CHICAGO — Wendy Siminski, most recently senior vice president of Conferences and Events at AdvaMed, has passed away after a long and courageous battle with cancer. While Siminski was only 46 at the time of her death, she had accomplished much during her career, including successfully organizing and growing some of the nation’s largest trade shows. Among them was AdvaMed’s MedTech Conference, which typically attracted more than 3,000 attendees, including senior executives from some of the world’s largest medical device companies.
Last fall, Trade Fair Manager The magazine highlighted some of Siminski’s accomplishments in its October cover story, “Medical Device Maven,” in which she discussed her work launching AdvaMed’s events during the COVID-19 pandemic; and how her early career goal of becoming an FBI profiler morphed into a marketing strategist, a self-proclaimed data geek, and ultimately an event production and organizational growth guru. Before joining AdvaMed, she worked for nearly six years at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and several Washington, D.C.-based associations. But her time at AdvaMed was “the highlight of my career,” she said, as she was responsible for event management and marketing, as well as operations, sales, programming, and international outreach.
“It’s the dream job I always wanted,” she said in the interview.
The key to good marketing—and an effective event—is creating an emotional connection and communicating that connection through every aspect of the show. But she’s taken her work far beyond the show floor, building connections through her work to make events more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, and sharing what she’s learned by mentoring others.
But it was his two daughters, Kira, 13, and Ashley, 12, who remained his guiding light in all matters professional and personal. They made his dream job at AdvaMed possible by reminding him to focus on what was truly important, not just the emergency of the moment.
TSE extends its condolences to Siminski’s family, friends, loved ones and colleagues. In honor of his memory, donations to METAvivor are welcome. The organization supports research into metastatic breast cancer.