story and really test the boundaries,” she says. “So to feel a little bit nervous the day before and say, ‘Did we make the right decision to do this, that and the other,’ and then to see when the doors open that people are emotionally struck by our booth, that’s an amazing feeling.”
Simpson’s trying to hold on to those positive feelings a little longer after an event wraps. It’s usually a quick celebration and then onto the next one with so many events in the pipeline, but she’s focusing on relishing the accomplishments and wins for at least a day before pushing other projects forward.
“In events, we’re constantly adding stuff on to the program, like you can continue to layer and layer and layer until the last second, so for me, there’s always this sense of urgency to get it done now. But I am trying to enjoy it,” she says. “Even thinking back to 2006, one of my first events was 20 years ago. It’s been a long journey, and I’m really appreciative of all the opportunities.”
Photos: Courtesy of Dannielle Simpson; Chiquita
