Editorial Note: This blog is the second in a five-part series. Read part one here.

Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting & Exhibition is where the brightest minds, coolest innovations and next-level ideas come together to inspire show organizers to dream bigger, innovate boldly and turn “what ifs” into “wow” moments. Whether you’re gearing up to launch your next big event or you want fresh strategies to make your current shows hit harder, Expo! Expo! is your playground for learning, connecting and making moves that matter.

Last year’s event was no exception, and the sessions that filled the Event Excellence learning track were among the most talked-about of the week. Whether you’re catching up on what you missed or reliving your best learning moments, consider this your second serving.

Event Excellence: Elevating Design, Operations and Engagement

The sessions featured in this installment fall under the Event Excellence: Elevating Design, Operations and Engagement learning track. Built for professionals who want more than theory, this track offered a comprehensive exploration of the strategic and operational nuances that define great trade shows and events. From experiential design principles to cost-effective methods, sustainable practices, safety protocols and contracting essentials, each session was packed with actionable takeaways and creative ideas for elevating the planning and execution of exhibitions. Let’s dive into three sessions that delivered exactly that.

Freshly Baked: Building Events That Feed Connection

Presented by Angela Strahan, Vice President of Creative Services, Fern, an Nth Degree Company and Sara Taylor, Senior Director of Conference Operations, Viticus Group

What does a great event have in common with a perfect recipe? More than you might think. In a world of stale meetings and one-size-fits-all content, Angela Strahan and Sara Taylor challenged attendees to become “Experience Bakers”– professionals who don’t just plan events but craft them with intentional structure, emotional flavor and the right finishing touch.

Through real-world examples from Viticus Group’s Western Veterinary Conference (WVC) and a highly interactive workshop format, attendees left with a custom event recipe and a completely fresh perspective on what it means to design an experience worth showing up for.

Digital Fatigue is Real and In-Person Events are the Antidote

The session opened with a pointed observation: attendees today are hyperconnected, yet more disconnected than ever. Between algorithm-driven echo chambers and seven or more hours of daily screen time, the hunger for genuine human connection has never been greater. The presenters argued that in-person events are uniquely positioned to fill that gap, but only when they’re designed with that purpose in mind.

Novelty alone doesn’t create connection, intentional environments do. For show organizers, this means moving beyond programming logistics and asking a more fundamental question: What are we building and for whom?

Connection is the Secret Ingredient and the Data Backs It Up

Angela and Sara didn’t just make a philosophical case for human-first design, they brought the numbers:

• Experiences that drive emotion and active participation deliver the highest levels of engagement.
• Experiential learning and co-creation environments see up to twice the dwell time compared to passive formats.
• Personalized activations – in which attendees become co-creators rather than spectators – increase conversion intent by 80%.

WVC brought this to life through Learning Hubs that combined labs and lounges, hands-on skill-based training inspired by Pinterest-style maker culture, and personalized swag stations where attendees selected materials that reflected their own identity. The result: increased dwell time, repeat participation and measurable sponsor ROI.

The Sweet Spot Framework: Where Strategy, Story and Senses Align

The session’s most actionable concept was the Sweet Spot Framework, a design model that blends three essential layers:

• Feeling: Emotional storytelling activated through sensory triggers such as sound, texture, light and scent
• Function: The strategic backbone ensuring every element serves a measurable purpose and aligns with business goals
• Flavor: The distinctive, brand-specific ingredient that gives an event its personality and “only here, only us” quality

The presenters also shared tactics for Sweet Spot Design, including:

• Designing by mindset rather than demographics
• Layering sensory cues intentionally
• Personalizing through micro-decisions
• Curating disruptors made up of unexpected moments that create emotional stickiness and social sharing

WVC’s live tattoo activation by a sponsor was cited as a standout example: an intersection of art, storytelling, and personal identity that generated organic social engagement and became a word-of-mouth driver for the show.

The Bottom Line

Angela and Sara’s session was equal parts inspiration and instruction. The message was clear: experiential strategy can’t be an afterthought, it has to be baked in from the start. When emotion, function and flavor come together, events stop being something people attend and start being something people remember, share and return for. The real recipe for a successful event isn’t just logistics and programming; it’s the intentional layering of human moments that leave your audience craving more.

Draft to Win: Power Plays for High-Impact Events

Presented by Buffy Levy, Director, Event Services, Smithbucklin and Jackie Janus, Senior Manager, Event Services, Smithbucklin

Whether your event is thriving or due for a refresh, there’s always room to sharpen your game plan. Buffy Levy and Jackie Janus brought the energy of a sports draft room to Expo! Expo!, walking attendees through 20 proven “power plays” organized across four key categories:

• Event Technology
• Attendee Experience
• Partnerships
• Exhibitor Value

Rather than a passive presentation, attendees participated in a competitive “Idea Draft” – a fast-paced team activity where groups selected from the featured plays and mapped out how to bring it to life at their own event. The result was a room buzzing with strategy, creativity and practical momentum.

Technology and Data Are Game-Changers When Used with Purpose

The session’s event technology power plays highlighted two high-impact tools that many organizations have yet to fully leverage. First, AI-powered event chatbots offer real-time attendee engagement and assistance, personalized marketing, and scalable automation from pre-planning through onsite execution.

Second, developing a data analytics strategy – even a simple one – can transform how organizers make decisions. The presenters walked through a practical framework:

• Start small
• Build a plan across marketing, exhibits, sponsorship sales and attendee experience
• Assemble the right team
• Leverage supplier partners who can help

Having the right data isn’t a luxury; it’s a competitive advantage that helps you understand what’s working and where to invest next.

Attendee Experience and Exhibitor Value Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

Several of the most compelling power plays addressed how show organizers can create energy that benefits both attendees and exhibitors simultaneously.

On the attendee experience side, industry partnerships like bringing in a culinary competition or other high-draw programming, can create new energy on the show floor and attract underrepresented attendee segments without adding significant cost. Live-streaming education content from the show floor and building “Center Stage”-style activations that showcase behind-the-scenes action draw in passing attendees while amplifying educational value.

On the exhibitor value side, the presenters shared the power of an exhibitor budget calculator that helps exhibitors plan and feel confident in their investment, as well as guided show floor tours to showcase product innovation and pre-show video promotion strategies that introduce attendees to exhibitors before they ever set foot on the floor.

Draft with Purpose, Build Your Playbook and Keep Scouting

The session’s key takeaways summarized the strategic philosophy at the heart of the presentation:

• Draft with Purpose: Not every power play is the right fit for every event. Focus on the ideas that have the strongest potential impact and the best alignment with your specific goals.
• Build Your Playbook: Take the concepts that rise to the top and map out concretely how they can strengthen your event strategy and outcomes.
• Keep Scouting: Look beyond your own event for inspiration. Small, creative ideas from other shows such as a video series, a budget tool or a guided tour can spark significant wins when adapted thoughtfully.

The Bottom Line

Buffy and Jackie’s session was a masterclass in strategic agility. The most successful events reward organizers who are constantly evaluating, iterating and borrowing brilliance from wherever they find it. The 20 power plays weren’t presented as a checklist but as a draft board, and the message was clear: know your goals, pick your plays wisely and execute with intention.

From Informative to Transformative: Designing Data-Driven and High-Impact Trade Show Education

Presented by Christen Tye, CEM, Director of Education, World Pet Association (SUPERZOO, GROOM’D) and Elizabeth George, CEM, Senior Conference Lead, Informa Connect (HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition)

What separates an education program that attendees tolerate from one they talk about long after the event ends? According to Christen Tye and Elizabeth George, the answer lies in treating education as a full lifecycle rather than a one-time event.

Drawing from real-world programming experiences at SUPERZOO and HIMSS, this session explored how show organizers can shift from simply delivering information to engineering transformative learning experiences that drive real-world application. From how you curate content to how you onboard speakers to how you use data after the show, every decision either adds to or subtracts from the overall impact.

Great Education Programs Are Built on a Continuous Data Cycle

The session opened with the Lifecycle of an Education Program, a four-stage framework that treats programming as an ongoing, data-informed process:

• Data Review (which happens continuously)
• Program Curation
• Prepare for Success
• The Event, followed by Post-Event Evaluation (which feeds directly back into the next data review cycle)

The presenters challenged attendees to audit their own data practices: What data do you currently have? Who is looking at it? How are you preserving historical records? The types of data that matter most – evaluation data, registration data and scan data – each tell a different part of the story. Together they form the foundation of a smarter, more intentional programming strategy.

Speaker Onboarding As a Program Quality Control Mechanism

One of the session’s most practical sections tackled the often-overlooked discipline of speaker preparation. The presenters walked through what it means to truly prepare speakers for success, covering the formal onboarding process including:

• Mutual expectation-setting and speaker agreements
• Day-of support including presentation reviews, ready rooms, speaker lounges, and in-room technology such as audience response tools and surveys
• Post-show expectations to close the loop

A candid case study from HIMSS revealed that a drop in speaker satisfaction scores between events was directly tied to gaps in communication: speakers hadn’t received resources, couldn’t distinguish speaker-specific emails from general announcements and wanted more structured touchpoints with organizers. Treating speaker onboarding as a quality control mechanism, rather than administrative overhead, is what separates a polished program from a rocky one.

Post-Event Data Drives Pre-Event Decisions

The final section of the session focused on how post-event evaluation data – when collected consistently and analyzed deliberately – becomes the most powerful tool in the program curation toolbox. The presenters pushed attendees to ask sharper questions such as:

• How are you collecting data and feedback?
• What specific questions are you asking?
• What type of feedback are you actually looking for?
• How are you tracking year-over-year trends?

Scan data at the session level reveals which topics are drawing the strongest attendance, while attendee evaluations surface the speakers and formats that resonate most. Together, these inputs allow organizers to identify top performers, retire underperforming content and make informed, strategic decisions about programming for the next event.

The Bottom Line

Christen and Elizabeth delivered a session that reframed education programming as a strategic discipline, not just a scheduling exercise. The shift from informative to transformative doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when organizers commit to a data-informed lifecycle, invest in their speakers’ success and use post-event feedback as fuel for continuous improvement.

Looking Ahead

As we look ahead to Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting & Exhibition 2026 taking place 16-18 November in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, these sessions are a powerful reminder that the brightest thinking in the business comes to this show – and 2026 promises to raise the bar even higher!

Click here for everything you need to know about Expo! Expo! 2026 and register before 30 September to take advantage of the BE SMART rates!

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