With 50,000 attendees, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) can seem as congested and blaring as Black Friday at the Mall of America. To create an inviting refuge from the show's typical rumpus, National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) and 2020 Exhibits Inc. built a 4,000-square-foot booth designed to appeal to current clients, prospects, and VIPs on a more personal level. NOV, a provider of oil- and gas-drilling equipment and components, eschewed the huge machinery it usually highlighted at the show and instead offered a quieter self-paced experience focused on messaging.

Once inside the exhibit, attendees could approach the 20-by-6-foot LED Activation Wall. Here, visitors stepped up to any of five sets of footprints on the wood floor over which descriptive headings were written in a cursive script, such as "sustainable future," "maximize returns," and "quality wellbores." If guests placed their feet on the footprints beneath, for example, "sustainable future," the wall's motion sensor activated and played a short video about that topic. To explore other subjects, attendees simply shuffled over to the next set of footprints, after which the wall ran another brief video.

From the self-paced Activation Wall, guests moved to any of half a dozen learning stations set in handsome frames of plywood and laminate. Visitors donned wireless Bose Corp. headphones that dampened the din of the show floor and then embarked on another self-guided tour of many NOV products. Once attendees wrapped up at the stations, they could relax in the hospitality space whose plywood/laminate countertop and tables and low-hanging overhead beams effected the intimate ambiance of a chill Seattle coffee bar. Staffers invited A-ranked leads to convene in the tranquil VIP lounge, where the mid-century-modern environment seemed more "Mad Men" than meeting room. NOV's booth drew in hundreds of attendees with activities that guests controlled at their own speed and a space that gushed with calm instead of clamor.E