Every industry has its “must attend” event, and for exhibitions and events professionals, it’s Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting & Exhibition. Expo! Expo! is the ONE EPIC EVENT that offers the highest concentration of industry insiders who’ve actually built the events you admire, putting them just a conversation away, ready to tell you how they did it. On 16-18 November, Expo! Expo! will bring the industry’s collective know-how to the Baird Convention Center in Milwaukee for unmatched access to the minds shaping where business events are headed next.
Why Experience Design is Worth Building Into Your Schedule
It’s easy to talk about “the attendee journey” in the abstract. It’s much harder to admit that most events still design registration, the show floor and post-event follow-up as three disconnected projects instead of one continuous story. The Experience Design: Creating Memorable Journeys learning track is for professionals ready to close that gap by treating every touchpoint – from the moment someone registers to the moment they leave – as a single, intentional arc. Brought to you by GES | OnPeak, this track focuses on understanding what effectively shapes attention, connection and memory, and building your events around these elements to create a powerful and lasting attendee experience.
Sessions to Add to Your Schedule
Developing Conferences As Year-Round Learning Ecosystems
Challenge the once-a-year mindset head-on by learning how webinars, digital education and audience-driven programming can extend your event’s value across the calendar. Learn how to build a connected event portfolio that deepens engagement before, during and after the live show. If your attendees expect more than just a few days of value, this session shows you how to deliver it.
Designing Events That Drive Connection and Engagement
This hands-on workshop will have you building your own “Event Profile” by breaking your event down into structure, emotional experience and the key moments that shape how people connect. Through real-world examples, you will leave with a repeatable framework for designing experiences that go far beyond logistics. This is the session for anyone tired of events that feel technically flawless but emotionally forgettable.
Engage or Fade: Navigating the Cognitive Crisis in Expos
This session brings a provocative behavioral lens to a problem most organizers sense but can’t quite name: audiences are showing up differently than they used to, and expo environments haven’t quite caught up. It will challenge familiar assumptions about attention, interaction and memory, while providing practical frameworks you can apply immediately. Expect to leave this session seeing your show floor in a completely new light.
From Touchpoints to Transformation: Designing Show Floor Journeys That Drive Real Behavior Change
Move past engagement for engagement’s sake and into measurable outcomes such as dwell time, buyer decisions and exhibitor value. You’ll map the attendee journey from registration to post-show follow-up, and learn to redesign high-impact touchpoints to reduce friction and drive results. It’s a highly interactive session built for anyone who wants their show floor to do more than “look busy.”
Activating the Show Floor: A Field-Tested Playbook for Engagement, Dwell Time and Exhibitor Value
This session delivers a four-play framework – Engineer Connection, Drive Dwell, Monetize the Quiet and Instrument the Floor – grounded in 2026 research and hundreds of real event deployments. During this moderated panel, presenters will react to real attendee submissions, diagnosing exactly which play applies. It’s a working playbook for turning your exhibition floor into the revenue engine it’s capable of being.
Beyond the Badge: Architecting Year-Round Communities Through Intentional Event Design
In an era of content fatigue, your event’s real value lives in the strength of its community. Through this interactive, rapid-fire workshop built on real B2B and association case studies, you’ll deconstruct what works and what flops, then architect the purposeful moments that drive belonging and year-round engagement. Leave with an actionable roadmap for turning passive attendees into active participants.
Beyond the Wow Factor: Designing Events Attendees Actually Want to Share
Tackle the difference between an event that looks impressive and one that feels genuinely worth talking about! Participants will walk through how audience insight, event strategy and social storytelling combine to build relevance by design, not by accident. You’ll leave with a practical framework for strengthening your event experience to elicit genuine engagement and real sharing.
Make This the Track That Sets You Apart
The events that define an industry’s reputation are designed with superbly deliberate intention, from the first touchpoint to the last. Expo! Expo!’s Experience Design learning track equips you with the frameworks, evidence and peer perspective to lead that kind of design work at your own organization.
