Mr February: Dan Assor on Building NoVacancy London, Curating Community, and Why Representation on Stage Doesn’t Happen by Accident

In the weeks before an inaugural event opens its doors, there’s a particular kind of tension. It’s the awareness that thousands of people are about to walk into something that simply didn’t exist a year ago. For the organizers, the work is simultaneously done and not done at the same time: months of planning, programming, and coordination distilled into a few days where everything has to come together, and where the real measure of success starts with what’s on the agenda and finishes with what happens organically between the attendees.

I sat down with Dan Assor, General Manager at Terrapin and Event Director at No Vacancy London, a mere few weeks before the first ever NoVacancy London, to talk about what it takes to build an event like this from the ground up, and how programming decisions, including who gets invited to speak, are shaping the industry.

Assor’s entry into hospitality wasn’t traditional. He spent the first half of his career in advertising and publishing before moving into events and eventually building and running large-scale trade shows. When Terrapin acquired NoVacancy in 2024 he stepped into the sector professionally for the first time.

Alongside the logistics and growth plans, one goal was clear from the beginning: building an experiential event and a program that reflected what the industry should actually look like. At NoVacancy London, nearly half of speakers are women, a result that was intentional from the outset. For context, in the US, recent data from Penn State School of Hospitality showed that women make up one-third of speakers at hotel conferences.

What stood out in our conversation wasn’t just the scale of the project but the way he talks about responsibility: the investment exhibitors make, the time speakers give, and the idea that an event only truly works when it belongs to its community. 

You’ve only been in hospitality for just over a year. How did you approach entering the sector?

So, the first half of my career was actually in advertising and publishing. I worked for a media agency buying advertising space in the mid to late 90s pre-dotcom era, before digital. It led me to launch some events and conferences that were adjacent to my work, finding my edge there, and running some successful conferences.

When I got approached by Terrapin after the acquisition of the NoVacancy brand, my first task was to research this industry, and I spent a long while doing market research by just talking to people and creating a solid network.

I feel like hospitality is very accessible for two reasons. Firstly, we are all guests, we all stay in hotels. So as soon as my eyes opened to that I was seeing hotels differently, wondering what platforms they were running on, trying to understand the brand and the motivations of the operators. It’s an industry that is easy to get hooked on.

Secondly, it's a very friendly industry. I think this is because it's inherently a service industry, so even on the provider side many people have come from the hotel floor and have hospitality in their blood. People are willing to talk, to share their contacts, and to grow the industry together, which is unlike other sectors I've worked in.

NoVacancy Sydney has been a long standing  successful event, how has it been expanding it into new territories?

Expanding this type of conference is not a cookie cutter exercise and we were aware that the success of the event in Australia did not automatically mean it would be easy to replicate. Although the core audience - hoteliers and other accommodation professionals - may be similar, the realities of each market are very different.

Before taking the show to new territories, the team stepped back to understand what made NoVacancy successful in the first place. We spent time getting back to basics on brand personality and what the essence of NoVacancy was - is it just the logo? What is the brand essence? What needs to stay global and how much flexibility can we incorporate on a local level without losing the brand’s energy?

In the end it was about being a playful and dynamic event, with plenty of educational tracks and in-event activations that resonate with the community. That’s what made it so successful down under, and then from there building on that to take it to Bangkok, and then the London version which is where I come in.  

When dealing with a global event, it’s all about finding the balance between having a recognizable global brand but bringing a local flavor. Even when conference tracks are similar, the topics and discussions must reflect the realities of each region. Ultimately, you have to put on an event that’s the community’s event. We’re just the custodians of it.

Let’s talk about the speaker lineup: you have strong female representation, how did you do it?

The 43% representation of women speakers is not by chance, it was definitely intentional. Call it positive discrimination, call it whatever you want. We wanted to make sure that we had good representation because even if this is sadly not representative of the actual gender mix in high level roles in our industry, representation at events like this is a first and crucial step, it's where we can actually make a difference and hopefully inspire boardrooms to eventually follow suit.

However, finding women who wanted to speak was not all that easy, there seemed to be a certain level of imposter syndrome mentality. We found that the best way to get women on board was to ask the ones we spoke to to nominate other women to speak. Women are great at championing each other, and this helped us to get the right balance on stage.

The hesitancy of women to speak on stage is understandable, if you’ve never seen yourself represented, how are you going to feel you deserve that spot on stage? But once we secured  a certain number of women on the lineup, the dynamic changed, and from then it was a snowball effect.

It’s worth saying that we wanted to create diversity in all areas, including age for example. We have senior leaders as well as those starting out. Early career visibility is also important.

Who are the women that have influenced you personally and professionally?

I have to admit, I’ve never had a female boss in my career. In my case my influences have been personal - my mother, wife, and two daughters serve as positive influences on a day to day level. As well as this my team which are female centred, our event producer Bobbi Nunes is a powerhouse and I’m lucky to be able to count on her amongst other women in the team.

I’ve never had a female boss in my career. In my case my influences have been personal - my mother, wife, and two daughters serve as positive influences on a day to day level

Beyond my immediate circle, I do think the wider events industry is starting to address the imbalance more openly, particularly when it comes to mentorship and progression. There are lots of good organizations in the trade show industry. Women in Exhibitions is a great example - they focus on mentoring and helping women progress into more senior roles. They understand that people need mentors and need to see that they can move up.

What are you most excited about for the first ever NoVacancy London? What can people expect?

What I’m most excited about, honestly, is simply opening the doors and seeing it all come to life. With a first-year event, there are always things you can’t control like travel disruptions, weather, all the small details that can keep organizers awake at night. But beyond that, what I feel most strongly is a sense of responsibility. Exhibitors have invested, speakers have given their time, and thousands of visitors are making the effort to attend. When you add it all up, it’s a significant commitment from a lot of people, and you want them to walk away feeling that something meaningful has been created and that it was worth being part of.

In terms of what people can expect, the scale of the program is something I’m really proud of. We’ve brought together more than 130 speakers across dozens of sessions, covering topics that affect owners and operators every day. But an event like this isn’t just about conference content; it’s about the energy on the show floor, the conversations that happen between sessions, and the opportunities for people to discover something new.

We’ve been very intentional about creating an environment where people don’t just walk in and out but stay, explore, and interact. That’s why we’ve included features like the startup zone and pitch competition, which bring a lot of energy and fresh ideas into the space, as well as interactive installations designed to get people participating rather than just observing.

One of the features I’m really excited about is the Hotel Room of the Future, where visitors can step inside and experience new ideas in design and technology firsthand. It’s one thing to hear about innovation, it’s another to actually walk through it.

And then there are the smaller moments that help build a sense of community. We’re even starting the first day with a 5K run, which is a nice way for people to connect before the show floor opens. For me, all of these elements together are what make an event feel alive.

Quickfire with Dan

Morning routine: I’m quite an early riser, mainly because I go to bed early as well. I’m usually up around half past six. It’s fairly simple: I get up, walk the dog, have a coffee, and then head out to the station. Most days I’m in the office by around eight.

What do you do for self-care? I walk and hike a lot, which is probably the main way I switch off. Over the last few years I’ve hiked the tallest mountains in Britain - not all at once, I should add! It’s something I’ve really enjoyed. More generally, I just like getting out into nature whenever I can. I’ve got a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, so long walks with the dog are a regular part of life and probably my best form of self-care.

Books or podcasts you're into right now? I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks. I’ve just been listening to Supremacy on Audible, which looks at the rise of AI and figures like Sam Altman and Elon Musk. I also listen to The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, and I dip in and out of quite a few hospitality podcasts as well.

Lastly, what's your best advice to anyone building a hospitality event? The most important thing is to really get to know your community. That means getting out there, visiting hotels, talking to operators, understanding their challenges and what’s actually happening day to day. A lot of it is still very much about old-school networking. Digital channels have their place, of course, but they work best when they’re combined with in-person conversations and building lasting relationships.

Ultimately, I think you have to remember that an event isn’t yours in the way people sometimes imagine. It has to belong to the community. Most of the ideas that shape a show don’t come from sitting in a room planning; they come from conversations, listening to what people want, what they don’t see at other events, and what would genuinely be useful to them

NoVacancy London is taking place at ExCeL London on 25-26 February. More information and free registration can be found here.

Zoe Koumbouzi is a Senior Marketing Advisor in travel and hospitality technology, helping SaaS companies with messaging, thought leadership, and global visibility. She is also a board member of Women in Travel Thrive and The Human Board, and a freelance writer and public speaker within the hospitality industry.