InEvent’s Big Splash at BizBash!: Key Takeaways from BizBash Detroit
From the 8th to the 10th of August, InEvent headed out to Detroit to be part of The 2022 Connect Marketplace event in partnership with BizBash.
With more than 200 exhibitors and 4,000 attendees in attendance over the 3 days, Connect Marketplace was undoubtedly BizBash’s largest event of the year. The event brought together planners, suppliers and experts in corporate, association, specialty, and citywide meetings and events in one location for preset appointments, keynote general sessions, planner/supplier roundtables and quality networking.
Also worth a mention was its snazzy venue, the ultramodern Huntington Place. Formerly known as Cobo Arena, it is Detroit’s historic convention centre that seats up to 12,000, was home to the Detroit Pistons from 1961-1978 and has hosted concerts by acts such as the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Kiss, Weezer and many others.
InEvent co-founders, Pedro Góes, Vinicius Neris, as well as Sales VP and resident ball of energy, Cecilia Lavin were present at the event, fielding questions at our booth, engaging in interviews and mixing with some of the brightest and most innovative minds in the events and meetings industry.
(From L-R : Vinicius Neris, Cecilia Lavin and Pedro Góes)
Here are some of our favourite takeaways from the event:
- The Detroit Renaissance is in full swing
Not to be confused with the title of Beyonce’s new album, Detroit’s renaissance is the effort of the city’s leadership to usher it into a new tech-focused era. Once heralded as the “New York of the midwest”, owed to its bustling automotive industry, innovative practices and the can-do spirit of its citizens, Detroit is seeking to once again cement itself as a technological powerhouse, particularly where events, conventions and trade shows are concerned.
In an interview with President and CEO of Visit Detroit, Claude Molinari, he revealed to InEvent: “We’ve got an incredible pipeline of events coming this year – all kinds of events, major conventions and I’m very excited about the future […] As we’re starting to build up our hotel inventory in anticipation of these events, and having all these meeting planners from Connect come here, I think that’s going to help us a great deal to attract more business.”
- In-person is once again a hot-topic!
It’s a conversation that won’t go away and BizBash reinforced a message that must by now sound like a broken record. Nevertheless, we’re going to say it again: In-person events are returning with a vengeance and event profs would be wise to pay attention. Thinking about the return of in-person events, event profs should consider the ways in which they can infuse technology into their events to help their clients and sponsors meet their ROIs. InEvent, for example, offers a number of tools that service this demand such as intelligent data with which they can track all the steps, interactions, check-ins, votes and feedback from attendees.
- Think about making your booth more interactive
When thinking up ideas for your booth at tradeshows/exhibition, think about attendee engagement and interaction, advises Interactive Entertainment Group’s Arielle Dukofsky. “Rather than focusing on having this grand, ginormous booth design that may look really great but doesn’t necessarily equate to success, it’s more about having interactive elements.”
Utilize hashtags, make it something that people will want to share on social media, or be like Arielle and give them an LED board to write on – get creative. These sorts of displays help to sell business just as well as the text that spells out your products and services.
Keep in mind also, just as Interactive Entertainment Group VP, Patricia Dukofsky points out: “It doesn’t have to be costly to be interactive, you just have to think outside the box.”
- Today’s best events aren’t simply events but stories
The best and most memorable events today – be it in IRL (in-person), virtual or hybrid are events that function as a full-fledged storied experience for its attendees. Event profs stand a better chance of sticking in their attendees’ minds if they build around central themes and ideas which they reinforce repeatedly in the larger and more subtle details of their event.
“Down to the coffee and how it’s served, you want to weave [the storyline] through in everything you’re doing,” says Erika Kulovitz, CEO and executive producer of Akire Productions revealed in an interview with InEvent. “Every attendee is on a different journey,” she reminds, and in developing a storyline, event profs should ask themselves: “What do we want our client/attendees to leave with?”
Cecilia Lavin with the Interactive Entertainment Group team
About the Author / deji.o@inevent.com
