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FEBRUARY 2021 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 49 cover material. Would you recommend that as a good strategy for this virtual approach? Balonek: Oh, definitely! And the planner does also have that capability. e planner will also match attendees with exhibitors based on the demographics for each. Even the week of the live event, if an attendee attends a certain tech- nical conference session, it will match exhibi- tors that have complimentary products and services based on the subject matter and the content of that particular session. e same goes for the Professional Development courses. Johnson: Now that's interesting! You're helping me focus in on exactly who I should talk to, based on my technical program inter- ests. You're creating a more focused agenda just for me. I may know some of these companies, but other com- panies may be new to me. Balonek: Exactly. Also, if you're interested in a prod- uct, or looking at launching a new initiative within your company and you're not familiar with what com- panies offer products and services around that par- ticular topic, with this fea- ture they'll be right in front of you. We'll highlight that for the attendees, which we think is a really cool feature. Johnson: Interestingly enough, you're driving that exhibitor connection from the technical programs. A great way of connecting attendees with new exhibitors is for the attendees to get very involved in the technical programs. Balonek: Exactly. Similar to show floor traffic and just the casual passer-by stops by a booth, this is a virtual way of doing that now. Johnson: at's exactly what I'm picking up on as we talk about this. Networking is an impor- tant part of going to a show, what with your peers, vendors, potential customers, IPC staff- ers, and the like. We always come back from the shows having met somebody new as a col- league or a customer. How do you see that hap- pening in the virtual event? Balonek: We have a few events planned, which we participated in as a team and we had a lot of fun with them. We are planning on doing a vir- tual escape room, which attendees can join as a team. We also have a "name that tune" trivia event, and I don't mind saying that, when our team tested the game, I won. Johnson: I bet that was a lot of fun. Balonek: Yes. It definitely is a lot of fun! And it's moder- ated by a DJ. He did a great job engaging people and trying to get the conversa- tion going. All the conver- sations are done via the chat feature, which was fun as well. en, for those who want more of a subject matter type educational format, we are creating an event with IPC's Emerg- ing Engineers and our Hall of Fame members. We're calling this event "Forgotten Tribal Knowledge." We did a smaller version of this at one of our other events last year. ere's so much information which we can build on, as far as transferring information from one gener- ation to another, so this session strives to pass along working knowledge that is not found in textbooks or in training materials. We feel that is a great way to get people engaged with the industry and also with different representa- tives from the industry.