(Pictured above L-R: EDPA Ambassador of the Year Mike Boone with Dave Flory; all photos by Padgett and Company)
by Pat Friedlander
How do you celebrate 65 years of growth, change and adaptation to the face-to-face marketing environment? The Experiential Designers & Producers Association (EDPA) did it with unrivaled networking, top-drawer education and fireworks.
At ACCESS 2019, held the week after Thanksgiving at the J.W. Marriott at Starr Pass, the group helped the EDPA Foundation reach its million-dollar endowment goal, applauded CeCealia Schultz, a student at Bemidji State, for winning the 2019 EDPA EuroShop Exhibit Competition, and embraced the initiative, headed by Chris Griffin, president, TS CREW, to develop a new generation of skilled talent for the industry.
The two education tracks, management and design, elicited answers to the question: What’s your formula? Sessions were both educational and interactive, encouraging extensive aud
ience participation. General sessions focused on business and personal development as well as sales initiatives.
The highlight of the meeting was announcing the EDPA presidency of Amy Yag-Sondrup, president, Access TCA, as well as the winners of the EDPA awards: the Hazel Hays award to Robert Laarhoven (pictured left), president, beMatrix USA; the Ambassador of the Year award went to Mike Boone of Coastal International and Stephanie Pheneger of Skyline was named the Designer of the Year award, while CeCealia Schultz won the Student Design Competition.
The 2019 Eddie Awards went to the following companies:
- Best Large Exhibit & Best End-To-End Campaign: Derse
- Best Small Exhibit, Access TCA
- Best Multimedia Campaign, Acer Exhibits and Events
- Best Print Media (Idea International)
- Best International Collaboration, a new category, Idea International and Hill & Partners.
Two EDPA chapters took home “best of” awards: the Midwest chapter won for large chapter, while the Northeast chapter won for small chapter (pictured left).
Attendees from across all segments of the industry returned to their businesses with the question, “What’s your formula?” challenging them to find their own answers.
This story originally appeared in the January/February issue of Exhibit City News, p. 68. For original layout, visit https://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/exhibitcitynews_janfeb_2020
