Behind the Curtain: Sea-Air-Space

In this peek behind the curtain we look at the work that goes into the planning and execution of the Sea-Air-Space event, the largest maritime exhibition in the United States. The exposition is produced by the Navy League, a non-profit organization designed to communicate the challenges and successes of the U.S. sea service to the American public and government at large. This event has become a key platform for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard to interact with each other as well as the private sector.[Tweet "A look at what goes into planning the Sea-Air-Space event. #GovEventsBlog #SAS16"]

This year's event takes place May 16-18 at the Gaylord National Convention center just outside Washington, DC. We spoke with Kevin J. Traver, Staff Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Membership with the Navy League of the United States, about what goes into planning a show of this scale and what trends are shaping the content and delivery of information to our maritime forces.

Q: What impact have the shifts in training and travel budgets had on your event?

There has been a shift away from the hard restrictions to travel and training requests. With a few years of strong cut backs in these areas, I think government has seen, more than ever before, the value in gathering in large groups and having discussions. They see how this powers the innovation that is being called for across government.

We were "lucky" in that the majority of our audience is within an easy day trip to DC so we did not see a huge impact in attendance numbers. We do see that people are able to get approval easier and earlier than in recent years. Also, being an official non-profit of the Navy we are able to provide this event free of charge to government. This includes any exhibit space that government organizations want to use. We have also increased our bussing from various locations around the DC region. Attendees can hop on a bus in Quantico, Mechanicsburg, and the Pentagon (among others) making it easy for people to get to the event.[Tweet "As an official non-profit of the #Navy, Sea Air Space event is free for Government. #GovEventsBlog"]

Q: Are you hearing any new requests/expectations from attendees? Exhibitors?

Our goal is to be the discussion platform for the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard so they drive the content year in and year out. There has been a big push in recent years to get a more international audience. We'll have up to 21 international delegations attending and participating this year. Last year that included ten heads of Navy internationally.

Q: What is the most challenging aspect of planning your show? How do you make it work?

As a non-profit we do not have a monster staff. We have to be thoughtful about how much we do in one year. If we do something we want it to be a homerun. With that said, we pack a lot into the three day schedule to meet the needs and requests of the flag officers.

Q: How are you integrating social media into your event?

Social has been a huge focus for us. Three years ago we had 127 followers on our Facebook page. We now have over 10,000 across the Navy League and the Sea-Air-Space pages. We made a big investment working with outside companies to get a strategy in place and plan our content. We have a social media wall at the show for people to track the online conversation. Through all this work, each year we see registrations via social media climb. At the show, we do over 150 quick one question interviews with speakers and attendees and we can use that content throughout the year to keep our social feeds fresh and relevant.

This year we'll be using an app during three of our roundtables to drive questions to the moderators. We're hoping to expand that in future years after we see how it goes in this year's roll out.

Even with the success we've had, mobile and social can be a challenge with our audience as many of them cannot download or access apps on their DoD issued devices so you need to earn a spot on their personal devices.

Q: What is your perspective on hybrid events? Virtual events?

This year we will live stream our keynotes and major panels through a partnership with Defense One. We're hoping this helps us reach beyond the beltway and engage a larger audience. It also has great potential to engage the international audience that is so important to our officers.

Q: What was your greatest success from last year's show?

Last year was the first year we did the International Leadership Panel. The challenge was to get chiefs of Naval operations to agree to be on a panel with heads of Navy from across the world.  We invited 12 people and 10 were able to come and speak. What resulted was a great discussion of global maritime policy and how political issues in certain regions impact policies across the globe.

Q: What are you most excited about for this year's event?

First, and very timely, is the new information warfare pavilion on the tradeshow floor. This brings together all Navy commands engaged in cyber warfare including  the tenth fleet. The pavilion brings together warfighters, acquisition, and policy individuals all in one place.[Tweet "New at @SeaAirSpace 2016: Information Warfare Pavilion. #GovEventsBlog"]

Second, this year we are co-locating the Navy Forum for SBIR/STTR Transition, more commonly known as the Navy Opportunity Forum, with our show. This event helps introduce small businesses into the Navy and educate them on how best to do business with the DoD. They could not get approval to do the event (going back to the tighter budgets question) in time to reserve hotel space in DC so we asked the Gaylord if we could have some extra space as part of our show. They gave it to us free of charge so we're saving the Navy $125,000/year by holding the two shows concurrently.

Traver promised some exciting things are coming in 2017 and beyond so make sure you get to the exposition this year to get the first peek. For more details on this show and others like it check out GovEvents.