President, NCSI
James Skipper and his brother John co-founded National Conference Services, Inc. (NCSI) in 1997 to expand on their entrepreneurial skills to run trade shows, conferences, and special events. Based in Columbia, Maryland, NCSI has grown from 10 to more than 50 employees and has become a part of the federal government intelligence community.
Jim is the visionary leader of NCSI and oversees the Conference & Convention Division and the Federal Events Division, including a sales staff and event team that schedules, manages, produces, and promotes more than 150 events each year at federal and DoD locations all over the United States and Europe. NCSI also produces numerous federal conferences, career fairs and other special events designed to bring targeted groups of people together in forums that yield positive results.
One of Jim’s best attributes is his ability to teach young professionals how to sell and promote themselves to be successful. Much of the success of NCSI has been its ability to take on projects with extremely short turn around times. Jim’s ability to convince his staffs that a project “can be done” has contributed to goals being hit in unheard of timeframes.
Jim began his career in the mid 1980’s in the radio broadcast industry as an on-air personality. He held positions in Southwestern Virginia’s New River Valley and the coastal North Carolina markets between 1985 and 1990. In addition to hosting drive-time programs, he emceed special events, live remotes, and called play-by-play for sporting events. In August of 1990, Jim joined his brother John in the federal trade show industry and began recruiting technology companies as exhibitors in Federal On-Site Computer Technology Expos. He demonstrated impressive sales and sales management skills very quickly, and he was named Marketing Director of the company in January of 1991. Jim built a marketing and sales team that placed hundreds of small and large businesses in direct contact with federal buyers.
Jim holds bachelor degrees in Communications and History from Virginia Tech. His college hobbies included being the full time manager of a popular local steakhouse in addition to being a radio disc jockey. Jim currently lives in Mt. Airy, MD with his wife Kelly and their 4 children.
