Just short of a year ago Destination South Meetings & Events had the honor of producing the inaugural Atlanta Science Festival Exploration Expo. This was part of Atlanta’s first ever festival of it’s kind and a week-long celebration of local science and technology which involved schools (Emory & Georgia Tech) and 80+ community groups, museums, and businesses. The event was held primarily in the heart of Downtown Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Destination South was elated to be a part of making the inaugural Exploration Expo a success – such a success that at the annual 2015 Association of Destination Management Executives International (ADMEI) conference, held in Cabo, Mexico this past February, Destination South was awarded the 2015 Achievement Award for “BEST PUBLIC EVENT!”

Over 30,000 curious minds of all ages enjoyed a multitude of activities scheduled throughout the week. Fifty different venues hosted activities, including the Georgia World Congress Center which held an imagination-expanding family science carnival. Experts from their specific science or technology fields were in attendance, uncovering mysteries and explaining discoveries in a variety of hands-on activities, facility tours and riveting presentations. It was exciting to see how activities cultivated new science enthusiasts for future generations right before your eyes! We love that this event placed a spotlight on Metro Atlanta as a national and international innovation leader – inspiring individuals to be more aware of the science & technology industry in our region.

In producing the expo event, Destination South was faced with inclement weather challenges and many activities had to move from Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park indoors unexpectedly to the Georgia World Congress Center. With approximately 72 hours of warning the Destination South team successfully coordinated major setup and location changes. During those hectic days of change we productively accomplished the following: created a brand new floor plan and load-in schedule, made multiple changes with vendors, informed all exhibitors of the new plan, produced new signage and implemented the “change in location” media campaign. Additionally, we trained a large volunteer base – many who were first timers as event staffers. Reaching back from our 20 years of experience in the industry, we successfully achieved all goals and exceeded many others. Participant expectations for the event was set at 5,000…participants showed up six fold, with 30,000 participants over the week in this inaugural year! An estimated 200 million impressions were made via social media outlets, television, radio and press releases. The success of this 2014 event certainly built a growing anticipation for the upcoming 2015 festival which will be held in Downtown Atlanta, March 21-28th. Bigger and better this year – we hope to see you there!