What Matters Most: What Drives Carina Bauer

The inner compass of the people who decide how the world gathers

They lead the events where the world decides what’s next. But beneath the agendas and metrics is something far more powerful: a set of human values. David Allison reveals what drives the people who drive everything else, and what you can learn from them.

The Climber’s Guide to Leading Anything

From rock faces to the world’s biggest trade shows, Carina Bauer leads with the same values she lives by. Her approach is a masterclass in building teams, trust and results—and it starts with figuring out your strengths and using them to navigate.

The first thing you notice in her office isn’t the view or the awards.

It’s the climbing photos. Whether it’s bouldering a local bluff or the dizzying heights of Yosemite, it tells you more about Carina Bauer than any press release ever could. She likes a challenge. She needs a challenge.

If you’re expecting a CEO who arrives with a brass band of assistants and a clipboard of marching orders, you’ll be disappointed. Carina doesn’t “perform” being a leader. She is one—by being exactly who she is, no more, no less.

And that’s the first lesson in this climber’s guide: You can’t summit anything pretending to be someone else.

Friendship as a Safety Rope

When Carina took the Values Identifier assessment, the value of friendship scored high. The real kind. The “I’ve known you since we were ten” kind.

“I’m not trying to be friends with everyone,” she told me. “But I’ve kept friends from every stage of my life. They’re grounding. You can’t pretend with someone who’s seen you at thirteen.”

Read More: Building Connection in a Distracted World

In mountaineering, a belayer holds the rope and keeps you safe on steep climbs. In leadership, those ropes are the people who will give you the reality check you didn’t ask for. Friends who don’t care how many standing ovations you got last week. Friends who will tell you when you’ve got the proverbial piece of spinach in your teeth.

Independence at the Top

Another of Carina’s core values is independence. For her, it means creating a culture where people have the agency to make their own decisions, and the responsibility to live with them.

It’s baked into IMEX. No set office hours. Hosted buyers choose their own exhibitor meetings. Senior leaders get autonomy instead of micromanagement.

Read More: IMEX America 2025 Guide

It’s an approach that attracts people whose values align, and quietly repels those who can’t handle the freedom.

In climbing terms, it’s knowing when to take in and when to let someone have more slack in the rope.

Experiences as a Profession and a Value

It’s no surprise to see the value of experiences ranking so high in Carina’s profile. After all, she leads a team that plans experiences for people who plan experiences. It doesn’t get more meta than that. Yet despite all that experiential complexity, she’s not a perfectionist. She’s an improver.

Years ago, IMEX noticed people complaining in surveys that their name badges flipped around, making them unreadable. The fix? Two clips instead of one. Problem solved. “That was a micro-innovation for us that year,” she laughs.

Small or big, she’s constantly scanning for the next experience. That instinct shows up in her personal life as rock climbing, in her business life as constant, incremental upgrades.

Where in your world could a tiny tweak make a big difference? Don’t wait for the Everest-sized challenges. Start with the badge clips.

Your Next Summit

Carina Bauer’s real leadership secret isn’t hidden in a business book. It’s right there in plain sight on her office walls, along with her chalk bag, ready for the next climb.

So here’s your final instruction from this CEO’s climber’s guide: Figure out what matters most to you, and then lead from there. Strip away the performance. Stand in the center of who you are.

The right people will tie in. The wrong ones will wander off. And you’ll keep moving toward your own next summit.

BIOS:

You probably know David Allison as a keynote speaker, and author, but he’s also the CEO of a research firm that uses a unique global database to pinpoint WHAT MATTERS MOST to the people you need to inspire. For Smart Meetings, he talks with leaders about their results from the Values Identifier, a personal values assessment.

Carina Bauer runs IMEX, a global trade show for the meetings and events industry that feels like a festival. Twice a year, she presides over gatherings so large and complex they make most corporate “big launches” look like bake sales. One in Las Vegas. One in Frankfurt. Tens of thousands of people, hundreds of moving parts, all happening in the same three-day blur.

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David Allison as a keynote speaker, author and CEO of a research firm that uses a unique global database to pinpoint what matters most to the people you need to inspire.