Event marketing company transfers experience to save lives

The US-based event marketing company Hamilton has been recognised by the Experiential Designers and Producers Association (EDPA) with an EDDIE Award, due partly to its effort in creating a platform capable of delivering more than 200,000 vaccines.The award was formally presented at the annual ACCESS Conference 1 December. The 2021 EDPA EDDIE award for Best Industry Pivot recognised Hamilton for its internal innovation during a time when traditional external events were largely shut down. Hamilton drew on its corporate culture of stepping in and adapting the skills of its professional event staff to create multiple complex mass Covid-19 vaccination events. Jason Weddle, CEO of Hamilton, said: “Being named for this award was most unusual and humbling as Hamilton was privileged to be selected to support a high-intensity state-wide (Indiana) effort that helped save thousands of lives and helped keep people out of emergency rooms and hospitals. Given the wide array of weather, logistical and supply issues that we faced, we received several positive comments from federal and state officials for doing whatever it takes to deliver these life-saving vaccines.” Hamilton supported multiple Indiana mass and mobile vaccine sites at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the University of Notre Dame, Gary (a FEMA site), the IVY Tech campus in Sellersburg, and several mobile sites across Indiana. Hamilton leveraged its staff expertise and long-time networks of vendors to plan and assemble each of the sites. Special tents, command centres, electrical and heat facilities and more were all erected at each site. Weddle added: “For each of these sites, our deep experience paid off through extensive rollout of the vaccination events—which, apart from the urgency and its life-saving focus—in many ways resembled traditional high-end event management, including installation of tents, rentals, transportation, traffic cones, and the labour necessary to direct and control traffic.” To learn more about Hamilton’s vaccination events, please click here.