Although the event landscape has changed significantly since these pieces were created, some things prove to be timeless. Specifically, the roles that creativity, innovation and a strategic approach to marketing play in driving results. IAEE’s Art of the Show Competition recognizes outstanding marketing activities directly related to successfully organizing and executing an exhibition and/or event. As such, it is the only marketing competition tailored specifically to our industry. Each year, event organizers submit the work they did to promote their show experience across 14 categories and an independent panel of marketing and graphic design experts selects the winners.
In today’s IAEE Art of the Show Competition Winners Circle, we highlight the winners of last year’s Show Promotion Website category, which evaluates any web site used to promote attendance at a show. Judging criteria includes: overall presentation, visual appeal and creativity; organization of the information presented and ease of navigation/user-friendliness; clarity of pertinent information, value of information presented and content usefulness; performance metrics such as average monthly visits, Google analytics, etc.; and how the website contributed to the overall success of the exhibition and/or event.
Under 75,000 nsf
CSG Creative for AdvaMed
The MedTech Conference
The MedTech Conference is the premier annual gathering for the medical technology industry’s most prominent and promising companies. Powered by the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), The MedTech Conference includes a cutting-edge educational program, dynamic show floor, plenary sessions and networking opportunities for more than 3,000 of the world’s leading medtech executives. Attendees come to learn about the newest developments in medical technology that will improve health care and improve lives.
AdvaMed teamed with CSG Creative to revamp The MedTech Conference’s existing website, which was not meeting conference needs. The goal was to create a new, modern website that would promote a positive brand image and appeal to the next generation of attendees. It was crucial that the website be flexible and easy to update to accommodate changing content. The new website was a key component of the 2019 marketing plan to grow paid registration.
The new, optimized website featured streamlined navigation and a great mobile layout to support the conference. Moving the website to Word Press allowed for greater functionality and customization. The website featured a dramatic, animated homepage slider and prominent placement for ongoing promotions and videos. It also allowed for content sections to be customized to each of the different attendee groups.
Feedback on the new website was extremely positive. SEO was audited on an ongoing basis to ensure firstpage search engine results, and all marketing tactics were designed to point back to the new website. CTRs and digital conversion metrics performed strongly and within just a few months, attendance numbers were outpacing those of previous years.
Over 200,001 nsf
Streampoint Solutions for Professionals In Human Resources Association (PIHRA)
California HR Conference 2019
The California HR Conference, produced by the Professionals In Human Resources Association (PIHRA), is a hub of human resource content for professionals who either practice or are responsible for HR management in California. PIHRA teamed with Streampoint Solutions to create a look and feel for CAHR 2019 that was focused and refined.
Building on the mantra of a fun, progressive and colorful community, CAHR 2019 implemented asymmetrical circles radiating outward and a vibrant, tailored color palette. The main accent color for the show was magenta with yellow, cyan and primary blue playing a supporting role throughout the website. Given that the conference caters to California HR professionals, these colors evoked the feeling of warmth and sunshine of the West Coast beaches. In addition to its beautiful and fitting look, the website was built for PIHRA to create new content and make creative updates with confidence and ease. It was also imperative for site to be fully responsive and great attention was devoted to SEO, analytics tracking and social media sharing.
In addition to building the event website, Streampoint Solutions was also responsible for the online registration for CAHR. The team developed a proprietary registration plugin to display details about speakers, sessions and exhibitors directly on the event website. These pages generated automatically and inherited the styling of the website. The information on these pages was pulled from the registration system via an API call, so any updates made by exhibitors, speakers or show managers automatically updated on the event website. Additionally, a new search filter was added to filter speakers and sessions based on a “Learning Level” assigned to each session.
By carefully planning the event site with an edit-friendly theme, the team was able to provide an attractive site that PIHRA could manage on its own, empowering them to make their own content edits and even create new content sections and pages with minimal intervention from the design team. Consequently, site updates were turned around much faster and more often, which kept site visitors more engaged with the website. The team also worked hard on SEO by optimizing the website to significantly reduce page load times.
The CAHR 2019 website saw a 67 percent increase in the number of site users, a 68 percent increase in the number of new site users and a 42 percent increase in the number of sessions when compared to last year. This suggests that the improvements made to the 2019 website helped draw in new users. Ultimately, there was a 12 percent increase in onsite attendance, which attests to the overall success of the conference.
The 2020 IAEE Art of the Show Competition is now open! Take advantage of discounted entry fees by submitting your entries before the early bird deadline on 31 August! You can also check out all the winners from the 2019 competition here.
