While you may think of The Trade Group as an exhibit design and event marketing services firm, we want to let you in on a little secret. We also have an event services team that helps organizations plan and execute live events such as trade shows, corporate events, esports Gaming tournaments, annual sales meetings, speaking events and more.

The truth is the event services and coordination aspect of our business evolved naturally over time. You see, after 30 years in the face-to-face marketing industry, we’ve not only designed thousands of trade show exhibits, we’ve spent umpteen million hours by our clients’ sides, making sure their exhibits made it to the appropriate destination and were set up and functioning on time. 

We also learned a few valuable lessons along the way – the unexpected always happens at trade shows. Plus, our long-tenured staff has Built enduring relationships with great people in all facets of the trade show and live event industry – venue managers, labor resources, electrical, A/V, sound, lighting, I.T., WiFi, freight, logistics, catering, entertainment, etc.

In addition, our clients know they can rely on our strategic marketing team to hire and train talent and hosts; write the talent and host’s minute-by-minute scripts for multi-day events; develop choreography and music for live stage shows; and more.

This insight and the valuable partnerships we’ve built throughout the years come in handy when our clients ask us to help plan, manage and/or activate live events. We also tap into our team’s creativity specific to live environments, ability to understand our clients’ audiences and drive to create an engaging and memorable experience for those specific audiences.

Following are a few recent live events where we’ve helped clients in various ways.

TwitchCon 2015, 2016: Twitch, the world’s leading broadcast platform and community for gamers, asked us to help launch its inaugural event to celebrate “all things Twitch” in 2015. The Trade Group helped coordinate the event; acted as labor liaison; designed and built branded spaces, custom exhibits, stages, live streaming pods, presentation spaces and office spaces; and facilitated live streaming to fans unable to attend. The event draws upwards of 20,000 attendees, plus hundreds of thousands of fans online.

Riftwalk 2016: Riot Games approached The Trade Group wanting to develop a fully immersive League of Legends experience for PAX East 2016. This event was to serve as a big thank you to the LoL community that included elaborate 3-D recreations of key game characters and scenes, photo ops, community created art, and several other interactive elements. This event was so successful, Riot Games contracted The Trade Group to modify this event to travel around the US and Canada with stops in Boston, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and finally Los Angeles.  Check out our case study here.

DreamHack Austin 2016: DreamHack hired The Trade Group as General Services Contractor and Producer for their first North American esports event and LAN BYOC (bring your own computer) party in May. To provide a seamless experience for attendees, gamers and exhibitors, we assembled a team of the top engineers, designers, event managers, laborers, technology experts, electricians and logistics specialists experienced with executing trade shows and esports events. The three-day event included multiple gaming tournaments, LAN area, an Expo and more.

For the full scoop, read the DreamHack Austin case study here.

Turner Esports League Launch at CES (Consumer Electronics Show): Turner Broadcasting hired The Trade Group to help plan and execute this star-studded, professional gaming event in a 120,000 sq. ft. ballroom attached to the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas. We created an exciting environment; designed and built stages and gaming stations; and handled the wiring, sound system, video footage, I.T., WiFi, live streaming, laser light show and more. Heck, even Shaq showed up.  Watch our case study here.

We’ve also helped plan and execute similar gaming competitions including the ESL Intel Extreme Masters Tournament. 

J. Hilburn Annual Sales Meeting: Every year, J. Hilburn – a high-end, menswear clothier – gathers its direct sales force for an annual meeting where they launch the brand’s latest clothing line in “Fashion Week” style. The Trade Group designed and built the catwalk space, creating an environment full of glitz and glamour. We also created a full-blown exhibit that looks like a massive retail store. The “store” features merchandising systems that present the new clothing pieces in different vignettes, which are designed to inspire the sales force to get excited about the brand and their individual businesses.  Check out our case study here.

Ready to Start Planning Your Next Live Event? Let’s Talk

Whether you’ve hosted live events for years or this is your first rodeo, contact us. The Trade Group’s event services team can help orchestrate your next event from conception to execution to tear down.

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