B-to-B Events

Yes, budgets are ticking back and trade show attendance is up. But we’re hardly where we need to be.

Bars Wars? Battle of the Bands? Wha? This is a team-building event?  Oh indeed... oh indeed. One of the largest budget increases across the event marketer’s line items? Team training. Across corporate America, events and meetings are investing in team-building activities that disseminate information and/or bring attendees closer together. The goal, of course, is to increase performance. And the newest team-building activities are doing just that, with fun, funky elements that have event attendees begging for more and ROI through the roof.

Whoever said that necessity is the mother of invention must have worked in marketing.

CITGO in January launched its Marketer Round Table Meetings, an annual series of 18 daylong events held across three regions designed to pump up the local marketers and retailers that sell its refined gas and diesel products. This year the hot topic was the company’s redesigned logo, its new retail image and a portfolio of marketing programs designed to help build their businesses.

After 18 years of pitching its iconic tents at Bryant Park, New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has uprooted the stakes. This fall the show moved to Lincoln Center, a venue farther from the Garment District, yet considered a hub of refined culture and art. EM scoped out the new digs and chatted with IMG’s Christina Neault, executive producer of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week/IMG Fashion, about the move.