Gold Circle Award

BOMA Georgia was recognized by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) with a Gold Circle Award in the Sponsorship/Exhibits/Advertising Promotion category in 2021. ASAE’s Gold Circle Awards program was created to recognize creativity and innovation in marketing, membership, and communications.

BOMA Georgia earned the recognition for its transition from producing an in-person trade show in 2020 to a virtual “Enhanced Exposure Experience,” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Below are excerpts from the awards submission:

In a year where a global pandemic interrupted many associations’ ability to conduct in-person trade shows, BOMA Georgia launched an innovative idea to protect one of the organization’s most substantial non-dues revenue generators and member connection experiences. The BOMA Show Enhanced Exposure Experience was created with the goal of facilitating meaningful business connections between BOMA Georgia’s property management professional members and the vendors and service providers who still sought to maintain and establish new client relationships, all while protecting the association from substantial net revenue loss occurring from the inability to conduct an in-person trade show legally and safely.

The Enhanced Exposure Experience was an opt-in program for those exhibitors that had already registered to exhibit in the association’s annual trade show. Companies could choose to opt out of the experience and receive a full refund or credit for the cost of their trade show booth; however, those companies that chose to opt-in were provided with a package of exposure opportunities that provided significant exposure for their organization in a time where many opportunities were non-existent.

To effectively communicate and promote this opportunity to exhibitors, BOMA Georgia created the BOMA Show Enhanced Exposure Experience Sales Kit that communicated the terms and benefits of this new opportunity which resulted in 78 of the 184 companies originally registered to exhibit at the in-person trade show opting in to the BOMA Show Enhanced Exposure Experience, making it the largest virtual trade show produced by any BOMA in the United States in 2020.

The 78 companies that participated also benefitted from exposure to readers of the Guide to Building Operations, Management and Finance in the New Normal, which also featured 11 advertisers. All 78 participants also received a premier or premium listing on the association’s managed CRE Insight Journal Marketplace website.

Furthermore, more than 75 percent of BOMA Show Enhanced Exposure Experience participants completed the presale to participate in the 2021 in-person trade show.