DENVER—Walmart’s annual Holiday Meeting is a chance for its store leaders to come together to network, share best practices, and learn what’s coming for the year’s fourth quarter. So it’s appropriate that this year’s event had a “Connecting Together” theme, gathering about 5,500 employees for the brand’s first fully in-person meeting since the pandemic hit.
The event, which took place at Denver’s Colorado Convention Center from Aug. 9-11, featured a variety of programming, including general sessions, regional breakouts, and networking opportunities. But the real highlight was a 300,000-square-foot merchandise floor, outfitted as a replica of what Walmart stores around the country will look like in the fourth quarter. 
The meeting featured a 300,000-square-foot merchandise floor, which was outfitted as a replica of what Walmart stores around the country will look like in the fourth quarter. The RoArk Group served as the floor decorator, while Vista Productions handled production.Photo: Courtesy of Walmart
The store replica allowed employees to get an up-close look at the upcoming merchandise. “We set up a supercenter inside of the convention center,” explained Bryan Smith, Walmart’s director of event solutions. “It allows for different stations—whether it's food, apparel, home, toys, seasonal—and it allows our store managers to go through each of those areas and really see the product, understand what it is, and see how it's supposed to be set.”
The team took care to make the merchandise floor as interactive as possible. “There were demos,” Smith added. “They could shoot Nerf Blasters or be on bumper cars or taste the next great candy that’ll be coming out during the holiday season.”
“It’s not just about Christmas,” added Shelley Hodgkinson, the brand’s senior director of shows and events. “It’s Halloween, New Year’s, Thanksgiving—it's everything that we need to deliver for the customers during quarter four. Now, they can go back to their store and sell it to the other managers, associates, and customers, and be able to say, ‘This [great product] is coming, watch this space.’” 
“They're literally picking product up, touching and feeling it, so they can share with their customers what those products are,” said Shelley Hodgkinson, Walmart's senior director of shows and events.Photo: Courtesy of Walmart
The floor took what Hodkinson described as “a small army” to set up, ranging from the store planning team to the various merchants to 75 store associates who worked to arrange it the way they would for their own locations. The RoArk Group served as the merchandise floor decorator, while Vista Productions handled production for the floor and breakout sessions. (Other vendors included One10, who supported the overall schedule and hotel management; PRA, who handled transportation; and LEO Events, who handled production for the general sessions.)
“I also want to shout out Visit Denver,” added Smith. “Whenever we had challenges or struggles, they were always right there with us along the way.”
To the Walmart team, having that connection with the local community was crucial—and in fact, about 80% of the merchandise on the show floor was donated to eight Colorado charities after the meeting wrapped. “We donated about 25 truckloads of merchandise this year. We try not let anything go to waste—down to something like the meat, is there a way to donate it to a local zoo to help feed the lions?” said Smith, noting that the other 20% of the merchandise was either recycled or brought back to the home office to be available for walkthroughs. 
After the meeting, about 80% of the merchandise on the show floor was donated to eight local charities.Photo: Courtesy of Walmart
While the merchandise floor was naturally interactive, the team worked hard to make the other sessions—which were mandatory for attendees—just as fun. “It’s our job to make every single session engaging,” Hodgkinson said. “Whether it’s the floor, the rotations, or the general sessions, we made sure that while getting the message across, we also made all fun and engaging.”
There were two general sessions—one that opened the meeting and one that closed the meeting—where key company leaders like Doug McMillon and John Furner presented. This year also included a performance from singer LeAnn Rimes. Breakout sessions, meanwhile, were purposely interactive, allowing store managers and field associates to ask questions to leaders and get answers and solutions right then and there.
“[That interaction] helps with trust as well,” Hodgkinson noted. “What [attendees have] seen over the last few meetings is that they've asked a question, and leaders have taken action directly based on the things they'd asked or issues they'd raised. So that builds trust—and that's a big thing.”
Although a few of the sessions were broadcast back to the home office and to employees who couldn’t attend in person, the team really focused on making this an IRL event. For Walmart, being physically together was crucial for teaching team members about new initiatives and giving them a space to connect with peers, merchants, and leadership.
“They’re literally picking product up, touching and feeling it, so they can share with their customers what those products are,” Hodgkinson pointed out when asked about the value of being in person. “And also there’s the networking piece, which is just as important as the messages they hear and the things that they see. These people hadn't seen each other physically for a couple of years. … They shared best practices, they share what's going on in their stores, and in their personal lives.”
Throughout the two-day meeting, the team also tried to be conscious of what attendees needed in a post-COVID world—and that meant not trying to do too much. To Hodgkinson, the key was making sure the core messages thread through every session without losing attendee interest by being repetitive—and also by being conscious that there was a reasonable amount of action items.
“If the store managers would be going back [home] with hundreds of actions, that's not achievable,” she pointed out. “So we had to be careful that we're not trying to fit too much into those two days because these people get exhausted. They need some breathing space.”
"The networking piece is just as important as the messages they hear and the things that they see," Hodgkinson said. "These people hadn't seen each other physically for a couple of years."Photo: Courtesy of Walmart
“I think because of those challenges, you've really seen all the teams come together and work with each other better than ever before,” said Smith of the planning process. “It’s not just the hotel or just the transportation or just the airlines—it's everybody coming together and working closely for this common goal of this event.”
“Everybody wants everybody to succeed,” Hodgkinson agreed. “If there’s a good side to COVID, it’s that it’s allowed people to work together better. With these challenges, we’ve all understood how we can work better, smarter, and navigate these things together.”
