Sponsor-supported walking challenges promote healthy activities and incentivize participants to explore the annual meeting.
TriStar is helping its association partners step up their annual meeting game with attendee walking challenges, sometimes called step challenges. These challenges not only incentivize participants to explore sessions and walk the exhibit hall, they also promote healthy choices — walking can help reduce the risk of heart disease, a timely topic as we celebrate National Heart Month in February.
In 2018, TriStar created, implemented and sold the first-ever annual meeting walking challenge at the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) Annual Meeting. To promote the challenge, we created a registration page on our sponsor-supported meeting news site (acrdailynewslive.org) and staffed an onsite support desk to help hundreds of attendees sign up.
After registering, participants synced their fitness trackers (including Fitbits, Apple watches, Garmin watches and the Apple Health app) with the sponsored walking challenge app. Each participant sported a walking challenge sticker — a fun conversation starter at the meeting.
Several “step booster” incentives kept participants engaged and motivated, including a free wristband at 10,000 steps and a gift card drawing when they hit 40,000 steps.
TriStar sold a sponsored leaderboard that was updated every 10 minutes, and the #walkACR hashtag also helped participants monitor their status while sharing the fun online.
The challenge winner took 152,281 steps and won complimentary registration to the 2019 annual meeting, but he wasn’t the only winner! During the four days of the friendly competition, ACR participants took 12.4 million steps.
In 2019, TriStar is debuting a walking challenge at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting and introducing a revamped Challenge the American Diabetes Association’s 79th Scientific Sessions.
Interested in a fun sponsorship opportunity that challenges attendees to stay active during your annual meeting? Let’s talk today.
