Nicole and I had the honor of being invited to run one of our Spontaneous Think Tanks at the North West Event Show in Seattle this week, and we got the pulse of the Pacific Northwest event industry through our crowdsourcing exercise!
The top challenges participants were onsite to address were:
Finding new clients
Finding new partners
Finding inspiration & new ideas
Finding new ways to engage their attendees
Yes there were hundreds of impressive and interactive booths, but beyond that, the show was full of participants looking to meet and network to drive business. There were a few planner-only opportunities for people to connect, but for the supplier side of the house, there were not a lot of networking opportunities.
I see a great opportunity to partner with the exhibitors and sponsors more and leverage their technology to help people connect throughout the show. JabberYak, for example, was an exhibitor at the show that could have been a great point of connectivity.
From what we could see, the majority of the attendees were small businesses or independent planners who were looking to connect with other businesses to find opportunities to partner, co-monetize, and do business together.
Perhaps a speed networking or marketplace moment would be a great session to add to the agenda.
There was plenty of inspiration and fun ideas to be found on the show floor. By my count, there were more than 15 different kinds of photos booths and photo activations (everything from AI to magic mirrors to 360 action cameras).
They had an onsite pickleball court, and even a pickleball rave one night (black lights, neon fun, and EDM blasting on the speakers!).
There were loads of experiential food moments from a gelato cart to food trucks to an incredible personal mini charcuterie board (that you got to keep after you ate everything on it!).
As far as attendee engagement goes, the exhibitors hit every mark you could want. From incredible décor via several rental and fabrication companies to an entire booth made with balloons to onsite screen printing of t-shirts to mobile podcast services to interactive DJ experiences to actual humans in costume interacting with guests, there was no shortage of new ideas and fun ways to add a little adventure into your next program.
I’m excited to showcase some of these fun opportunities in upcoming Engaged Attendee newsletters!
Check out some of our finds on ClubIchi.tv:
Comments