Putting on a large-scale corporate event can be like hosting your own conference or trade show. You become both show association and exhibitor, taking on all responsibilities to manage every detail and coordinate all logistics to execute a complete event; from spatial design planning, electrical and rigging plans, flooring, exhibit and product display move-in, install, dismantle and move-out to food and housing and content development as needed.
For BlueHive client, Sika USA, this was the tip of the iceberg in the challenges they faced putting on their National Sales Meeting (NSM) in November 2022. This internal corporate event brings together hundreds of employees with the aim of educating staff on new products and services to increase and incentivize sales efforts, while building camaraderie between personnel. And while the NSM was in its fourth year, it had been five years since the last one was hosted.
Sika looked to us, their exhibit partner for trade shows, to support them in this private event. And we rose to the occasion, taking our turnkey trade show management approach and applying it to the private event space. What started off as a one-exhibit project for us turned into eight different exhibits plus an activation area that we helped design, fabricate, ship, install and dismantle.
A leading supplier of specialty products and solutions for the construction, industrial manufacturing, residential and automotive markets globally, Sika’s US division is further segmented into many brands, all with their own team of brand and product managers at the helm, and each with a different budget allotment. Each sub-division has its own look and feel while remaining consistent with the Sika corporate brand identity. We were engaged to work with just one of the brands to start, but soon became the exhibit partner for almost all the brands to be represented at the NSM. We provided extra value especially to those divisions that had never exhibited previously, helping them to navigate this new event territory and the rules and regulations that must be followed in how their exhibits could be designed and set up. In all, we designed and executed the creation of eight of the 10 vastly different exhibits for NSM, as well as an eight-hole mini golf course. This activation area was part entertainment, part education as Sika employees played on holes demonstrating products.
We worked closely with each brand team, designing unique exhibits within their varied budgets that would display their specific products as each team envisioned, and that would help attendees deepen their knowledge on how these products played into the overall services and offerings of Sika. Each exhibit needed to meet certain objectives and communicate that division’s brand personality while still showcasing the Sika corporate identity.
We stirred up quite a buzz for the Sika stakeholders with the service level and value provided.
Each brand was well-represented, and the event was highly rated by attendees and brand teams. The National Sales Meeting went off without a hitch, thanks to the tremendous team efforts of BlueHive, Lime I&D Services (our exclusive labor management division), and Sika’s other event partners (such as the general contractor for the venue and Sika’s AV partner).
[This was a] hugely successful event [as our] first one back in-person, post-COVID. I consider BlueHive a strategic creative partner that can be relied on to not only maintain budgets and schedules, but to be an extension of my marketing team.
James Gildea