The International Special Events Society (ISES) was founded in 1987 to foster enlightened performance through education while promoting ethical conduct. ISES works to join professionals to focus on the "event as a whole" rather than its individual parts. ISES has grown to involve nearly 3,000 members active in chapters throughout the world. Membership brings together professionals from a variety of special events disciplines including caterers, meeting planners, decorators, event planners, audio-visual technicians, party and convention coordinators, educators, journalists, hotel sales managers and many more professional disciplines. The solid peer network ISES provides helps special events professionals produce outstanding results for clients while establishing positive working relationships with other event colleagues.

In 2009, the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter of ISES was launched and is the fastest growing chapter in ISES History.