by Kerstan Szczepanski
The Las Vegas and SoCal chapters of the Experiential Designers and Producers Association (EDPA) joined together to hold their inaugural Skating and Hockey Extravaganza, sponsored by IPME, Creative Visual Solutions, and Elevation3D. At 5pm on Tuesday, March 28th, over 50 EDPA members and their families arrived at Las Vegas’ City National Arena (1550 S Pavilion Center Dr) to enjoy pizza, and games on the ice. At 7pm Team EDPA East and Team EDPA West played in what would be a victory for Team East. Those not on the ice could spectate rinkside and enjoy a Vegas Golden Knights watch party.
Gayle Wright, sales manager at IPME, and secretary of EDPALV explains the genesis of the event. “It all started with a conversation between Bill Hinchliff, Co-Founder CEO of IPME (and president of EDPA SoCal), Angie Johnson, Exec. Design Director – Freeman (and social media manager of EDPALV), and me at ExhibitorLIVE 2022. I wanted to introduce Bill to Angie, since I knew that they both loved the game of hockey.”
“I was proudly wearing my VGK gear,” Angie Johnson says, “Upon meeting Bill, the conversation steered to hockey and how we are both big fans of the sport.”
Teaming Up Made a Lot of Sense
“My dream was to hold the first ever EDPA hockey tournament,” Says Bill Hinchliff, who started the So Cal EDPA annual golf tournament at The Huntington Club in California, “I found that there is a huge hockey family in our industry. This could be much bigger than any golf tournament because everyone can participate.” Wright says, “Angie and I met with the Las Vegas board shortly after our meeting with Bill and presented the idea.” Josh Wolfe, account executive at beMatrix and vice president of EDPALV adds, “The Las Vegas and SoCal chapters geographically overlap. So teaming up made a lot of sense.”
“Bill is a master at building relationships,” Wright says. “His network was needed to find the people in our industry that would travel to Las Vegas to play in the tournament.” Hinchliff comments, “Members like Sean Clarke form CVS and Norm Friedrich from Octanorm didn’t hesitate to make the trip. Hockey players traveled from across the US and Canada to participate.”
Event Marked a Departure from the Usual
“IPME would be the main event sponsor, and supply the custom-made hockey jerseys, trophies, and skating instructors/scorekeeper/referees,” Gayle says, “Josh, Angie, Lorie Schlichting – Color Reflections (and membership/sponsorship EDPALV), Jen LeBruzza – Classic Exhibits (and EDPALV treasurer), the entire Las Vegas Board including Mike Sunseri – Display Supply & Lighting (and EDPALV president), Antonia Nuzzolo – Eagle Management (and EDPALV website manager), and volunteer Dave Gardner of Encore Productions, went to work securing the venue, food, making social media posts, arranging activities, ticketing, signage, thanking sponsors, and attendance.”
The event marked a departure from the usual for EDPA overall. Says Wright, “The gold standard is to host an annual golf tournament, an event that brings in the sponsors. However, golf tournaments appeal to a small minority of event professionals. Angie and I wanted to make this a family friendly event.”
“These family events allow the moms and dads of the industry to bring their kids and mingle,” Johnson says. “Meeting others helps to reinforce that there is a network of folks who do this for a living. Children make new friends, parents meet other parents that have the same interests and hobbies as themselves or their children. These kids are our future workforce and exposure to the industry earlier on is a total leg-up. Oftentimes people stumble into the live event industry, whereas learning about it from a younger age helps to build a support network and purposefully plan a career.”
Focused On Rebuilding Membership
Hinchliff says “The goal is to encourage anyone within the tradeshow and event space to come out and play or network at the event.” Wolfe underscores teaming up for the Las Vegas and SoCal chapters as beyond mere fun. “Both chapters are focused on rebuilding their membership base that was virtually wiped out (during the pandemic)” he says. “There are a lot of old and new faces in the industry that we want to bring into EDPA.”
Like Johnson, Wolfe would like to see the industry target prospects right at the beginning of their professional life. “There have been discussions about networking with local colleges to gain notice for EDPA, with the hope of attracting young talent to the industry.”
On the Forefront of Evolving
Wright comes at recruitment from the Las Vegas angle. “It makes sense that the EDPALV chapter should also be on the forefront of evolving. The days of ‘this is how it has always been done’ are over,” she stresses. “Our board members are advocates of The Future Workforce for the tradeshow industry. We would like to host more educational events focused on high school kids, and bring awareness of skill trades, exhibit design, event production, etc.” Wolfe agrees. “Being located at the center of the industry, it just makes sense for EDPALV to be one of the largest and most influential chapters. For anyone reading this article, join EDPALV!”
“We used to take pride in the fact that people outside of our industry had no idea what it takes to produce an event,” Wright points out, “but Covid changed that. It is critical that we bring awareness of the impact that live events have within our community.”
EDPALV and SoCal plan to split the proceeds from the event and donate to the Randy Foundation.
Photo Credits: Christy DiGiambattista
