A chance to do business
IMEX America is an award-winning trade show where suppliers and buyers from every sector of the meetings industry come together under one roof at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
This year, the four-day program was packed with more than 100 specialist educational events with brilliant speakers, new ideas and continuous inspiration. But even more excitingly, the event offered the perfect opportunity for us to do business with over 12,000 destinations, venues, suppliers, and event professionals from more than 190 countries – both on and off the trade show floor. The show floor was 45% bigger this year than in 2021, so there was plenty to see and do!
Attending international events like this is a key way for us to form new relationships and strengthen existing ones, to help us find clients like you the best spots for your events!
One-to-one meetings with suppliers
Over the show's three amazing days, there were over 62,000 buyer-exhibitor appointments made, and we ourselves had packed schedules of pre-arranged one-to-one meetings with suppliers.
We were thrilled to personally meet and be introduced to tons of new and exciting venues around the world – and to get the chance to build on our existing relationships. These are all relationships that we hope will benefit our clients moving forwards, as we’re able to increase our knowledge of the global events offering and share it with our clients to help meet specific briefs.
Our one-to-one meetings also allowed us to discuss particular enquiries we’re working on face-to-face, forming contacts that will be immediately beneficial to events we’re supporting our clients with.
Evenings spent networking
Our trip to Las Vegas wasn’t just about the time spent at IMEX America. Instead, our evenings were filled with brilliant networking opportunities.
Hilton was kind enough to invite Hire Space to a huge networking evening at their brand-new hotel, Resorts World Las Vegas. Towering on the north end of the famous Strip, it’s an impressive venue that we were excited to check out (and you can imagine our surprise to find that DJing was none other than Paris Hilton!). Here, we met hotel managers from Hilton properties around the world, including those we frequently book for our key clients.
On the second night, we were hosted by the wonderful NYC&Co. We have many clients that are headquartered in New York or who have large offices in the city, so we were keen to improve our knowledge of New York venues. This evening was the ideal opportunity, as we were able to chat freely with New York venue managers and hoteliers over dinner, forming connections that will be invaluable for our clients.
Putting it into practice
As you can tell, IMEX America was a fantastic experience all-round and a productive trip. Now that we’re back home and (almost!) recovered from the jet lag, we’re getting over the post-trip blues by following up on the connections we’ve made and putting our new knowledge into practice – using it to source more fantastic venues for events around the world.
As always, let me know if you want me to pull together some venue suggestions for new briefs or events you have in the pipeline – or reach out for a chat. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with you!
All the best,
Emily
