I have planned, sold, executed or sponsored many events, workshops, festivals, tournaments and conferences in my career. From more recent years of planning unique Minneapolis events such as yoga on the plaza at dawn for 100 people covered by local media to a corporate social responsibility day for 1,000 people or a Chevy car giveaway televised live, all at the Minneapolis Convention Center & Plaza during my 6 years at Meet Minneapolis, I look at any challenge to encourage consumer engagement and brand recognition with ingenuity.
Events provide opportunity for media, sponsorship, consumer participation and employee engagement with the business. In addition to managing components for events such as NBA All-Star game and The Vinny Invitational earlier in my career, here are just a select few recent highlights of the many events in the past several years.
Meeting Planners International (MPI) Event
Considered to be the Super Bowl for the meetings industry, I worked with various local business partners on creating an experience that represents the brand of Minneapolis, City By Nature, for visitors from around the world. Over the course of one year, it took the entire team at Meet Minneapolis, the Convention & Visitors Bureau, to create a 3-day event a reality.
The highlight of this event was alongside the Mississippi River at the Mill City Ruins and under a tent the size of a football field where guests were greeted by a runway featuring models strutting the runway dressed by local designers, an array of restaurant and catering partners that showcased the delicacies of Minnesota, a four-star, VIP snapshot of our top hotel brands where people could relax to appreciate the best local musical talent from opera to R&B. The most intriguing space developed was the Mill City Ruins adjacent to the tent where people could unwind and converse in an ultra- swanky scene hosted by one of the most unique meeting spaces in the warehouse district, Aria, by moving in their best furniture to set up an look alike scene as if someone were in their warehouse space for an event.
All of the featured partners were aligned by me and the Partnership team by negotiating the vision and experience for partners to step up and fund or provide in trade the experience.
Super Bowl Live
As a Business Connect sponsor, Be The Match hosted an activation space designed for Super Bowl Live.
For the 10-day event, Be The Match team members staffed an 15x30 heated Be The Match experience featuring 4 virtual reality stations for people to learn more about finding a match in a virtual world, a Keshot photo booth with fun props to share photos on social media channels while experiencing Super Bowl Live and a football toss that represented the odds for certain ethnic groups of finding match by the size of a goal post you had to toss a football through to win a prize. The 10 days generated brand awareness, media coverage related to Super Bowl Live, millions of social media posts, shares and likes and most of all, registrations to the registry.
Bayou Classic
The Bayou Classic is an annual event that commemorates historically black colleges and universities, academic achievement, tradition, sportsmanship, marching bands, and friendly competition.
Attendees celebrated 45 years between HBCU rivals Southern University and Grambling State University. Be The Match sponsored the 2018 Step Competition as well as participated in several events throughout the weekend to educate attendees about inequities on the donor registry of saving lives in the Black and AFA community.
LULAC National Convention
With the mission of becoming engrained in local communities around social justices and health advocacy initiatives in the Hispanic culture, Be The Match sponsored the 2018 LULAC National Convention to grow brand awareness. I led the team in creating our presence at the event which included an exhibit space and a Facebook Live interview with a Hispanic donor and transplant recipient. I was also honored to address the 2,000 attendees at the opening luncheon for the conference.
Hispanicize
This media and influencer tradeshow event occurs multiple times annually. Be The Match sponsored the Hispanicize 2018 to support the launch of My People, My Family, Mi Sangre. Key media contacts were initiated with partners such as NBC Latino to develop media interest as we evolve our Hispanic strategy to register donors from the Hispanic and Latino demographic.
AFCA
The American Football College Association conference gathers collegiate football coaches from all schools across the country. Be The Match joined forces with the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation in its 3rd year to promote Get In The Game, one of Be The Match’s donor registry started by Coach Andy Talley of the Villanova football team. Through our partnership, we were able to generate interest from 60 new coaches to become a school that will host a Get In The Game event this spring with its football teams which will aid in achieving our goal to grow the program by 20% in 2019.
