When it comes to riding the cutting-edge of the experiential meetings world, Birmingham, Ala.-based The C.W. Allen Group, led by Charles Allen, takes a high-concept idea and runs with it.
Meetings MidAmerica asked Allen for three recommendations about how meeting planners can extend the experience value of meetings in today’s environment, and here’s what he came up with:
“My first recommendation would be to add a cutting-edge event TV program. This would feature breaking industry news from the show floor, feature headline interviews with the show’s major ‘players,’ product demonstrations, and ‘highlights’ of people and events taking place during the show. The reason I like this innovation is that it provides a vital service to your participants, and it can be fully paid for…or at least highly subsidized through the selling of sponsorships. I’m referring to exhibitor commercials and paid ‘interviews.’ The ‘Your Event TV’ program should be broadcast in ‘dark room’ channels in your host hotels, on monitors throughout the show venue, on your website during and after the event, as well as on a specially produced DVD that carries a title similar to [Your Event] ’08…The Movie.
“Now, the real extension of the ‘yardstick’ of wow comes from using the edited footage from the show to create promotional materials like DVDs and streaming video to reach potential participants for next year’s show. This type of promotional material is far more effective than a mailed brochure.
“My second recommendation would be to create an ‘Innovation Zone’ that features innovative products from exhibitors, as well as the latest innovations in event marketing to use as highly memorable and effective sponsorship vehicles. I’m talking about waterfalls that display logos and marketing messages with their falling water, interactive wall and floor graphics, mist walls that have video projected on to them, yet can be walked through, and countless other innovations. Again, the exhibitors pay for this innovation zone with their sponsorship dollars.
"Thirdly, I would add a ‘Back Stage Pass’ area in the rear of the hall that would feature entertainment, refreshments, lounges, work space, etc., for VIP attendees. This would also be paid for via exhibitor sponsorships, as well as increasing the value (and thus the price charged) of the booths located in the rear of the exhibition hall.”
