With all the stress balls, lottery games, sweets, and other gimmicks that businesses use for their conference booths, sometimes the simplest idea works best.
Multigate (a medical products company) had an impressive booth at the ACORN 24 nurses conference. It did an amazing job of showcasing their products, as well as light entertainment from a magician and claw game. But they also included something else that was pretty special.
Multigate invited Bright Pilots to create an activation area, to invite delegates (perioperative nurses from around Australia) to stop, share their experiences, and talk about what would help them care for patients even better.
Turning conversations into pictures
My role was to listen alongside them, and then capture their thoughts and ideas on a large wall (as part of the booth) in a mix of words and pictures. Nothing complicated; a quick sentence here, an icon there.
One of the activation walls at the ACORN 26 conference, full of visualisations of ideas and feedback from nurses
Nurses had a lot to say. They spoke about the realities of working in operating theatres, about the pressures of time, safety, and staffing, and about the small things that make a big difference when they're caring for patients.
As the content on the wall grew throughout the day (actually over 2 days), delegates would come back to see their ideas visualised. They'd bring their colleagues over, point, take photos with their phones, and chat to one another.
The wall itself became part of a shared conversation, which was just absolutely magic to see.
Listening as a practice
Two of Multigate’s values are actually Curiosity and Understanding, so this graphic recording activation area was a perfect demonstration of the investment they make into their customers. This means not just hearing feedback, but genuinely taking the time to understand the people using their products and services.
Nurses could either chat to me, or write their thoughts and ideas on sticky notes
I personally found that super fulfilling. Delegates weren’t being surveyed, or being sold to. They were genuinely being heard, and we all know how valuable that can be. And the wall of drawings became a visible signal of that listening-as-practice. Every contribution mattered enough to be captured.
Multigate wins Best Exhibitor Booth award
Later, Multigate received the Best Exhibitor Booth award, voted by conference delegates!
“Congratulations on winning best exhibitor stand, it was a fantastic display and showcase of product, the delegates loved it!!”
- Sarah Wylie, ACORN Community Engagement
I’d like to think my scribing played a small role in that win, not because it's novel or flashy or artistic, but because it made the booth feel different. Delegates could see that Multigate was paying attention to them, and that's powerful.
Graphic recording looks like it's all about the visuals, but it is fundamentally about listening. Listening carefully enough, and attending to people carefully enough, to distil their words and experiences into meaningful words and images. So, working with a company like Multigate that explicitly values listening felt like such an amazing and natural fit.
The full graphics of the two activation walls
Congratulations to the Multigate team on their well-deserved recognition at ACORN 24! And thank you for inviting me to be part of the experience.
Bring this kind of listening to your booth
If you're planning a conference booth and want to create genuine engagement with your audience, graphic recording can turn delegate conversations into something visible, memorable, and shareable.
Instead of just talking at delegates (and hoping they take the stress balls and business cards), you can listen with them, and show that listening on the wall.
If you'd like to create the same kind of interactive experience at your next conference, get in touch. I’d love to help bring your audience’s ideas to life.