For 21 years, EMS attendees have been rising with the sun and meeting for morning runs. Be a part of the tradition and start your day getting to know some fellow fitness enthusiasts. Our guided 5K run and sightseeing tour departs from the lobby and takes you down the Vegas strip and back. You never know what you’ll see when the sun comes up in Sin City! *Registration required.

Embrace the flow state and join us on the pool terrace for a 30-minute guided meditation session. Start your day with deep, cleansing breaths. Focus your energy on the day ahead. Open up your mind to welcome in the next big idea. Come dressed for the day—a no-sweat experience! *Registration required.

Grab a seat with a new industry friend and prepare to get inspired as we kick off the first full day at EMS 2023 with a hearty, family-style breakfast, a live DJ and some fun trivia challenges designed to get the brain synapses firing.

Join bestselling author Brian Solis as he shines a spotlight on the future of physical, online and hybrid experiences. Get insider knowledge on how to reimagine touchpoints as “ignite” moments, unify 360 customer journeys and create enchanting, personal experiences that connect brands with customers, meaningfully.

You will learn:

• How “micro-moments” are reshaping the new customer journey in each of the five “moments of truth”
• How post-pandemic experiences become memories and new ways to connect brands with customers
• Why transcending touchpoints into “ignite” moments can accelerate brand experiences
• How to respond to "accidental narcissism" by genuinely enchanting customers
• How to elevate your event teams by aligning Brand Experience (BX), Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX) to change how companies work, sell and serve

ESSENCE is a high-growth brand with an ever-evolving and influential portfolio of events and platforms under its umbrella, from the flagship ESSENCE Festival of Culture, to Afropunk, BeautyCon, Essence Studios, Naturally Curly haircare community activations and beyond. Promoting a come-as-you-are vibe, the energy generated from partners, artists, musicians and attendees at these live experiences takes on a life of its own. Learn how can you cultivate the energy exchange to transcend the event, deepen brand loyalty and create a diverse and fierce fanbase.

Head to the Hall of Ideas for some networking and idea gathering over a cup of coffee or tea. Catch a 10-minute sneak preview of new cutting-edge products and services, and explore the latest partners and solutions.

What happens when a pastel universe moves from URL to IRL? Fan-favorite NFT brand Doodles creates whimsical, first-of-their-kind interactive environments to give token holders a new sense of ownership. Hear how Doodles and Shopify united digital technology with analog form factors in magical ways to drive the future of commerce and bring Web3 to the real world, as well as the activation strategies that kept guests lined up to enter—and made them stay.

You’re capturing event data… so, now what? Join us as we dive into the world of experiential business intelligence. Explore “the art of the possible” with your data, and learn how to drive continuous program improvement, uncover breakthrough business insights and discover new business and revenue opportunities. Check out real-world examples that demonstrate the power of data to evaluate, compare, predict and even orchestrate audience behavior, and walk away with valuable tools to take your experiential measurement practice to the next level.

What does it take to cultivate a long, meaningful and impactful career in experiential marketing? Grab a seat and listen in as members of Event Marketer’s inaugural class of Experiential Marketing Hall of Fame inductees tell you how they did it—and how you can, too. Hear from the people who created the campaigns that have defined an industry. Get actionable insights you can use to build bold, ROI-busting events. And bring your burning questions as we wrap up with an “ask me anything”-style Q&A. 

Unlike impressions, emails captured or samples delivered, attribution and ROI for internal corporate events and activations can be far more challenging than consumer experiences. Designing an experience for employees, franchisees, sales forces and investors requires flexing a different muscle to emotionally engage your people. Hear what works, what doesn’t and trends emerging in the “costs-are-up-and-staffs-are-short” event world you’re navigating. 

Through strategic partnerships and awareness campaigns, Meta's marketing blends immersive experiences, in-person events, and training to demonstrate the potential for education in this space and to train the next generation of creators who will help to make the metaverse a reality. Sparks will sit down in conversation with Meta to discuss recent projects and how they have seized the opportunity of live experience to educate attendees on metaverse and the future of education within it. Attendees of this session will learn how to blend a fast-paced marketing and business plan into an experiential strategy that is relevant and effective. Topics will also include overcoming the learning curve around the metaverse and how to integrate emotional, human connection into an experiential program.

Employee retention, engagement and advocacy is more important to the bottom line than ever. How do you inspire and engage more than 24,000 employees from all walks of life? Enter: “Sheetz Yeah!” - a rallying cry woven throughout the family-owned convenience store’s annual year-end event, where it rolled out a new employee value proposition and a DEI initiative. Get an inside look at how the brand’s one-of-a-kind culture can inspire “passion and action,” and how yours can, too.

All marketers would agree that brands must have a clear understanding of their consumer’s path to purchase, so why are some brands outperforming others when it comes to sales conversion? This interactive session will explore how marketers can efficiently develop and measure programming that weaves through their b-to-c and b-to-b touchpoints by creating commercially integrated ecosystems that fuel their sales funnel.

Gather in The Clubhouse for a moderated, peer-to-peer discussion where you help us help you. Throw your toughest challenges on the board. Dig into a timely topic with your peers. Brainstorm with our expert moderator. Topics will rotate every 10 minutes, and may include: sustainability, trends, planning, and creativity.

Join us as we dive into the key elements of event design and uncover how to effectively measure the success of your event. Heather Munnell will guide you through the process of defining KPIs and understanding the "why" behind your event to develop a strategic plan for engagement and brand messaging. Learn how to create data-driven experiences that drive engagement behaviors, benchmark performance data and enhance creativity. This session will demonstrate the power of experiential campaigns and show how to elevate your brand affinity and create truly unforgettable experiences for your audience, while effectively measuring data and performance.

Building an extraordinary event requires extraordinary components, not the least of which are an extraordinary attendee journey, extraordinary planning and execution, and extraordinary content. In this session, hear why an event content strategy is a critical component of the overall event strategy, how to develop and implement future-forward event content, and explore examples of extraordinary event content that performs. 

Today, brands need to speak to two sets of consumers: those wanting to return to live events, and those wanting to continue to engage digitally. While Visible knows a thing or two about engaging audiences digitally, as a young brand facing mega-competition, it's also setting itself apart with breakthrough experiential marketing. Learn how Visible is melding the two, and get an inside look at its strategies for keeping up with customers’ evolving preferences. 

Grab a “Snack Map” and head to the Hall of Ideas for a guided dining experience filled with opportunities to meet new people and enjoy sweet and savory treats. Grab a seat with a new friend or colleague and discuss what’s on your mind. Take part in a casual lunch-and-learn in The Clubhouse. Explore the latest products, partners and solutions at your own pace. Bon appétit!

As brands across industries respond to massive re-prioritizing, RE-shaping, and RE-structuring, we need to RE-orient our products, services and experience design. Learn the crucial human needs underlying shifting consumer behaviors and how you can bake these needs into your events and experiences to put people at the center of your offerings, ensuring maximum impact, greater connection and lasting brand loyalty.  You’ll learn how to innovatively RE-discover audience RE-connection.  Discover ways to help your audience gain control and find simplicity in today’s shifting landscape, while managing the scarce time they have and prioritizing what matters most. Leave with ideas to powerfully connect and engage your audience, even in the face of remote work, virtual events and increased digitalization.

Smart marketers today remain agile and adaptive despite fast-moving situations. In this session, learn how to explore new spaces and technologies the Salesforce way, from setting deep strategy workstreams that set the course for success, to identifying high-value opportunities, to aligning key stakeholders. From mobile-first gaming experiences and scalable event content architectures to the post-show “digital halo”—hear how one event team is plotting a course forward. 

Everything is on the table in this candid conversation where we ask the big, hard questions that are on every agency leader’s mind: What will experiential marketing look like in the future and how will event agencies need to shape shift to survive? Where are the biggest opportunities and what are the biggest challenges for event agencies in the next five years? Where can agency leaders win and generate business in the future? And how can agency leaders create businesses and teams that can thrive in the midst of crisis and change? 

Gather in The Clubhouse for a moderated, peer-to-peer discussion where you help us help you. Throw your toughest challenges on the board. Dig into a timely topic with your peers. Brainstorm with our expert moderator. Topics will include how to establish attendee connections through experiential engagements.

If you missed all the exciting wins at the Ex Awards Gala, you’re in for a treat. Listen in as a group of our 2023 Ex Awards judges help us break down the results. We’ll discuss six of the highest-scoring campaigns from this year’s program, the most steal-worthy ideas, and clues to what might be coming next in the wild world of events. 

In this new era of events, attendee expectations are higher than ever, and in response, event marketers are being advised to “throw out the old rule book.” But that’s not always practical or possible. In this session, we’ll discuss simple and budget-friendly tweaks and refreshes that can help breathe new life into your biggest events, from redesigning the event program to infusing personalization throughout. Walk in as an event professional. Walk out thinking like an experience designer.

Consumers today expect brands to be frictionless, omnichannel and multiplatform, but what does that mean and how is that executed in events? Learn how to leverage the storytelling capabilities and benefits of immersive technologies to support physical activations. Demystify platforms like the metaverse and examine different strategies for different ambitions.  

Head to the Hall of Ideas for some networking and idea gathering over a cup of coffee or tea. Stop by the Expert Studio and catch a 10-minute sneak preview of new cutting-edge products and services. Explore the latest partners and solutions.

Activision’s experiential portfolio is as storied as its Call of Duty franchise. For the launch of its latest title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Activision harnessed the power of 200 top global streamers and its “streamer arena” in an experience that ultimately helped drive $1 billion in sales just 10 days after the release. Go inside its creative, strategic and technical approach for launch events. Walk away with the latest best practices for impactful live broadcast streaming.

Listen in as industry thought-leaders share insights on the technologies and strategies that are shaping the future of experiential marketing. Learn why advances in areas like AI matter to marketers and how they apply to events. Explore the future of personalization. Hear examples of work that’s changing how brands connect with and create moments for audiences. And of course, bring your own burning questions.

Gather in The Clubhouse for a moderated, peer-to-peer discussion where you help us help you. Throw your toughest challenges on the board. Dig into a timely topic with your peers. Brainstorm with our expert moderator. Topics will rotate every 10 minutes, and may include: strategy, career, budgets, and measurement.

No matter the budget, with the right creativity, information, pre-planning, and resourcefulness, you can blow KPIs out of the water. Learn from award-winning campaigns on a small budget and the steps taken to yield big results. Dive into five simple event technologies (and what they cost) that can decrease budget dollars and increase your ability to meet your event KPIs more easily. It’s a rapid-fire overview of practical tips and tools you can put to use immediately.

In what has become a much-anticipated annual discussion at EMS, our spring cover story comes alive as our B-to-B Dream Team comes together to discuss top trends, best practices and the future of the event discipline. Come experience some of the sharpest minds in b-to-b events, hear candid comments about the space’s growth and challenges, and walk away inspired and excited about the future of your b-to-b events.

Stay tuned for our panel announcement!

The customer journey is a competitive, complex network of touchpoints today that requires brands take a unified approach across their traditional marketing channels to make a meaningful impact. Hear how omnichannel strategies are evolving with experiential as the connective tissue; what an omnichannel partnership model looks like and who should bring what to the table; as well as examples of experiential programs that served as anchors of successful omnichannel campaigns.

Whether it’s owning the stage at CMA Fest or driving engagement at multi-state fair The Big E, Chevrolet knows how to work a sponsorship to touch hundreds of thousands of consumers. Dive deep into its most recent experiential success stories and tools, including the launch of The Chevy Trail activation, an adventure game that leveraged data, gamification and storytelling to drive deeper, more personalized engagement.

End the day in the Hall of Ideas at the official EMS Happy Hour. Need some dinner companions? We can hook you up. Want some sweet swag for your collection? We’ve got you. Hungry for some delicious small bites and a cocktail or mocktail with friends? You’ve come to the right place. It all happens at the EMS Happy Hour. 

Women in events are taking over Las Vegas’s hottest venue, Area 15, with the WIE Ladies Night powered by Sparks. Enjoy the company of your peers over a full bar, dinner, art installations and entertainment—plus, get access to four unique attractions with your “EMS Experience Pass.” *Seating is limited. Request your invitation here. Transportation provided.

Come solo or grab a colleague for the EMS tradition that sells out every year: the annual networking dinner. Many game-changing industry connections are made at EMS sit-downs—don’t miss your chance to eat, drink and make new industry friends. *You must be registered in advance to attend. Space is limited.

For 21 years, EMS attendees have been rising with the sun and meeting for morning runs. Be a part of the tradition and start your day getting to know some fellow fitness enthusiasts. Our guided 5K run and sightseeing tour departs from the lobby and takes you down the Vegas strip and back. You never know what you’ll see when the sun comes up in Sin City! *Registration required.

Embrace the flow state and join us on the pool terrace for a 30-minute guided meditation session. Start your day with deep, cleansing breaths. Focus your energy on the day ahead. Open up your mind to welcome in the next big idea. Come dressed for the day—a no-sweat experience! *Registration required.

Grab a seat with a new industry friend and prepare to get inspired as we kick off the second full day at EMS 2023 with a hearty, family-style breakfast, a live DJ and some fun trivia challenges designed to get the brain synapses firing.

It’s a day-three kickoff you won’t want to miss. Listen in as a power panel of brand-side executives explore how experiential marketing is making an impact this year, the biggest opportunities for event marketers this moment, pain points the industry needs to overcome, and how their organizations are plotting a course forward. We’ll wrap up this candid conversation with a look at the top cultural and industry trends on the horizon. 

Head to the Hall of Ideas for some networking and idea gathering over a cup of coffee or tea. Catch a 10-minute sneak preview of new cutting-edge products and services, and explore the latest partners and solutions.

Event Marketer’s Experiential in Color program is designed to recognize and share the perspectives of diverse rising stars in the industry. For this year’s Experiential in Color Panel, we’ll discuss their perspectives on events today, trends that have their attention, and mentorship and career paths that can help inspire more diversity at middle- and upper-management levels across the event marketing industry.

Stay tuned for our panel announcement!

Launching your first event is a daunting task. It takes careful planning, budgeting and marketing strategies to ensure a successful launch. This presentation will provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to confidently plan your first event. We will discuss crucial elements such as setting realistic goals, selecting the right partners, targeting relevant audiences, formulating effective strategies and managing risk factors. By the end of this presentation, you will have obtained actionable advice on how to effectively plan and launch your event.

As presenting sponsor of the Army-Navy football game, USAA dialed up the on-site experience to align with its 100th anniversary campaign. The result was an interactive museum that took fans back in time to showcase the game’s evolution, and the association’s evolution, with attention to detail and personalization at every “scan.” Go inside the planning process, from the promotional strategy to the technology plan, and listen in as the team breaks down the results and key insights.

Some events are planned months, even years, in advance. It is the events that need to be planned and executed on much shorter timelines that reveal how organized, nimble and effective a team is. Listen in on how HERE Technologies has become efficient in last-minute executions such as sales incentive trips and global virtual events, and how quickly AWS turned around a podcast studio build. They’ll reveal lessons learned and the best practices they’ve identified to succeed on shortened timelines.

How do you grab attention at a massive fan-centric event like VidCon? More importantly, how do you create an experience that encourages content creation in a natural, organic way? Enter the YouTube Shorts Drive-Thru immersive restaurant experience covering 40,000 sq ft and featuring custom creator snacks, golf carts and a 40-ft gumball machine. With a focus on community, the experience included exclusive collaborations with YouTube Creators, facilitated online community engagement, and ignited a virtual bonanza of shared content, inspiring 34,000 unique Shorts creations and more than 48 million views. 

Do your events have a clearly defined purpose and future vision? Are they aligned with your organizational goals?  And can your team articulate your event strategy in your absence? Despite best intentions, many busy event leaders find their event strategy lives fragmented in different places, with much of it residing on the whiteboard from the last brainstorming session. This session will cover the essential components of an event strategy framework and the steps to get you started on developing and documenting your foundational narrative. You’ll walk away with an event strategy framework foundation & template that will give you a jump start in setting a clear direction for your team, and gaining alignment with stakeholders, go-to-market plans and business priorities.

Join an in-depth conversation about making your budgets stretch and adapting to supply chain delays, labor shortages, and more. Hear how macro-economic trends are impacting the world of event marketing and how brands are adapting with tried-and-true strategies, from working with unions to designing new frameworks to apply to events planning and budgeting. 

Gather in The Clubhouse for a moderated, peer-to-peer discussion where you help us help you. Throw your toughest challenges on the bard. Dig into a timely topic with your peers. Brainstorm with our expert moderator. Topics will include how to select the right event technology for your event, including registration, mobile apps, lead scanners and more.

Certain questions persist when it comes to event planning: what do attendees—our most valuable assets—seek from events moving forward? How do they evaluate a dual-value proposition: the value of being in the room vs. the value of being on their couch? In this discussion, hear about our industry’s collective future as we uncover, understand, and validate what attendees want (and why) from events and experiences moving forward and how we must utilize future-forward attendee data to arrive at our collective future.

Forget B-to-B or B-to-C, experiential is now being designed around B-to-I; the business-to-influencer relationships that drive outsized value and influence for brands. Join us for a panel discussion on how brands are building affinity and reputation through memorable, hyper-personalized experiences designed specifically for the influencers and stakeholders who matter most.  Lean a model technique that solves complex marketing challenges using immersive experiential gifting campaigns and custom retail experiences.

In this fireside chat, we’re taking you inside the hearts and minds of event marketers to find out the secret to long-term client/agency relationships, and what each needs in the post-pandemic era. Hear challenges and understand the unique pressures they’re experiencing and how their approach to events has changed and evolved. Get candid insights that you can use to build and sustain vibrant business relationships.

Head to the Hall of Ideas for a self-guided dining experience filled with opportunities to meet new people and enjoy sweet and savory treats. Grab a seat with a new friend or colleague and discuss what’s on your mind. Take part in a casual lunch-and-learn in The Clubhouse. Explore the latest products, partners and solutions at your own pace. Bon appétit!

Each year, Event Marketer recognizes a group of outstanding women in the industry. Hear from this year’s Women in Events honorees in our lively, annual panel. Get insights on everything from career growth to invisible work to negotiations to leading events in this new era. As we like to say—things are about to get real.

Demographic shifts including more Millennials in decision-making roles, evolution of purpose-driven consumer shopping, and global economic uncertainty are among key trends impacting b-to-b events. Learn how the key drivers of event or exhibitor attendance (connect, learn and engage) are evolving, why year-round communities matter, and how to transition exhibit spaces into personalized experiences that provide value long after the event. 

No other brand has pushed the boundaries at some of the largest marketing events in the world quite like Pinterest. Tattoos on the beach at Cannes Lions, anyone? Not much is the same since 2020, but one thing remains clear: The most powerful experiences are rooted in human truths. Join us for a deep dive into the lessons learned, from harnessing insights to taking risks and creating experiences that inspire. 

The first annual Breakthrough Energy Summit, hosted with founder Bill Gates, brought 750 scientists, philanthropists, policy makers, executives, entrepreneurs and investors together to work to accelerate critical climate solutions. Hear how Breakthrough Energy built an event where sustainability was anything but an afterthought, and walk away with tangible ideas to implement sustainably-minded planning and strategy into your next program. 

Workday measures success not only in financial terms or in how it builds its product, but also in how its brand impacts the world. How does its corporate sustainability mission trickle down into the events organization? Step inside Workday Rising, an event where sustainability is woven throughout the full program, including registration, expo builds, transportation, and the F&B program.  

Fandom partnered with Comcast for the Fandom Xfinity Gaming Lounge at the MKTG+ Athletes First House in Scottsdale, AZ during Superbowl LVII. This fan-focused gaming lounge featuring NFL players and multiple influencers battling it out playing popular video games together which was live-streamed to fans around the world. This session will focus on taking 360 partnerships to the next level and how to make small(er) sized events big and global. The panel will also debunk the theory that “if you build it they will come” by tackling how to create truly authentic experiences for talent and influencers that will take your activation to a whole new level. 

As "Rick and Morty" entered into its sixth season, the Adult Swim show was facing declining cable viewership and increasingly competitive streaming wars. Rather than compete with media giants on advertising spend, Adult Swim opted to skip traditional advertising and risk 60 percent of its total budget for something far more unexpected. Enter Wormageddon, a global stunt that had fans scouring the entire planet on an epic quest to find “ancient worm battle sites.” It’s a case study that’ll take you from the hills of Malibu to the remote beaches of Brazil to a windmill in the Netherlands, and beyond. 

Join the Event Marketer editorial team for a recap of the week’s biggest themes, most compelling insights and top takeaways. Listen in as they break down the Summit’s learning experiences into action items you can take back to your event organizations. Leave the Summit informed, inspired and fully armed with a curated list of advice and strategies from the world’s foremost experiential brands. Grab a drink as we say goodbye… until next time.