NACA Live Recap 2023

We had a great time in Louisville this past week! Aside from having mother nature sidetrack some plans to leave on Wednesday from those of us in the upper Midwest, it was an incredible conference for connections, new ideas and fun! If you stopped by the booth to grab a critter, say hi to agents Sue and Chris, or snap a photo with our showcasing artists Dare to Speak or Radius, it was great to see you! If you didn’t have a chance to make it to the booth, drop us a line and let us know your favorite memory from Louisville!

With the new schedule in place, we took some time to set up the booth on Saturday and then enjoyed the Foundation Fundraising Trivia Competition. While our team, Split Commission (made up of agents from 4 different agencies) didn’t take home any trophies, we did dominate the Girl Scout Cookie Category… and that has to count for something!

Carlos Andrés Gómez & Katie Kramer of Dare to Speak showcased Sunday, 2/19 at NACA Live.

Sunday kicked off the selected showcases and we were so excited to see our DEIA powerhouse, Dare to Speak, on stage. Katie and Carlos have years of performing under their belt and come to campus ready to curate an experience just for you. When booking Dare to Speak, you not only get an incredible poetry show by two of the best in the business, but you also get to choose 2 workshops delivered by Katie and Carlos prior to the show.  This is a great opportunity to co-program with other groups on campus! If you only have a budget for one poet, you can certainly book them individually as well.

Radius a cappella group showcased on Tuesday, 2/21 at NACA Live.

While we are on the topic of showcases, let’s talk about our new a cappella group, Radius! These fine folks are based in Chicago, so if you are within 6 hours, we can certainly talk about price as they won’t have to fly to get to you. If it’s been a bit since you’ve done a cappella, it’s perfect for Family Weekends, Sibs Weekends, Homecomings and any other big events where you have a wide variety of audience members. Another cool note – Radius is fresh out of college themselves and would love to have your a cappella group open for them!

Our booth had even more fun to check out. Sunday was a madhouse as so many of you stopped by to grab a U-Stuff-It critter! It looked like the crowd favorites were the moose, sloth, dogs and giraffe. We know so many of you host these types of events on campus and we’d love to get you a price for what we can provide! In addition to the critters, we offer custom pillows, emoji pillows, and themed pillows like Harry Potter, Pride, and more.

Our Make and Takes don’t stop at U-Stuff-It, we also offer Word Art Kits, String Art Kits and Vision Board kits for students to enjoy. If you run into a bit of a surplus at the end of the year (it can happen), let us know and we would love to ship out some additional kits for you to keep on hand for when a performer cancels or you simply want to enhance one of your current events.

We had magician Daniel Martin in the booth blowing minds with his tricks and many stopped by to say hi and take a selfie with comedian Jacob Williams from Wild ‘N Out! Both still have limited dates available this spring and are looking to fall bookings.

Record-A-Hit, our novelty partner, was also in the booth with their 360 Photo booth that SO MANY of you enjoyed. We have all of the photos so if you didn’t get yours, just let us know!  Additionally, Record-A-Hit had the rink in the back of Marketplace, so clearly they have a lot of options to offer. Give us a call and we can link you up with Rob and Dipesh to plan out a REALLY fun event!

Our agent Sue had the honor of presenting once again with our friends, Melissa Beer from Rebelle Events and Jolene Chevalier from How To Concerts. The Women in Business and Leadership Ed Session has been around since 2020 and keeps getting better with age. A HUGE shout out to the packed room of queens supporting queens – thank you for your energy.

There is always a night or two where we get to sneak away for a meal to catch up with those we know and love because of NACA. Louisville was no different!  Despite the many suggestions on “must-see” spots from our Lyft driver on the way out of town, we visited everyone’s favorite troll under the bridge and took our pictures with the World’s Largest Baseball Bat.

And Finally, agent Scott Bass was presented with the NACA Campus Legend Award on Tuesday at the Volunteer Reception. His business partner of 25+ years, Chris Schuler, accepted it on his behalf.

If you’ll be in St. Paul in a few weeks, we can’t wait to see you there! In the meantime, we are ready and waiting to help with those calendars. Drop us a line and let us help you to make it an easy lift!

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