The challenge
A high-demand sponsor activation had to serve a room full of the busiest people at the show without letting the wait overshadow the gift.
- Protecting the hosted buyer’s schedule. Hosted buyers are booked into tightly scheduled 1:1 appointments across the event. A physical line for the gifting suite competed directly with that schedule, and past waits toward two hours pushed buyers to skip the experience rather than lose floor time.
- Keeping it a gifting experience, not a waiting experience. The suite was Visit Anaheim’s brand moment. A long, static line risked making the wait the takeaway instead of the personalized gift and the sponsor behind it.
- Moving volume across 20-plus kiosks. More than 900 hosted buyers personalizing and drop-shipping custom merch across 20-plus kiosks needed orderly flow so the suite kept moving and staff could focus on the gifting, not on crowd control.
The solution
NextMe gave the suite a way to hold its place in a guest’s day without holding the guest in place, pairing waitlist management and a branded virtual waiting room with self check-in guests could complete from Informa’s ConnectMe app.
- A virtual queue that freed the guest. Hosted buyers joined the virtual queue right from Informa’s ConnectMe app and timed their arrival close to their turn, VIP-style, rather than standing and waiting. They still checked in when they got the notification to head back, but the line they returned to was shorter and much more tolerable. Live position updates and simple proximity cues, be nearby when you are up soon, stay within a short walk as you get close, kept the timing easy, and the physical line stayed short and visible on purpose while everyone else waited virtually through self check-in.
- A branded waiting room as the wait itself. The Visit Anaheim virtual waiting room turned idle time into brand time. Guests were prompted to pick their product before arriving, previewed gift options, and tapped through to Visit Anaheim and Informa content, so the wait window did the sponsor’s work instead of testing the guest’s patience.
- One clear view across the suite. With the full queue in a single view, staff kept 20-plus kiosks flowing and stayed focused on personalizing and drop-shipping orders rather than managing a crowd at the entrance.
The results
The suite served a full room of hosted buyers while turning the wait into engagement.
- Served over 900 hosted buyers. NextMe kept the gifting suite moving across the run of the event, checking in and serving over 900 guests without the two-hour lines the format used to create.
- Retained 84% of guests. A simple join-and-return flow kept guests engaged from the moment they joined to the moment they were served, with 84% net retention across the activation.
- Turned the wait into brand engagement. Over 600 unique guests spent time in the Visit Anaheim waiting room, averaging nearly three minutes of active engagement each and more than 27 hours combined, with nearly 700 taps to preview their gift. Instead of standing in a line, guests spent that time with the sponsor’s brand.
“The virtual queue was great. I really appreciated the opportunity to go see some other booths, get some other things done, do some networking, all the while knowing I had a place in line.”
