Designing a Freshly Brewed Conference Experience
Utilizing a coffee shop style conference booth to stand out and naturally connect with customers.
The mission
Conferences are a great way for utilities to showcase their programs (and leadership) to peers, potential partners, and customers. However, many challenges accompany exhibiting at the various conferences throughout the year.
Does your booth stand out from the other exhibitors vying for the audience’s attention? Is your exhibit relevant enough to draw the audience in and engage with you? Is your exhibit specific enough to reach your audience and broad enough to apply to multiple conferences without redesigning every time?
These are the problems we sought to solve for TVA’s EnergyRight for Business and Industry team.
To start, we knew we needed to develop a way to draw people to the booth. After exploring several ideas, we landed on the PowerUp Café, a place to power up your phone (shout out to electricity), your day (hello, freshly brewed coffee), and ultimately your business (through EnergyRight’s programs). To make it memorable, the coffee is delivered with a foam print of the TVA logo on top.
The booth has clear utility branding, but also the visual appeal of “coffee shop” meets “technology bar.” Two large TV monitors showcasing targeted messaging and media content largely comprise the backdrop, enabling TVA to tailor their messaging for every conference without incurring new production costs.
What we did
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Market research
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Engagement strategy
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Messaging strategy
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Graphic design
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Video development
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Interactive content design
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Promotional materials
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Conference, event, and vendor management
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Project management
The results
The PowerUp Café draws in conference-goers looking for a free, quality cup of coffee, those who heard about the super cool foam printer (it creates quite the buzz), and those interested in learning more about what TVA was doing. While waiting for the drinks, TVA’s “energy baristas” are able to engage in meaningful conversations with their target audience in a natural and non salesy way. The digital monitors allow TVA to tailor their message for each conference and utilize multimedia presentations and the latest video content. The PowerUp Café has been used at multiple conferences, allowing TVA to invest in a quality exhibit, that while reusable, remains targeted and relevant.
