Photo Credit: Prasit Rodham for Adobe Stock
Change is underway at the event management technology platform Stova: Anupam Palit, who had been serving as Stova's president and CFO, has been promoted to CEO. Kirk Ziehm, who was named Stova's CEO in early 2024, is stepping into a vice chairman role, where he will remain involved with strategic AI product and market initiatives.
Palit has 15 years of experience in the events industry, the last four of which have been with Stova. He previously held leadership positions with B2B media and events company Penton and the event tech platform Leap Event Technology.
"I am excited to step into the CEO role at Stova," said Palit in a statement. "I have never been more confident of Stova’s ability to develop innovative solutions for the market. I look forward to building on the foundation the team has established, continuing to partner with our clients and stakeholders across the entire event ecosystem."
After a little more than two years at the helm, Ziehm will help the company navigate the next wave of AI and tech. "In the last several months, we’ve seen enormous changes in the industry, from widespread technology vendor consolidation to rapidly evolving client experience expectations, to the emergence of agentic AI," Kirk noted. "I look forward to supporting Anupam in continuing to embrace these ground-breaking opportunities."
Palit thanked the company's investors on LinkedIn, including Sunstone Partners, HGGC and Camden Partners.
The evolution of event tech
Stova is no stranger to change, and in many ways the evolution of the company has reflected that of the overall event technology market. A longtime fixture that entered the market in 2008 as etouches, the company rebranded and then changed names a few times based on its acquisitions amid the market consolidation in the aftermath of the pandemic. In the fall of 2022, what was then known as MeetingPlay + Aventri + Eventcore shortened its moniker considerably and rebranded as Stova.
When Ziehm was brought in to lead the company, he was keenly focused on data analysis and the burgeoning AI developments that would impact the market — topics he will continue to focus on in his new role. "Helping our clients turn data into insights that help deliver great experiences and help drive their business forward, I think that's something we'll consistently be pushing the envelope for," he told Northstar after being named CEO. "And of course everybody's talking about AI; when it comes to data and events, I think there's opportunity to use that to further deepen the relationships that companies have with their clients — and we see ourselves enabling that for our customers."