Large-scale events with a personalised touch

At the recent Convening Leaders 2024, Kimberly Hardcastle-Geddes, president of mdg, shared how large-scale events can offer a personalised touch.

mdg is a marketing and public relations firm specialising in B2B events. Hardcastle-Geddes spoke at the session, “Facilitating Curated Event Experiences: How Thinking Small Delivers Big Returns”. Here are some highlights of her session, by Professional Conference Management Association’s Convene:

Offer a guided tour of the exhibit hall

The first time Hardcastle-Geddes saw a docent-led tour of an exhibit hall, it was a Pantone colour expert showing 20 interior designers around a trade show floor to show them how that season’s shades was appearing in various products. Two recommendations Hardcastle-Geddes shared: Keep tours small for easy movement around the trade-show floor and appoint docents from outside of the event organisation. “Maybe an association partner, maybe a consultant in the industry, or an editor at a magazine, so that they remain neutral,” she said.

Provide access to private meeting room

Using Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week as an example, Hardcastle-Geddes said that feedback from supplier attendees reveals that private space to meet clients is crucial to their event attendance.

“One of the things that we do to increase attendance at our events is encourage organisations to bring vertical buying teams to the show,” she said. “One of the perks that we will often give organisations is a private meeting room to do meetings before a trade show, so they can come up with a game plan with their team.”

While Hardcastle-Geddes acknowledged that the logistics of arranging meeting rooms is not always simple, “when we have done this for our shows with strategic intent, there has been very good ROI,” she said.

Create a welcoming registration area

“I personally find it sort of surprising knowing that the registration area is often where our attendees have their first touchpoint with our brand and how unwelcoming they often are - and if not unwelcoming, I would say they’re usually pretty uninspired,” Hardcastle-Geddes said. Ways to create moments of engagement from the moment attendees enter the registration area include playing music, offering drinks, or arranging for greeters from the organisation to meet people as they arrive and answer questions. “Maybe you have somebody that’s got Chapstick and Band-Aids and water,” said Hardcastle-Geddes.