Roambee at Gartner Supply Chain Symposium / Xpo USA 2022
6th-8th June 2022 | Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel, Orlando, USA
The Gartner Supply Chain Symposium Xpo, was held 6th – 8th June in the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel, in Orlando USA. As you walk into the hotel you are greeted with a breathtaking foyer, with towering pillars and a lively atmosphere. This venue saw 2,500 people walk through it over the 3 days of the event. This made the event floorplan very big, a full-size exhibition hall, lunch hall and multiple floors for speaking rooms. The people attending where from all departments, with a good amount of people representing each company.
We were very excited to be attending our first Gartner event. Having attended 2 Reuters events, the 2 weeks prior to the Gartner event. We saw a lot of familiar faces, giving us another opportunity to build relationships further and carry on conversations.
It was great to be at Gartner, however due to the size of the event and amount going on at any one time, it was very difficult to find opportunities to network. We quickly learnt the networking was most fruitful towards the end of the day in the foyer, this is where all the attendees would congregate after the event day for a drink.
The topics presented where very well backed up with data and case studies, and I noticed there was more of a focus on things you can take action on today. There was everything from supply chain education, recruitment, management styles, future, trends and so much more.
On the second day of the event Gartner held an energetic evening reception with food stalls, bars, cigar stalls, bands and live entertainment. This was the best part built into the event for networking. We had a few hours for everyone to let the stress of the day leave them and build relationships.
As we have mentioned before, at Roambee we like to be different. For Gartner we wanted to go a step further than we had ever done in the past. On the first day of the event in the Dolphin foyer, Roambee did a flash mob with a brass band. The brass band played some New Orleans style music whilst they followed Scott Mears in a lit up Roambee branded jacket around the foyer handing out leaflets. Telling everyone “we are singing and dancing about bringing more visibility to supply chain heroes”. This garnered a lot of attention, and because of this we were able to leave a lasting impression in everyone’s mind and generate many positive conversations with target accounts.
We would attend this event again; we see great brand value in attending this event. However, the cost to exhibit and speak is very expensive which is a difficult commitment when it’s not a demgem focused event.
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