On Monday, PPAI was honored with an excellence award for Impressive Pivot to Virtual in recognition of its 2021 Expo Direct-2-You virtual event held in January. Ellen Tucker, CAE, PPAI’s director of business development and expositions, and Bob McLean, CPA, CAE, CEM, PPAI’s executive vice president, accepted the award presented by Trade Show Executive magazine at CEIR Predict, an annual exhibition industry outlook conference held this year at MGM National Harbor, Maryland. The presentation highlighted the experiential components the Association successfully brought to the virtual show, along with impressive participation from attendees and exhibitors.

“While winning this award was a surprise to both Bob and me, it is not surprising that PPAI is being recognized for bringing experiential to life in the virtual world and that the successes from D2U have resulted in winning an award,” says Tucker.

PPAI Expo Direct-2-You was the industry’s first live, virtual event of its kind drawing more than 11,000 distributor attendees and 500 exhibitors over its four-day run. Working with its technology partner, SAGE, and long-time trade-show service provider, Freeman, Expo D2U included education sessions, live Q&A, pop-up events, gamification, networking lounges, social events and a live master of ceremonies.

CEIR, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, is a Dallas, Texas-based organization housing the world’s largest collection of primary, exhibition-related research studies.