interactive

At Gensler and Herman Miller's vignette, the dining table was surrounded by walls covered in thousands of Hershey's Kisses wrapped in purple foil. Attendees were invited to take one as a symbol of the "many hands it takes to spark positive change."

After picking up their totes, attendees headed to an area to be assigned their groups for the lunch roundtable and dinner dine-around. They selected a poker chip at random; each chip was printed with the name of one of the dinner locations.

Continuing with the gambling theme, guests also selected a playing card (designed by Tricia Hay) that revealed the number of the table at which they’d be seated for the luncheon and which speaker would be hosting the table. “Like at any meeting, people tend to want to stick with who they know,” says Rebecca Grinalls. “So doing a blind pull like this helps create organic opportunities for networking with new people without making it feel forced.”

Guests received a minibar kit that included recipes for three cocktails and the ingredients needed to make them, like Red Bull, Goldschlager, and candy drink stirrers.

The boxes included pencils, sticky notes, a journal, mints and candy, and “Thinking Putty," a Silly Putty-like product to keep guests’ hands engaged. “We wanted to make all of the gifts as lightweight as possible so that people would be able to take them home in their luggage,” says Susan Arak-Turnock. To that end, the boxes were made from thick paper board.

While all the rooms were meticulously planned, none was as popular as the space that housed old-school carnival claw games. Rather than plush toys and candy, the machines held small items, like lipsticks and jewelry, in Chanel gift bags.