Finding relief and space to shine
In this edition of Freed Spirits, IMEX Group CEO, Carina Bauer tells us how she put autonomy at the heart of her family business and created a highly engaged team all whilst saving herself 15 hours of work per week
“I’m delighted that I took the time to do this work with Pala. It’s changed our business and it’s changed my life for the better.”
Carina Bauer
CEO
A global pause – and a personal one
When the world hit pause in 2020, so did Carina Bauer. As CEO of IMEX, a global events company with a team of 80 based in Brighton, she suddenly had time to breathe – and reflect. What started as a necessary shift to remote working soon turned into something much bigger: a chance to reimagine how the business operated from the ground up.
After a decade of leadership, time for a big reset
Carina had been leading the family-run company for over a decade. Over that time, IMEX had grown and evolved, and so had her leadership. But lockdown gave her rare headspace to ask some big questions:
- How do we reduce bottlenecks and replace it with devolved responsibility and a culture of pro-activeness?
- How do we build a more flexible culture with less hierarchy?
- How do we create a more inter-twined organisation without silos?
- How can the company work in a way that’s more inclusive, more transparent, and genuinely empowering?
Starting small: partnering with Pala
She could already see that one team was ready to try working more autonomously – so she brought Pala in to explore what that might look like.
They started small: experimenting with facilitated meetings, making internal documents visible to all staff, and nudging decision-making further out into the team.
The changes were subtle, but they worked. People started asking better questions, sharing ideas more openly, and getting things done without needing constant direction.
Scaling the shift
But it became clear that for meaningful, lasting change, these shifts couldn’t stay siloed in one team. They needed to roll out across the whole business.
Carina expanded the experiment to a couple of other pockets of the business, and soon enough – as stories spread – teams slowly started to ask for bits of help themselves.
They had reached a tipping point.
So IMEX went all in.
Free Autonomy Snapshot [BETA]
Are you ‘Stuck In The Weeds’? Find out with this test and more importantly, find out the team dynamics that might be at play.
Take the free testSmall changes create big impact
Rethinking communication & collaboration
They began with how people communicated. Microsoft Teams was completely reshaped – private chats were replaced with public channels, creating visibility across the company.
It was a simple shift with a huge impact: people could finally see the work happening elsewhere, join conversations, and contribute in real time.
IMEX was starting to develop a hive mind.
As Carina said:
‘for me personally – as a leader – it was amazing, it was like a relief… I could just see everything and only insert myself where needed’
Meetings, transformed
And because meetings affect an organisation’s culture disproportionately, it was important these got a refresh too. With a few smart changes, IMEX reduced the number of meetings overall while increasing their value.
Team members learned to facilitate highly collaborative meeting structures that made the most of all brains in the room and allowed ‘people to step up and shine’. People felt more informed, more connected, and better equipped to focus on their work.
Performance, reimagined
Performance management also took a turn. Annual reviews gave way to twice-yearly team reflections and self-led development workshops.
Feedback became an ongoing, normalised part of working life – owned by the team, not imposed from the top. Slowly, a culture of trust and self-responsibility started to take hold.
Facing the challenges of change
Of course, big change doesn’t happen overnight. Not everyone finds transparency easy. And stepping away from hierarchy means letting go of control – something that requires vulnerability and plenty of self-reflection. “It’s low-ego work,” says Carina. “You need to shift your mindset. But when it clicks, it’s incredibly powerful.”
Measurable impact
Over time, the results started to show:
- Carina has saved 10-15 hours per week!
- She has reduced the number of Roles & Responsibilities (mainly in ‘the weeds’) by 65%
- Carina’s direct reports have gone from 10 to 4 and no longer is involved in job reviews (she estimates this has saved her a week per year)
- She has roughly halved the number of standing meetings she attends
- IMEX Employee Engagement rose from 70% to 90%
- Confidence in the business went up to 96%
- Collaboration has improved particularly between previously siloed departments
IMEX landed in the top 10 of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025 – something Carina says they’d never even have entered before.
A new balance
The personal impact? Carina now works 10–15 hours less each week. She spends less time in the weeds and more time zooming out – thinking strategically and building for the future. And she’s reclaimed time for herself too, getting to the climbing wall most weeks. “Sometimes I solve work problems halfway up a route,” she laughs. “It’s physical, it’s mindful, and it gives me perspective.”
Advice for leaders
Her advice to other leaders thinking about change? Be open. Start small. Don’t wait to have the perfect plan.
“It’s not about being fully self-managed or ticking every box. It’s about finding what works for your people, and giving yourself permission to try. Micro-moments add up. You just need to be willing to take the first step.”
A note from Pala
At Pala, we feel incredibly proud and grateful to have accompanied IMEX on this journey. Over the years working together, we have seen them embed autonomy more and more deeply in the organisation. IMEX is more effective, more efficient, more engaged all whilst building on it’s core by becoming an even more caring workplace.
As for Carina, we honestly couldn’t be luckier. She is a truly rare leader and human being. Always graceful, generous, grounded and strong, we’re genuinely inspired by her. Not only have we had the privilege to work with such a great client, but more importantly to have made a good friend along the way 🙏
“This work was some of the hardest work that I’ve done and some of the best work that I’ve done. I’m delighted that I took the time and made the effort to do this work with Pala. It’s changed our business and it’s changed my life for the better.”
Carina Bauer
CEO
Book your free discovery call
Feeling stuck? Want to talk through your situation? Not sure what’s next?
Ready to talk?
IMEX is a Brighton-based global meetings & events company. Their purpose is to build better human connections all over the world.
Working at the heart of the global meetings and events industry, IMEX is a collaborative, innovative and passionate team. We bring the global meetings and events community together to power profitable connections, foster innovation, spark inspiration, and propel purposeful progress at two world-leading trade shows, IMEX Frankfurt and IMEX America.