Carlos Pelham

| A Natural |
Carlos Pelham
Meetings Manager, Solar Energy Industries Association

Washington, D.C.
Age: 35

If there’s a DNA strand designed specifically for planners, Carlos Pelham has it. In grade school, he planned picnics and field trips to the park and mall. “I created permission slips for my friends’ parents to fill out,” he says. Ditto for a teacher’s surprise party. “I coordinated the menu and a payment schedule for the gift,” he says. Still, Pelham went from college directly into public relations before making his way back to planning in 2000. The Arlington, Va., native hasn’t slowed down, putting his planning skills to work around D.C. before landing at SEIA in 2008. His current duties include helping to manage and produce (e.g., site selection, vendor research/selection, on-site logistics, housing, post-event wrap-up) up to a dozen conferences annually ranging from 15 to 25,000 attendees. Outside the meeting room, he’s busy with MPI (a past president of MPI Potomac), ASAE and as co-founder and board advisor of Hospitality Industry Professionals, a social and business networking group for young professionals that’s blossomed from its first Washington event with 14 people in 2008 to bashes of 400 and chapters in Chicago and New York as well as D.C. —M. Boisclair

What was the best advice someone gave you when you started in the industry?
“Relationships matter in this industry.”