Event Branding: National Restaurant Association – The Table

About Project

The Opportunity
The National Restaurant Association is the largest foodservice trade association in the world. It connects restaurant industry owners and experts to learn, share, and network with their peers.
The team reached out to 360 Live Media for help with an exciting challenge. For the first time, the organization was planning to bring together four separate expert groups to network and learn across their specialty areas. The event had to feel different than anything the National Restaurant Association had done before, and it had to be fully ready to launch in two months. This meant not only identifying the common issues shared across the expert
groups in food safety/quality assurance; tax, finance, and internal audit; sustainability; and nutrition but also developing a program with intentional connection formats and plenty of fun, wrapped in an unforgettable experience.
This new event also needed to stand out in a crowded landscape and reflect that National Restaurant Association is the place where the industry gathers for best practices, up-to-the-moment trends information, and policy updates.
The 360 Live Media Approach
360 Live Media led the National Restaurant Association through strategic planning, brand development, and experience design to create an event that would capture the audience’s interest.
Event Strategy
Through a series of quick working sessions, 360 Live Media helped the team align around the vision, positioning, and unique value proposition for the event. The key strategies for success were indispensable content, including collaborative formats, and an irresistible experience with plenty of surprise and delight. Unlike a traditional conference, the strategy leaned into the benefit of bringing a cross-functional audience together to share insights and lessons learned. This required a holistic curriculum development approach to align participants around macro challenges, that were woven through the event discussions and collaborative learning.
Brand Development
The new event required a catchy name and standout brand to align with the new value proposition. This event is about gathering the full industry around common issues and challenges, and coming together to learn, share, and be nourished. “The Table” was born from this concept and a brand style guide was delivered, including logos and design templates, as well as visual and copy direction for bringing the brand to life.
Experience Design
The design concept was to celebrate the industry by framing the event through the lens of a restaurant. With a fast-paced agenda, buzzy sessions, and intentional connection moments, the table was set for success. From being greeted by staff members dressed as servers (complete with branded aprons); to theming the general session room in different restaurant styles; to framing the exhibits as a community Marketplace; the experience created a cohesive platform for unifying a fragmented audience. In addition, this created numerous new sponsorship opportunities to drive new revenue.
The Results
At 360 Live Media, delivering exceptional results for our clients is at the core of everything we do. Our proprietary 6 Rs framework—Reach, Retention, Relevance, Reputation, Revenue and ROI—serves as the lens through which we evaluate the impact of our work.
Relevance. The event was intentionally designed for networking across specialty areas and 85% of the attendees rated this as the most valuable part of the event.
Reach. National Restaurant Association hit their goal of capturing the fractured audience from the small events, uniting 200 people and more than 70 different brands at one event.
Reputation. The audience rated The Table an NPS score of +83, well above industry averages, especially for a first-time event.
Retention. 95% of the attendees indicated they plan to return to next year’s event.
What Our Client Says
“360 Live Media aligned us around a vision, designed an experience blueprint, developed a compelling name and brand, and all within the space of 7 weeks. The outcome was a compelling event that brought our audience together and new ways of thinking around how we deliver events.”
Michelle Korsmo, Chief Executive Officer