Event Spotlight: Planning for 100 Years of Success
Every year, The North West Company gathers store managers who oversee locations in Canada for a week-long meeting. As a retailer that primarily focuses on stores in remote locations, often involving complicated logistics, this meeting is an important opportunity for managers to network with their peers, complete training and education courses, and learn about the future goals and plans of the entire organization.
The AVentPro team partnered with The North West Company to produce a highly engaging, entertaining, and informative meeting. With a busy event schedule, including multiple sessions every day, it was important to keep attendees motivated, energized, and excited throughout the week.
Keep reading to learn more about the event!
The Mainstage.
While the North West Company event utilized several rooms and event spaces, the largest auditorium held several different sessions throughout the week-long event.
In order to ensure that this event space was easily adaptable to the wide variety types of sessions while still being wow-worthy, our team utilized several different visual displays. On either side of the 30x34ft stage, a 16×9 screen displayed presentation slides and IMAG, projected by our Christie M4K25 RBG+ projectors. Behind the stage was a ~32x10ft. LED wall, which primarily served as a backdrop, displaying imagery that added to the atmosphere of each session.
Daily opening sessions.
Determined to bring humour, energy, and their fun culture into the event, The North West Company team decided to begin everyday with a lighthearted, fun opening session.
The AVentPro team built an LED doorway, allowing the team from each region to make a grand entrance as they entered the event space. Lighting up with the region’s selected colour, the door also displayed the district’s name.
After all of the entrances were completed, a video would play, leading into a theatrical lighting transition and a fun, live sketch. These sketches, featuring members of The North West Company leadership team, were 20-30 minutes long and covered the day’s core messaging before the attendees were released to breakouts.
Lunch sessions.
The managers would come together in the main room at lunch time where they were able to enjoy a live musical performance by a local performer while networking over lunch.
Plenary session with a keynote speaker.
On Wednesday afternoon after the lunch-time musical performance, a keynote speaker took the stage. During the inspirational address, the keynote speaker walked the stage, utilizing the projection screens for his presentation, as well as the LED backdrop.
Executive Q&A session.
An important part of The North West Company meeting was allowing the store managers to talk directly to their leadership team and raise any questions they may have. The Q&A session involved 14 executives onstage answering questions posed by audience members. The audience was so engaged and eager to participate that the session, originally scheduled for an hour, ended up running 90 minutes.
We loved being able to provide The North West Company team with the flexibility to extend their session and facilitate an open, transparent discussion.
Store awards night.
On the first night of the event, the store managers gathered to celebrate top-performing stores and managers.
While the evening typically featured a slideshow to display the winners’ names, the AVentPro team was determined to make the awards night extra special. Our team worked with the client’s graphics designer and event planner and ultimately utilized the LED backdrop to show fireworks when each name was called. The additional fanfare allowed the winners to soak in their special moment and take a commemorative photograph.
Breakout Sessions.
After the opening session each day, the managers would break into groups to attend breakout sessions. The seven sessions, which ran simultaneously, repeated each day, allowing attendees to rotate through the small group sessions.
Each of the seven sessions featured the same setup: a projection screen, speakers, and a podium with a microphone. Before the breakouts began each day, two tech floaters would get all the equipment up and running to ensure everything was ready to go. Throughout the sessions, they’d check in on each room, making sure everything continued to run smoothly.
Tradeshow.
The store managers were able to quickly put the training and education they received during the breakouts to use during the event’s tradeshow! Vendors and product manufacturers attended the tradeshow, allowing managers to try different products. The store managers were able to make strategic decisions about what products they’d like to purchase and feature in their stores.
Success Through Collaboration.
The entire AVentPro team, including both internal and freelance members, love working on The North West Company event. In fact, many technicians have already asked for the dates of next year’s event to ensure they’re available to participate!
We think the reason behind this is simple: it’s the partnership that AVentPro and The North West Company have built. After last year’s event, our teams immediately started discussing the 2024 conference and designing the vision for the event together.
The North West Company has a culture that is fun and open – they welcome creative ideas and are excited for opportunities to think outside the box. Because we began the creative design process early, we had greater opportunities to implement new technologies and creative ideas.
The North West Company’s desire to put on a great event combined with the trusting and collaborative relationship our teams have built gives us the opportunity to push boundaries, implement creative solutions, and work together to create an event experience that is unique, exciting, and rewarding.
Are you ready to host an event that is exciting, unique, and memorable? We’d love to help you design your next live event experience. Reach out today to learn more about how we can take your event to the next level. Email us at [email protected] or call us at (204) 226-5565.