LOS ANGELES — Expo! Expo!, the International Association of Exhibitions and Events’ (IAEE) Annual Meeting and Exhibition, took over the City of Angeles and the Los Angeles Convention Center Dec. 17-19 for what is called the “show for shows.”
And a show for shows it was, as 240 exhibitors and more than 1,700 attendees convened on the floor to learn more about the products, solutions and offerings of industry suppliers and the needs of trade show and event organizers.
With more than 70 educational sessions and plenty of networking opportunities and events, IAEE’s Expo! Expo! attendees were surprised and delighted around every corner.
Standout Show Floor Features and Booths
From a Freeman gingerbread house to GES and onPeak gameshows where attendees could press their luck and win money for charity, exhibitors brought their A-Game to Expo! Expo! this year. Cities from across the U.S. and beyond represented their offerings for business events, including Orlando, which is set to host TSE’s Fastest 50 Awards & Summit in 2025.
Also, TSE gave attendees the chance to be on a custom TSE Magazine cover. TSE will be publishing an album of the cover stars soon!
The show’s Tech2Grow Collective displayed the latest strides in AI, data collection and more, providing a glimpse into the industry’s future.
In the show floor’s Innovation and Redefining Convention Experiences Theatres, events industry experts shared best practices, vital trends and more to give attendees the tools they need to enhance their exhibitions.
In the show floor’s Innovation Theatre on Dec. 17, Casey Clements, Senior Director of Marketing at Fast Forward, and Kristin Martinez, CEM, CMP, Director of Events at Fast Forward, looked at how collaboration between logistics and marketing teams can create effective experiences in “Collision Content: How Operational Excellence Leads to Powerful Content For Your Shows.”
The duo gave case studies for exhibitor-driven content, sponsor-driven content and curated, organic content from the San Diego Bay Wine + Food Festival and SommCon.
They asserted the power of collaboration, automation and experience mapping and added that Zoho Forms, Zoho Flow and Glide are strong tools.
“Something else that I’m looking at which will help us long-term is a digital asset management tool with AI and facial recognition so that when we get headshots from our speakers or when we have event photos from a sponsor who participated two years ago and is coming back this year, we can search for all of that and use it to help promote the event and tell the story in the future,” Clements said.
At the Redefining Convention Experiences Theatre on Dec. 18, in “The Future of Exhibiting: Better Stands and Beyond for Sustainable Success,” Sydney Rhea, CEM, Sustainability Project Delivery Manager, North America at Informa Markets and a 2024 Trade Show Executive (TSE) Woman to Watch, and Mark Bogdansky, Vice President, Meetings & Events, at the Auto Care Association, provided organizers with actionable resources to enhance sustainability.
Rhea gave attendees the rundown on Better Stands, an initiative that seeks to push the events industry from disposable booths to reusable booths, lessening the impact of the highest contributor to the events industry’s waste and its largest carbon producer.
“At the beginning of last year, an alliance of event organizers, GSCs, EACs and venues came together to pilot the Better Stands method,” Rhea said. “In total, 11 organizations are piloting the program, from Dubai to America and everywhere around the world. Informa as a company is invested in the Better Stands program and we are piloting this across 300 events globally.”
Better Stands evaluates 10 elements of a stand for reuse, ranking candidates on a scale from Bronze to Gold. The initiative seeks to take over the industry and be open sourced by next summer.
Takeaways from Better Stands
- Reusable stands improve safety, speed, customer experience, price and sustainability for events, because build up and take down are easier, employees breathe in less fumes and there are less chances for injury.
- Before a show, organizers taking part in the initiative should communicate with exhibitors and contractors to let them know about the program and what their goals are. During the show, they should conduct an onsite assessment. Post show, they should review their assessment’s results and cheer on exhibitors who achieved certain levels and provide exhibitors who need support with recommendations or training.
Then, Bogdansky provided a case study for how AAPEX has driven sustainability in recent years.
In 2023, AAPEX asked exhibitors if they were comfortable signing a sustainability pledge and added in a best Sustainable Booth Design award. They also introduced a Sustainabili-TEA (and Coffee) networking breakfast.
In 2024, the show continued its pledge, Sustainabili-TEA and sustainable booth program, while finding a solution for single use water, integrating water stations to save money and decrease plastic waste. They also created a Sustainability Stage.
Next year, the show’s team is looking to create a material donation program for booth products.
“The number one thing is to make sure that you are taking credit for things that you are already doing. It is an easy win,” Bogdansky said. “Sustainability does not have to mean more expensive … [and] a lot of your exhibitors now have sustainable-specific sponsorship funds, which means that they can only spend those funds on sustainability sponsorships. That is key.”
Related. ESCA Winter Celebration and Awards Celebrates Achievements of 2024
During the opening general session, Marie Browne, IAEE’s 2024 Chair and Group Vice President at RX, officially passed the baton to Chuck Grouzard, the 2025 Chair and Executive Vice President of Business Development at GES. It was also announced that IAEE would be undergoing an integration with the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) — marking CEIR officially becoming the research arm of the association
Sebastian Terry was the opening keynote at the event’s general session. With his incredible story, Terry motivated the crowd to take the plunge in checking off their bucket list items, and emphasized the power of “passion inspiring passion.” From the workplace to personal lives, he encouraged the audience to set tangible goals and set up a form of accountability to be more likely to achieve them.
IAEE’s CEM and CEM-AP graduates and this year’s CEM Fellow were also recognized during the general session, where the committed professionals walked the stage in true graduation style.
Educational Takeaways
On Dec. 16, in “From Scenarios to Strategies: Crafting Event Success with AI,” attendees tried out various AI tools, including Gemini, ChatGPT and Spark, an AI created specifically for events, guided by Rich Vallaster, CEM, DES, Senior Director of Industry Relations and Community Engagement at Personify A2Z Events.
The learning lab allowed attendees to be creative — and have fun — working collaboratively with some of the newest tools available to the modern events professional.
“We’re all asked to do more and more, and that to me is one of the arguments to use AI,” Vallaster said. “We are constantly doing lots of things all at once … think about AI as like the high-occupancy vehicle lane. We’re still getting from Point A to Point B, just faster. No one’s cheating.”
Here are two AI tips from Vallaster:
- We need to view the technology as a co-pilot for professionals instead of a replacement. Vallaster added that saving time with AI can allow organizers to focus more on exhibitors and sponsors, and seeing AI as a co-pilot could also make it easier to pitch the technology to one’s supervisors.
- Professionals employing AI should utilize Prompt Engineering Theory, which essentially means asking AI better questions, and give the technology customized, thorough directions; be specific, include the target audience and context, add tone and examples, ask for your desired output [present this as …] and insert “do or don’t” phrases.
On Dec. 17, a CEIR Specialty Session with Nancy Drapeau, IPC, Vice President of Research at CEIR, Tom Gattuso, Vice President of Events at SEMA, and Amanda Gochee, Group Vice President of Marketing Strategy at Clarion Events North America, focused on future proofing events with engagement strategies.
The session highlighted the importance of creating spaces where attendees and exhibitors can connect and converse to meet the needs for networking and commerce, with SEMA taking the concept of “surprise and delight” a step further to “shock and awe.” Gochee shared that Clarion’s customer-centric culture ensure their teams are listening to their participants and delivering the kinds of experiences and education they need to fulfill their demand for learning.
For “Expect the Unexpected: Best Practices in Managing Convention Center Agreements and Risk Management,” moderated by Jason Ware, Vice President, Events and Experiences at IAEE, Barbara Dunn, Partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Ana-Alyse Castelluccio, Group Director of Exhibitor Services and Customer Delivery at Clarion Events, and Elaine Williams, CMP, CEM-AP, Senior Director of Sales and Event Services at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, discussed how show organizers and venues can work together to prevent or mitigate unanticipated situations.
From protests to assailants to natural disasters, there are many factors that could threaten a business event.
Training, communication and taking redundancy into account while planning are all ways to prepare an event for the unexpected.
The panel supplied the following strategies:
- Williams told show organizers to read everything that the convention center has provided, including the contracts, thoroughly, and ask questions.
- Dunn suggested that organizers decide what their risk tolerance levels are and make sure that they are realistic, procuring extra insurance if need be.
- Castelluccio added to listen to an organization’s entire team, across departments, as well as customers to inform your strategy.
On Dec. 18, Expo! Expo!’s education focused on wellbeing and more.
For “Enhancing Attendee Wellbeing: Unique Engagement Strategies for an Exceptional Experience,” Rachel Riggs, General Manager, Environmental Strategy, at Maritz, looked at why attendee wellbeing is important, its impact, where organizers should start and how wellbeing shows up at events.
She shared that wellbeing is a happy, healthy or prosperous state of mind, and provided five dimensions for organizers to look at: Personal, Career, Financial, Environmental and Social.
“We’ve seen groups that have increased their attendance, and attendees want to keep coming back, will refer others, and they’ll be more productive and engaged when they get home,” Riggs said. “It makes everybody feel more connected and communications set the tone for your event … we really have to do that as leaders and designers of events. It creates attendee satisfaction, deeper connections, unique sponsorship opportunities … [and] lasting memories, and elevates the overall experience.”
Two Takeaways from Riggs’ session:
- Wellbeing is vital to one’s overall success and attendees who feel cared for will likely return to an event.
- To start, organizers can provide healthy menus, dedicate time to workout or be active in an event’s schedule, design with intention, keep wellness in their overall design strategy, integrate wellness in all communication, including on stage, be authentic and engage leaders to participate. Examples of wellness initiatives include running or walking clubs, quiet rooms, using sustainable promotional products, working with partners who have social or charitable impacts and offering mentorship opportunities.
In the high-stakes, fast-paced world of events, burnout is a major risk. During “Maximizing Performance, Minimizing Burnout: How to Thrive Under Pressure,” held Dec. 18, consultant Rachel Boehm, NBC-HWC, shared her personal burnout and recovery story, which inspired her to be a resource for struggling professionals.
Boehm asserted that “common” and “normal” are not the same, and professionals must recognize the warning signs of burnout, including trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, aversion to new assignments, loss of social energy, not taking care of oneself and frequent symptoms of physical illness, to get better.
“How much time, energy and money might you save if you didn’t have to wait until you were at bottom?” Boehm said. “That means the flipside is all the benefits of changing, of making a choice, of making yourself more resilient, of investing in yourself, or armoring yourself against burnout.”
Advice from Rachel Boehm:
- Burnout can be caused by a combination of organizational, societal and personal factors.
- Quick ways to combat burnout include taking a breath and thinking about how one feels, shifting from a reactive to an active mindset, dispelling unfounded fear or stress around a situation, and taking care of oneself daily.
On Dec. 19., some of TSE’s 2024 Women to Watch shared tips and tricks for professional success in “Women to Watch: Perspectives from Emerging Leaders on the Future of Events.” Find a recap of the panel here.
Parties, Receptions and Networking
This year, Expo! Expo! Featured plenty of fun networking opportunities, meet-ups and parties.
The IAEE Awards, which also included the TSNN Awards, took place at The Novo and the Grammy Museum, where attendees could check out memorabilia from superstars, enjoy interactive exhibits, check exclusive photos of musical icons and get the inside scoop on how the Grammy winners are selected.
IAEE also held a Young Professionals party at Lucky Strike. Attendees enjoyed a night of bowling and billiards, and mingling with other early-career professionals in a private room at the venue.
The annual PRIDE Party was held at the Nixo Lounge. This stylish and sleek venue hosted professionals in and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, fostering a sense of belonging at the event.
Expo! Expo! was also the backdrop for a number of parties and dinners held by companies for their employees and partners throughout the multi-day event.
Related. Winners of the 2024 IAEE Awards Revealed
Future Dates
Expo! Expo! 2025 will take place Dec. 9-11 at the Geroge R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Tex.
An Expo! Expo! 2025 Houston Launch Party, held at Tom’s Watch Bar on Thursday, Dec. 18, offered attendees a sneak peek at what is sure to be another fantastic event.
Photos courtesy of Oscar & Associates.
