When Lenovo made plans to convene members of the media, customers, suppliers, and partners for a one-day innovation showcase, organizers knew they had to make use of every moment. “You’ve got a short attention span with the various audiences we were hosting. If you leave a lull you’ll lose a group or two,” said Mike Cunningham, Lenovo’s executive director of global events and partnerships. To keep all 1,500 attendees engaged, Cunningham worked with Event Strategy Group to produce a tightly timed, six-hour event June 9 at the Masonic. The schedule for Lenovo Tech World included executive keynotes, partner announcements, hands-on demonstrations, and breakout sessions.
“I wanted people to feel like they’d been to a Nascar race by the time it was over. All the segments were short. Everything was fast-paced. We didn’t spend a lot of time on things that didn’t matter. We got to the meat of the issues quickly and just kept going and going and going and going,” said Norm Aamodt, president of Event Strategy Group.
The program began with a keynote from Lenovo C.E.O. Yang Yuanqing, followed by short presentations on stage—each no more than 10 minutes—from partners such as Google and Intel. Attendees then immediately moved into the product showcase. “To just talk and show a couple of demos on stage doesn’t give what we want to those in attendance. So we quickly opened up the demo booths so they could touch and experience the products,” Cunningham said. The program continued with breakout sessions and contests, before ending at 4 p.m.
To make it easy for attendees to continue experiencing the event through lunch, the menu included passed small plates and grab-and-go items, with some highboy tables available for those who chose to stand still.