This article originally ran in BizBash, a sister media outlet to MeetingsNet.
The first Tuesday in November—a.k.a. Election Day—can bring distractions at business events taking place around that time. After all, every conference or show is designed to grab and hold the attention of attendees for a few days, but with politics top of mind it becomes easy for on-site conversations to gravitiate towards issues that can cause tension and dampen the atmosphere.
Of course, the show must go on even when an especially divisive presidential election is happening. It's a reality that organizers of the SEMA Show, which takes place November 5 to 8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, know well. Planners for the Specialty Equipment Market Association's annual trade show, which centers on the specialty automotive parts industry, realized early on that the 2024 show's overlap with the election could cause stress among attendees.
In response, the team decided to launch the #DriveTheVote initiative, notes Karen Bailey-Chapman, SEMA’s senior vice president for public and government affairs. "Drive The Vote provides our members with information on how to vote early and provides materials for our members to share with their employees, including the vote records and positions on how candidates stand on the issues important to the industry," she explains.
During the show, SEMA's political action committee, SEMA & PRI PAC, will host a watch party on election night for donors. "The SEMA government affairs team will also host an education session on how the election outcomes will impact the industry going forward, in addition to a media briefing with industry press," Bailey-Chapman says.
The team at Kansas City, Mo.-based event production agency Platinum XP is addressing the presidential contest head-on at a conference happening over Election Day that will draw more than 1,000 attendees from the construction industry to San Antonio. "From the start of site sourcing and selecting [the early-November] week to host the conference, we wanted to be extra cautious regarding the election and activities/speakers we planned around it," notes Whitney Butler, Platinum XP's vice president of planning and business development.
The team opted to book a comedian to entertain guests during a hosted dinner on election night—and they've told the performer not to base his content around politics or the election. "He understands the goal is to keep it light and relieve some tension with comedy outside of politics," Butler says.
The next morning, the conference will host a session centered on the election results and what they mean for the construction industry. "This will include a moderator and two panelists from within the industry who will provide insight on the expected outcomes to the audience," Butler explains. "From a business standpoint, since our audience is all from the same industry and the majority of them will be affected similarly by the results, we expect this to be a very helpful and engaging discussion."
The session will include a live Q&A, Butler adds, and the moderator is being prepped on how to avoid or defuse any inappropriate questions that might create tension in the audience.
