A Special Conversation with Anca Platon Trifan & David T. Stevens
IMEX America is the kind of event that can demand almost everything from you at once. Long days, thousands of steps, meetings stacked across the schedule, late dinners, receptions, unexpected conversations, and very little room for recovery. But what if the goal is not simply to get through it?
In this special episode of Events: Demystified, David T. Stevens, PMED, WITT-AP and I talk about what it actually takes to thrive at IMEX America. Not through another list of things to pack in your bag, but through a more fundamental question: how do you build the physical and mental capacity to meet the demands of the week before they arrive?
From stress and cortisol to sleep, movement, nutrition, recovery, the #Fit4events Challenge, and the evolution of Circadian Cove into Circadian Cove RX, this conversation is really about preparation, personal capacity, and learning to take care of yourself before you reach the point of depletion.
Listen to the full episode now on Spotify
👉 Peptides article mentioned in this episode
Why Controlled Stress Builds Capacity for Demanding Event Days
One of the first principles we discuss is building capacity before you arrive on the show floor.
David’s advice is simple: prepare.
Know what you want to accomplish. Set your objectives before booking every meeting. Block your non-negotiables first, add your educational sessions, and then fill in the rest with appointments.
You also have to accept that you cannot do everything.
IMEX is designed almost like a festival, with countless sessions, meetings, activations, dinners, receptions, and opportunities happening at the same time. There will be FOMO. The challenge is learning to turn that into JOMO, the joy of missing out.
But preparation is not only about your calendar.
It is also about your physical and mental capacity.
If you arrive already exhausted, you cannot suddenly manufacture endurance, resilience, patience, and focus once the show begins. That means the preparation needs to start before you get on the show floor.
For me, that can mean prioritising sleep in the week before, walking more consistently, doing mobility work, strength training, and becoming more honest about how much demand my body can currently absorb.
David brings another perspective into the conversation: stress itself is not necessarily the enemy.
“Stress is good for your body when it’s in a controlled environment.”
Resistance training and HIIT are examples of intentional stress. You expose the body to a controlled demand, and over time that can help build resilience.
The same principle can be useful when thinking about demanding event days.
The goal is not to eliminate every form of stress. It is to build enough capacity that you can respond to the demands placed on you without immediately reaching your limit.
That is part of the philosophy behind #Fit4events: building physical, mental, and emotional capacity for the realities of event work and life.
How to Protect Your Energy at IMEX
Once you have built some capacity before the event, the next question becomes: how do you protect it while you are there?
Movement is one part of the answer.
Anca shares how she always tries to move before the day starts throwing other people’s priorities at her.
At IMEX, that movement could be the IMEX Run, a walk, mobility work, a short hotel workout, or joining the #Fit4events Challenge. It does not need to look like anyone else’s training routine.
It simply needs to prepare you for the day ahead.
David takes a similar approach. On an important event day, he likes to work out beforehand because getting his heart rate up helps him feel physically and mentally prepared for what comes next.
But protecting your energy also means protecting your morning.
David talks about what he calls sleep inertia and the first 15 to 30 minutes after waking. Instead of immediately reaching for your phone, turning on the television, or exposing yourself to outside demands, give yourself a little space to wake up.
That time could be used for mobility, meditation, prayer, quiet time, or simply preparing mentally for the day.
The point is to avoid allowing the outside world to take over your attention before you have even started the day.
Nutrition is another piece of the puzzle.
For me, the goal is not to invent an entirely new nutrition routine because I am travelling. It is to maintain the structure that works for me while allowing for the realities of IMEX.
That might mean travelling with protein powder or shakes, snacks, water, or whatever supports your normal routine. The convention schedule is unpredictable, but having something accessible in your bag means every nutrition decision does not have to be made when you are already hungry and rushing between meetings.
David has his own approach, including intermittent fasting when he is on show site, but he is clear that it is a personal preference and not something that works for everyone.
The larger lesson is simple: know what works for you and plan around it.
And then there is sleep.
IMEX can make sleep difficult because there is always something happening after the show floor closes. There are dinners, receptions, parties, spontaneous invitations, and people you may only see once a year.
Sometimes you will choose to stay out later.
But you also have to recognise that you are borrowing from tomorrow when you consistently sacrifice sleep tonight.
If you arrive at a meeting after only a few hours of sleep, your attention, judgment, and ability to stay present are going to be affected.
So protecting your energy does not necessarily mean saying no to everything.
It means making intentional decisions about where your energy goes.
Cortisol Isn’t the Enemy: How to Protect Your Energy at IMEX
Cortisol is another topic that comes up in our conversation because it is often discussed as though any increase is automatically a bad thing.
David makes an important distinction:
“Cortisol is not the enemy. Continuous elevated cortisol is the enemy.”
That connects directly back to the idea of controlled stress.
A demanding event day will create stress. Meetings, walking, decision-making, social interaction, schedule changes, and unexpected problems are all part of the experience.
The goal cannot be to eliminate every physiological response to that environment.
Instead, the goal is to build enough capacity and recovery into your routine that you can handle those demands without constantly operating at your limit.
That also means paying attention to the quality of your attention.
One of my principles is to schedule for the quality of my attention, not simply the number of meetings I can fit into my calendar.
A completely packed calendar might look productive, but if you are constantly rushing from one side of the trade show floor to another, you can arrive at your next conversation already frazzled.
I have learned to organise appointments in sections or quadrants of the show floor whenever possible. That gives me enough time to get where I need to go, review my notes, and arrive mentally present rather than worrying about the next appointment.
Because at IMEX, the physical distance between meetings can become part of the workload.
You might only have five minutes between appointments, but getting from one corner of the show floor to another can take much longer, especially when you inevitably run into people along the way.
Planning your schedule around geography can therefore protect more than your feet.
It can protect the quality of the conversations you are there to have.
The Mic Drop Moment
You cannot wait until you are depleted to build capacity.
The demands of our work are not going to disappear. There will always be another meeting, another event, another problem to solve, another long day ahead.
So the work of building capacity has to happen before you need it.
Move before the day takes over. Protect your sleep. Maintain the routines that support you. Recover before depletion.
Because if taking care of yourself is always something you plan to do afterwards, there is a real possibility that afterwards never arrives.
The goal is not simply to get through demanding days. It is to build the capacity to meet them.
What This Episode Leaves Us With
Preparing for IMEX is not about trying to control every part of the experience.
You cannot control every meeting, invitation, schedule change, problem, or unexpected demand.
But you can build more capacity before you arrive.
You can protect your sleep.
You can move your body.
You can maintain the nutrition structure that works for you.
You can create moments of recovery before you reach exhaustion.
You can choose how you participate.
And you can pay attention to what your body and mind are telling you along the way.
The goal is not simply to make it through IMEX.
It is to have enough capacity to participate fully, connect meaningfully, perform well, and still have something left for what comes next.
Train with intent. Eat like it matters. Sleep like your life depends on it. And build the capacity to handle what your work and life are demanding from you every single day.
Whether you are preparing for IMEX America or simply navigating a demanding season of work, the conversation is a reminder that wellbeing cannot always be something we postpone until the work is finished.
Sometimes, the most important preparation is making sure you have enough capacity to show up for the work in the first place.
Watch the entire episode now on YouTube
Listen to the full episode now on Spotify
About the Guest: David T. Stevens
David T. Stevens PMED, WITT-AP, is a Wellness Architect, Co-Founder of Olympian Meeting, and Chair of the Global Wellness Institute’s Meetings & Events Initiative. With more than 20 years of experience in the events industry, he advocates for integrating wellness, movement, nutrition, recovery, and human performance into meetings and events.
Where to Find David:
Company Website: Olympian Meeting
LinkedIn: David T. Stevens
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