Brian Thomas never planned to build a career in exhibitions. “I actually wanted to work in publishing,” he says. “When I joined Thomson Publishing in Australia, I ended up in a small exhibitions division and assumed I’d move on pretty quickly.”
Three decades later, he is President of RX Asia Pacific, leading one of the exhibitions industry’s most commercially diverse and operationally complex regions, but what kept him in the industry?
Brian Thomas – President of RX Asia Pacific
“For me it was the industry’s pace and unpredictability. No two years are ever the same,” he says. “The industry keeps evolving, the markets keep changing and you’re constantly learning.”
Brian joined RX following its acquisition of Thomson World Trade Exhibitions in1995 and has since held roles spanning finance, operations, IT and commercial leadership.
His career has taken him across Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Turkey, India and the Middle East, experiences he says fundamentally shaped his approach to leadership.
“Moving between markets gives you perspective,” he says. “You realise very quickly there’s no single formula that works everywhere.”
That mindset is central to how he now leads across APAC, a region where market maturity, customer expectations and competitive pressures vary significantly country by country.
“One of the challenges in APAC is avoiding the assumption that successful models automatically translate across borders,” he explains. “Australia is a very mature market where the focus is often on portfolio optimisation and customer retention. In places like Korea, there’s a stronger emphasis on innovation and launching new concepts. Singapore is highly competitive and very customer driven.”
Rather than trying to standardise those differences, Thomas sees value in connecting them.
“One of the opportunities we have as a regional business is sharing capability more effectively,” he says. “Different teams solve problems in different ways and there’s a lot of value in learning from each other.”
That thinking increasingly extends beyond APAC itself, as RX continues to operate more globally across data, digital capability and customer insight.
“We’re far more connected as a business than we were five or ten years ago,” he says. “That collaboration helps us move faster and gives teams access to broader expertise.”
Like many organisers, Brian says customer expectations have shifted noticeably in recent years, particularly around measurable return on investment.
“The days of assuming attendance alone is enough are gone,” he says. “That means we have to think more carefully about how our events deliver value before, during and after the show.”
He points to launches such as IBTM Asia Pacific in Thailand and WePack Southeast Asia as examples of RX adapting proven event models for emerging regional demand.
“We’re seeing more opportunities to take successful brands into growth markets where customer needs are evolving quickly,” he says.
Alongside commercial growth, Brian believes talent development remains one of the biggest long-term challenges facing the industry. “As an industry, we probably haven’t always done a good enough job explaining the variety of careers exhibitions can offer,” he says. “If the industry wants to keep growing, we have to invest more in developing people and giving them broader opportunities earlier in their careers.”
His own leadership style reflects that philosophy. Rather than operating as a directive leader, Thomas prefers to give teams autonomy and focus on mentoring.
“The people closest to the customer and closest to the business are usually in the best position to make decisions,” he says. “My role is to help create clarity, remove barriers and support people’s development.”
That perspective became especially important during COVID-19, when RX Australia, like much of the industry, faced prolonged disruption and uncertainty. “It was obviously a difficult period,” he says. “But it also accelerated development for a lot of people because they had to step into bigger roles and make decisions in very challenging circumstances.”
Outside work, Brian maintains a deliberate separation between professional and personal life, whether through time outdoors or high-speed motorbike track days.
“I think it’s important to switch off properly,” he says. “You make better decisions when you create some distance and perspective.”
After more than 30 years in the industry, Thomas remains motivated less by titles than by the continued evolution of the business and the people within it.
“The industry’s changing quickly,” he says. “Customer expectations are changing, technology is changing and the markets themselves keep evolving. “I don’t think anyone in the industry can assume the next ten years will look like the last ten,” he says. “The businesses that adapt fastest will probably be the ones that stay closest to customers and invest most in their people.”
For more information about RX, visit their website HERE
