OK. So Affordable Meetings National this year in Washington, DC totally ROCKED! The Unique Venues section had 29 cool venues in it, from conference centers and stadiums to campuses and dining venues. The section was very unique. But just as important, the people working the booths were really great.
I think that the most positive thing we had going for us this year was our section game and our PRIZE WHEEL. Yes, that’s right – I said prize wheel. This year we encouraged planners to visit with the venues in our section by playing BINGO. They needed to get six stamps on their BINGO card in order to be eligible for a spin on the Unique Venues Prize Wheel. The wheel had lots of different prizes, from Starbucks gift cards, other larger denomination gift cards, our signature Affirmation Ball and extra entries into our Wii give away. But the prize that got the most attention was our UV Dance Party! If a planner landed on this prize, we cranked up the music and ‘busted a move’ with all of the planners in our booth! And there were lots of them. We even enticed the booths across the aisle to dance with us. Everyone wanted to know what was happening in the UV Booth and the UV section. We had a line going on both days of the show…that’s unprecedented.
We even caught the attention of show management!
At last count, we received over 300 sales leads from this show. It was terrific! I’m sure next year will be even bigger!