How we prepared ourselves to attend!
As we announced last month, we’ll be attending this year’s Hospitality & Tourism Summit, which takes place at the Navy Pier on Tuesday, May 2nd.
Since our last update, we’ve been busy planning and preparing for the event.
With less than a week to go, it’s time to take stock of what we’re expecting to achieve by attending the summit and how we’re preparing for it.
Why we're attending the summit
Through our years of hosting events for multiple brands and businesses in Chicago, we’ve gleaned the importance of building strong partnerships with meeting and event planners - it’s a win-win.
That's why we're attending our city’s premier trade show and conference for the hospitality and events sector - the Hospitality & Tourism Summit.
Broadly speaking, we’re looking to connect with top meeting and event planners - and others in allied sectors - to showcase how we can provide a team building experience that can be a learning asset for participants, especially through a SWOT analysis of their performance.
In addition, we complement our basic offering with a smooth booking service and prompt information exchange, which would add significant value by taking most of the logistical hassles out of both the company AND our meeting/event planning partner’s hands.
The goals we have set for ourselves
Connecting with 1,000+ meeting and event planners.
Gaining revolving business by connecting with local event planners.
Building relationships with planners by providing proposals to review for their clients, ranging from small and local businesses to large corporations.
Cross-marketing opportunities with concierge staffs.
Showcasing our experiences & team and discussing merits with meeting planners, concierge staffs, and others in the industry in real time.
Getting into the fun spirit of the event by providing a fun and immersive 30-minute escape room experience to the guests.
Speakers, exhibitors and attendees we’re looking forward to meeting
As of now, we can only repeat what we mentioned above - that over a thousand meeting planners will be in attendance, and we’re hoping to discuss potential partnerships with most of them.
This is a tourism and hospitality industry conference featuring a trade show, educational sessions, and other events - as you can guess, it’ll be teeming with networking opportunities.
We expect that concierges, hotel salespeople, social media influencers, business representatives & other industry professionals will be here.
However, we can’t name names as we don’t have the actual guest list yet. We will update this post as soon as the conference releases the final list.
Key opportunities we’re looking to capitalize on
We’ve been hosting team events in Chicago for a while now, albeit at a slower pace.
However, beginning 2022-2023, we have decided to step up our efforts at getting corporate and other team building event bookings.
As part of that shift, we’re looking to build a revolving corporate catalog of companies and event planners.
We will be pushing our weekday morning time slots as team building events.
That’s why his year, we thought it would be a good idea to invest in a conference that would provide a broader and larger scale networking base for us.
The Hospitality & Tourism Summit fits the bill perfectly.
Preparing for the summit
From creating mini-games and other activities for both casual visitors and those looking to connect, to getting our booth ready - we worked on multiple fronts to amplify our presence and catch as many eyes as possible!
Creating experiences for our visitors
We wanted to have a wholesome mix of fun activities for guests quick-walking past, and games for participants that want to get a taste of our team and other events.
Here’s what we decided…
Interactive puzzles: Small interactive escape puzzles will sit on our table that guests can check out and compete with one another on.
This is mostly aimed at guests who want to get a feel of the kinds of experiences that we offer.
A spin-to-win wheel: Guests will be able to sign up with their contact info before they spin it to win a variety of prizes, gift cards, and team escape games!
Best suited for guests that are just walking through and looking for quick and fun activities.
The Final Exam: We will run a 30-minute version of our signature team-building game The Final Exam. Playable by 2 players, there will be 8 games in total throughout the day.
A great way for meeting planners to get a feel of our top team building offering.
Spin To Win prizes
Fox in a Box Mugs
Fox in a Box Game Patches
Fox in a Box Pens
Other prizes
Fox in a Box T-Shirts.
$10-$15 Amazon gift cards.
$10-$15 Starbucks cards.
$25 vouchers off a “ family and friends” game (not applicable for corporate bookings).
$25-50 off a standard corp team with 35 players or more! Check our team events page for details.
$50 off a refreshment package booking of 35 players or more! Check our team events page for details.
The Final Exam Participation Prizes
Winner circle stickers
Final Exam diplomas
Our booth design and layout
Fox in a Box Banner
Folding table(s) & skirts
Orange Table Cloth
#1 Escape Room sign
QR code sticker to attach to Banner
A TV showing a video collage of all of our corporate group photos
Brochures to hand out
“Finn”, our stuffed animal Mascot!
Training staff to represent our company and showcase our offerings
While taking on temp staff to represent us at the event was an option, we didn’t go for it as:
We wanted our presence to have a personal touch.
We’ve been dealing with a rush of bookings, and taking on the responsibility of training the temps to represent us would’ve spread us out too thin.
So, it’ll be Vince (our owner), Miranda (our relationship coordinator), and Adam and Mak (2 of our veteran game masters) at the summit!
Looking forward to the event!
We look forward to showcasing our experiences and building relationships, which we can leverage to forge new business connections that benefit both us and our partners.
Thank you for reading, and we hope to see you there!
BLOGS
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