WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of this year’s calendar of events for the Capital Chapter of PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association), chapter leaders challenged themselves to think bigger about sponsorships, and what would drive higher value and engagement for attendees and sponsors alike.
“We had this challenge of sponsorship being a difficult task sometimes. It often feels very transactional when it’s structured as you give us some cash and we give you five minutes at the podium to play your video,” said Leah Lewis, CMP, CEM, DES, Vice President, Education and Events at Motion + Power Manufacturers Alliance, and President of the PCMA Capital Chapter. “So, we did a sponsorship lab where we had the chapter leaders do a workshop on different prompts, and one was what if podium time was eliminated from the program? How would we give sponsors a platform to talk about who they are and what they do, and make it something that people would actually want to pay attention to?”
The result of that brainstorming session? A sponsored Hot Ones-style event, where destinations brought in their hometown flavors to share stories about the local businesses that make their city unique. The sponsors were challenged to bring hot sauces that were representative of their destination, not just spicy, to tell a story about their city that went beyond event space specs.
“The sauce did not have to be super hot like it is on the show; that was just the theme we were playing off of. Detroit picked a sauce that had Michigan cherries in it. Chicago has a sauce that was what they described as a Chicago hot dog in a bottle,” Lewis said. “And, we actually shared all of the links to the hot sauce companies after so people could buy the bottles at home as well.”
On stage, sponsors talked about their destinations at a sportscaster-style table, with the new PCMA branding reflected in the stage pieces that were provided by Heritage Exposition Services.
And while the ever-popular Hot Ones series proves to be an entertaining format on its own, the chapter went a step further and invited attendees to try out the sauces while the panel was going on to increase engagement. Attendees had their own tasting flights with the featured sauces, and each table had a share of chicken wings to try out the flavors throughout the session.
“Everyone had a place setting with a spot for all the sauces. We had a bottle of each sauce on the tables, so if there’s food allergies, people could read the ingredients and make sure it was something they could eat,” Lewis said. “They could take as much or as little and then dip chicken or vegetables into the sauce to taste it. It was a nice centerpiece at the table to have all the sauces displayed, and people were tasting them and passing them around. We also had a sponsor provide bibs, so if people were afraid of getting a bit messy, they had some covering.”
In true Hot Ones fashion, there was a cooling station that provided milk or ice cream if attendees needed a way to beat the heat.
The event was a hit with sponsors and attendees.
“The sponsors really appreciated the opportunity to talk about who they were outside of the normal dates, rates and space conversation,” Lewis said. “And, one takeaway I found special was that I had an attendee say that they learned something new about every single destination, and they’d held a meeting in every single one of the cities. That proved the activation gave sponsors the platform to talk about really special and unique things about them that weren’t the normal run of the mill.”
Since the event happened to fall on Global Meetings Industry Day, chapter leaders tied that into the activation as well, prompting destination leaders to share stories about impactful events that have helped them and how the events industry helped bring jobs to their city and helped their overall economic situation.
And while the energy in the room was high, another positive side effect of the activation was greater social media reach than other chapter events. Attendees were sharing photos and thoughts on the activation long after the event concluded. And, with the help of CNTV, chapter leadership and the participating sponsors have plenty of video content to repurpose and share throughout the year.
“We also had an activation at the reception after the event that we called the Hot Zone, which was a little booth that Heritage set up where CNTV worked with us to film some attendee reaction interviews and put some videos together of people tasting the sauce on video,” Lewis said. “That gave us our own version of the show, and it made sure the event wasn’t just impactful to the people in the room, because it would live on our social channels and give [sponsors] content that they can use on their channels as well.”
For organizers looking for their own ways to spice up their sponsorship offerings, Lewis advises others to think outside the box and be bold with new ideas.
“This is a concept that could easily be applied to other events, whether it’s something as specific as doing Hot Ones at your event or working with sponsors or members to do something fun and silly,” Lewis said. “I love the idea of having planners get outside the box a little bit and think about new and different ways to give sponsors a platform to talk about who they are and make it less salesy. Instead of as a planer cracking open their notebook and saying, ‘Here’s what we did last year, let’s rinse and repeat,’ let’s think intentionally about how we make this event more interesting.”
Check out the video from CNTV below!
