BizBash Live: The Expo South Florida 2014

By: Kim Choy

Ahh! South Florida – the happiest and most relaxing place on earth (and with the best shopping!)  What better place to hold a conference?    Urszula (our WPIC intern) and I attended the BizBash Live: The Expo, South Florida last week on behalf of WPIC.   I had been to this conference once before, but this was Urszula’s first time (and first time in Fort Lauderdale).

On the day before the conference, we attended the pre-party at Stache, a 1920’s drinking den themed bar and venue just off of the famous and gorgeous East Las Olas Blvd.   This is such a super cool venue for any type of event – smaller weddings looking for a hip-one-of-a-kind-venue, corporate parties, bachelor and bachelorette parties etc!  On the regular they host live entertainment, burlesque shows and bands!

After a night on the town in Fort Lauderdale (aka shopping at multiple Ross Stores) we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest for the conference the next day.  This is what we woke up to from our hotel balcony.  We stayed at the W Fort Lauderdale – such a trendy hotel with great service!

The conference took place at the Broward Country Convention Center.  After checking-in at registration, we were greeted with some pastries and coffee and invited to sit in the beautifully decorated lounges spread throughout the conference centre.  I love how they were able to make it look like the lounges belonged there, neither one of them seemed to be out of place – especially the decorative book shelves! These chocolates were to die for!  Bedazzle My Bonbons is a company that incorporates two of my favourite things: chocolate and glitter!  How stunning are these?  The glitter coating on the outside of the truffle is 100% edible.  The great news?  They ship to Canada – or anywhere in the world!! How cool is this?  Mix on Wheels has a variety of vehicles with totally blank outside canvases to customize with your own event logos and hastags and provide their own power.  Whether you’re having an event on the beach, in a field, or in a ballroom, Mix on Wheels can be your WOW for guests! Fotoboyz Photo Booth is one of the most interactive photo booths I’ve ever seen, the outside of the booth can be totally customizable to your event, as well as the print off.  Once you select your props inside the booth, you get to the select the character/personality of the computer taking your photos.   We selected Fabreeze, a flamboyant Italian photographer!  The machine started to blow air at us to get our hair blowing, we were instructed to strike 8 different poses and it was printed out immediately!

Here’s a sample of our photographer, Fabreeze instructing us through the various poses.

Being from Canada and in 80*F weather, of course we had to jump into the snow globe, provided by Vertical Reality.

BizBash has the seminars set up really well, where they deliver a variety of topics and speakers to you, but you never have to pick between topics, you get to see them all!    The attendees for the Event Innovation Forum were able to experience 8 different seminars, including a networking lunch, without missing a single topic – they happen one after another in the same room!