GES Blog   Contact Us

At this year’s American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) event, our exhibition management team transformed a 24,565 sq. ft. hotel ballroom into an experience.
We used over 15,000 lbs of materials for the show. Handling was mainly done through placing the materials on pallet jacks and transporting them via forklifts.
In preparing to create the miniature soccer field inside the exhibit hall, our team laid 5,000 feet of Visqueen material to cover and protect the flooring and carpet.

The American Youth Soccer Association holds tri-section meetings regularly throughout the year. Their first section meeting in 2012 was held at the Marriot Hotel in Anaheim, CA.
As a relatively small show with only 45 exhibitors, the AYSO event required design elements that were both visually pleasing as well as cost-effective. This 9 x ½ meter entrance unit was made from foamcore and served to set a grand tone for the small yet important show.
The floor was divided into several parts—the exhibit hall itself, multiple rooms for breakout sessions and a reception hall in the lobby. AYSO also hosted a silent auction featuring the items on the high tables throughout the event.
SCORE, the official uniform provider for AYSO, had a 50 x 40 feet booth featuring apparel, breakout tables and video stations promoting their latest gear.
As a unique addition to the exhibit hall, a 50 x 100 feet miniature soccer field was constructed. Coaches and show personnel hosted engaging attendee activities on the field throughout the day.
Successfully servicing more than 45 exhibitors during the three-day event, GES and AYSO started off 2012 with a great show.

Resources

GES and EXPO Magazine Partner to Share Attendee Acquisition Strategies

White paper and webinar share tips, techniques, and best practices.

LAS VEGAS – July 19, 2011 – Global Experience Specialists (GES), a leader in exhibition, event and retail marketing services, partnered with EXPO magazine to create Driving Attendance, an exclusive white paper about effective initiatives by event and show organizers. This white paper includes tips, techniques and best practices for increasing attendance and attracting better-qualified attendees to the next-generation trade show and event.

“Attendees are very discriminating of their time and information,” said GES Executive Vice President of Strategy and Marketing David Saef, “As a result, trade show and event organizers need to do more to attract, engage, and excite attendees – including partnering with exhibitors.”

Driving Attendance dives further into this topic by sharing the five best practices for turning prospects into attendees. It illustrates that the best trade shows and events include creativity before, during and after the show by capturing the right demographic and keeping attendees coming back for more.

The five best practices include:
1. Dazzling your attendees on the show floor
2. Tapping into your exhibitor base
3. Having a comprehensive social media strategy
4. Connecting with industry bloggers
5. Giving prospects a virtual taste of the show

In addition to the five best practices, the white paper also delves into new ways show and event organizers are keeping up with trends and their favorite attendee recruitment technologies. E3 Expo, a GES client, launched a next-generation mobile application at its 2011 show, which allowed users to get a sneak peek of exhibitors’ virtual booths and view product announcements, photos and video trailers.

Executive Vice President of Conventions for the National Restaurant Association (NRA) Mary Pat Heftman shares how NRA uses new technology to keep recruitment rates up. “YouTube has become a really important nontraditional marketing tool. YouTube views of NRA videos have gone from 430 to 99,000 in two years as a result of our creating compelling experiences for different sub-groups of our restaurant community. What’s great about it is video lets you experience the flavor of the event,” said Heftman.

In another case study, Kenji Haroutunian, vice president at Nielsen Expositions and Outdoor Retailer show director shares how Outdoor Retailer had great success last year by targeting segments through virtual events, online forums and at show gathering areas. “As a result of a one-day virtual event on sustainable design, we were able to increase attendance among designers by 58 percent, which well exceeded the overall general attendance increase of 15 percent,” said Haroutunian.

GES and EXPO magazine released the white paper this month and hosted a live webinar to explain the findings in more detail and to begin an industry conversation through an interactive question and answer session. The webinar also encouraged participants to ask questions via Twitter hashtag #HeyGES. The recording of the webinar can be downloaded here.

To learn about upcoming webinars and white papers, join GES on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.


About GES
Las Vegas-based Global Experience Specialists, Inc. (GES), a Viad Corp (NYSE: VVI) company, is a leading provider of exhibition, event and retail marketing services. GES provides a wide range of services, including turnkey official show services, cutting-edge creative and design, marketing and measurement services – all with an unrivaled global reach. GES partners with leading shows and brands, including the International CES, Spring Fair Birmingham, International Woodworking Fair, CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE, Bell Helicopter, Genzyme, L’Oreal, Warner Bros., and Simon Property Group. For more information, visit www.ges.com or visit GES’ blog here.

Contact:
Detra Page
702.263.2755
dpage@ges.com

© 2012 Global Experience Specialists, Inc. All Rights Reserved.