The global events and exhibitions industry is built on spectacle, speed and scale. Every year, billions of pounds’ worth of booths, structures, graphics and materials are fabricated, shipped across continents, assembled for a few days – and then dismantled and discarded. Despite its size and environmental footprint, the sector has long operated with surprisingly little data, accountability or optimisation.

That is now set to change.

Mission-led creative agency Pie Factory has appointed automation pioneer Zak Homuth to lead the transformation of its flagship ESG product, TIM (Tradeshow Impact Manager), into a fully automated, AI-driven sustainability platform. The ambition is bold: to allow exhibitors to measure the carbon footprint of their trade show presence in seconds, using nothing more than the camera on their smartphone.

A data blind spot in a high-impact industry

Trade shows remain one of the most carbon-intensive forms of B2B marketing. Temporary builds, short usage cycles and global logistics combine to create a material footprint that often goes unmeasured and unmanaged. Unlike manufacturing, aviation or energy, the events industry has historically lacked both the tools and the regulatory pressure to quantify its environmental impact.

“Trade shows are one of the last industries that build at massive scale with almost no software,” Homuth says. “Every year, billions of dollars of materials get fabricated, shipped across the world, used for three days, and thrown away. No measurement. No optimisation. No accountability.”

As ESG reporting expectations tighten and Scope 3 emissions move firmly into the spotlight, that absence of data is becoming a strategic risk for brands.

From consultancy tool to scalable software

TIM already exists as a solution to this problem. Developed by Pie Factory, the platform enables brands to measure, report and improve the environmental, social and governance performance of their exhibition activity. It is currently used by major global organisations including Amazon, Panasonic, Dolby and CBRE.

Until now, however, TIM has operated as an expert-led, manual tool – powerful but limited in scalability. Homuth’s appointment signals a fundamental shift: transforming TIM into a highly automated software product capable of delivering sustainability insights at industry scale.

The new iteration of TIM will integrate 120 different AI tools and technical elements, all working together to automate impact measurement. Central to this evolution is a camera-based “carbon photo” capability, enabling exhibitors to photograph their booth and receive an instant carbon footprint assessment.

“The goal is to remove friction,” Homuth explains. “If sustainability data takes weeks, consultants and spreadsheets, it won’t scale. If it takes seconds and a phone camera, it becomes unavoidable.”

Why Zak Homuth?

Homuth is widely recognised as one of the leading automation minds in product development. He founded Upverter, a pioneering cloud-based collaborative design platform for electronics engineers, which was acquired by Altium in 2017. He later served as VP of Innovation at Altium, helping shape tools used globally in AI, IoT and hardware design.

More recently, Homuth designed and deployed robotic production lines at Sheertex, enabling the company to bring polymer production in-house and radically rethink manufacturing processes for ultra-durable textiles.

Across these roles, a common theme emerges: replacing manual, opaque systems with automated, data-driven platforms that fundamentally reshape industries.

“Pie Factory already has the methodology, the expertise and the trust of world-class brands,” Homuth says. “My job is to turn that into software.”

ESG pressure meets commercial reality

The timing of TIM’s transformation is no coincidence. Regulation around carbon disclosure is accelerating, particularly in Europe, and expectations from customers, investors and procurement teams are rising fast. Sustainability claims without data are increasingly seen as greenwashing liabilities rather than brand assets.

Homuth is blunt about the stakes. “Regulation is coming. Customers are demanding transparency. The companies that measure, optimise and prove their sustainability will win. The ones that don’t will disappear.”

Crucially, TIM is not positioned as a compliance burden. By mapping emissions at a granular level, it enables exhibitors to identify inefficiencies, reduce waste and cut unnecessary costs. In an industry where materials are often over-specified and under-reused, optimisation can deliver both environmental and financial returns.

A new sustainability interface for marketing teams

One of TIM’s most disruptive aspects is who it is designed for. Rather than targeting sustainability specialists alone, the platform is built for marketing, events and brand teams – the people making day-to-day decisions about booths, materials and logistics.

By embedding ESG measurement directly into the creative and planning process, Pie Factory is reframing sustainability as a design and strategy challenge, not a post-event reporting exercise.

This aligns closely with the agency’s broader philosophy. Founded by Nick Marks, a pioneer of sustainable event practice and founder of the sector’s first B Corp agency, Pie Factory has long argued that purpose-driven experiences can deliver stronger commercial outcomes.

“Sustainable trade shows shouldn’t be an alternative option,” Homuth says. “They should be the only option.”

Redefining accountability at scale

If successful, TIM’s evolution could mark a turning point for the global exhibitions industry. By making impact measurement instant, visual and unavoidable, it removes one of the last excuses for inaction.

The idea that exhibitors could soon walk onto a show floor, scan their booth and immediately see its carbon footprint represents a radical shift in transparency. It turns sustainability from an abstract ambition into a concrete, measurable metric – one that can be improved show by show.

In doing so, Pie Factory and Zak Homuth are not just building a tool. They are redefining how an entire industry understands its impact.

As ESG expectations continue to rise, the message is clear: in the future of events, if you can’t measure it, you won’t be able to justify it.