VisitPITTSBURGH's stand at IMEX America sat among hundreds of destination booths all competing for the same planners. Guests walked away with a printed trading card carrying their own AI portrait, Pittsburgh's pitch to event planners, and the city's NFL Draft sponsorship on the back.
Client: VisitPITTSBURGH
Event: IMEX America 2025
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Date: October 2025
The challenge: standing out on a show floor of destinations
IMEX America is one of the largest trade shows in the meetings and events industry, and a destination booth there is competing with hundreds of others selling the same thing. VisitPITTSBURGH wanted something that stopped people rather than something that looked busy, and it had to do four jobs at once:
- Reflect the city's creative, forward-leaning character rather than generic destination marketing.
- Carry VisitPITTSBURGH's campaign messaging and the stats event planners actually weigh.
- Produce shareable branded content on the spot.
- Tie back to the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, 23 to 25 April 2026.
IMEX was close, so there was no room for trial and error.
The solution: a collectible with the pitch printed on it
We built a custom AI trading card activation for the booth. A guest stepped up, had a photo taken, and got a printed card carrying their AI portrait in the VisitPITTSBURGH look. The template did the selling: campaign messaging and the reasons a planner should bring an event to the city, on an object the planner would keep. We built a custom theme tying the card to the city's NFL Draft sponsorship, and our Las Vegas crew ran the stand. The footprint was small.
The results
- Hundreds of trading cards created and shared across the show.
- Queues at the stand, and cards shared with colleagues and on social.
- Reach that continued online after the show closed.
- Cards that stay on desks, which is a longer life than any leaflet from that floor.
Why it worked
Every card was different, so it was worth keeping. The design carried a real argument rather than a logo: what Pittsburgh offers planners, the city of bridges, and the NFL Draft link. Setup was quick and generation was fast, which matters when the queue is the point. And guests left holding something they were happy to show people, which is how a destination pitch travels back to an office it was never presented in.
The format works across conference floors: Ondaro at ServiceNow Knowledge ran it in the same city, and Qlik's All-Star cards drove theirs from live leaderboard data.
