AMERICAN ACADEMY OF OPHTHALMOLOGY

RESOURCE CENTER

BACKGROUND

The Resource Center is the Academy's booth at our annual meeting. This 110' x 110' booth comprises 18 kiosks where most divisions of the Academy are represented, including Member Services, the Foundation, Advocacy, Practice Management, Clinical Education, and Patient Education.

I've been in charge of marketing operations since 2011. I develop the strategy and oversee the implementation of tactical marketing plans to drive attendance and meet sales goals. This includes pre-, during-, and post-show communications, in-booth events, staff training, signage, demo stations and displays, sample inventory, and freight.

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CHALLENGE

To position the Resource Center as attendees' one-stop-shop for everything Academy; to increase customer satisfaction levels; to increase in-booth sales despite customers' increasing tendency to purchase products online.

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SOLUTION

Our Resource Center marketing collateral previously was minimal and had disparate looks that didn't relate to each other or to the annual meeting. I introduced more marketing vehicles along with design themes that tied all collateral together with one cohesive, clean look and drafted text with stronger calls to action. By making multiple events a regular part of our days, I created more reasons for attendees to visit the booth. And I increased the efficacy of staff training by increasing attention through humor, games, and flashcards. 

RESULTS

Before I was on the job, customer satisfaction ratings had been consistently between 60% and 83% for the four criteria we measure. I've led our 80+ staff to increase those ratings steadily every year; we now score between 90% and 95% in all four areas. Despite attendees' spending only 2 hours on the show floor, and purchasing more often online, our onsite sales hang on, and we've exceeded our sales goals by up to 29%.

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