Every year, the Nextep Sales Rally gets bigger, and this year was the best one yet. For the past two years, we’ve hosted this multi-day corporate sales rally at Omni Frisco Hotel at The Star, and looking back at how the company has grown has been immensely rewarding for our team.

As Nextep has grown, so has the trust they place in us. What started with a smaller scope has expanded into full event management: the run of show, rooming lists for attendees, and the entire awards ceremony. As a corporate event planner in Dallas-Fort Worth, there’s no better compliment than a client handing over more each year, especially for a corporate sales rally that keeps getting bigger.

The sales rally is the centerpiece, but the experience is built from many moments happening before, during, and after it. Here’s how the schedule came together.

• Executive meeting: A separate meeting for Nextep’s executive team
• VIP happy hour: An exclusive gathering for everyone who earned President’s Club.
• Welcome happy hour: A relaxed kickoff for all other attendees, held the night before Rally officially began.
• Rally: Their general session, with keynotes, sessions, and plenty of surprises.
• Awards ceremony and dinner: A celebration to recognize top performers and wrap up the main program.
• Closing day: Rally concluded the following day.

The general session of a corporate sales rally needs to look as big as the moment feels, so we went all in on production.

• 140 feet of projection mapping that transformed the room
• Audio Visual: We had two 7’x12′ video walls that flanked a larger main video screen, with all the lights imaginable
• A 48-foot glossy white stage, raised 2 feet, that gave the whole room a clean, modern look

The rally opened with a surprise performance from the Rhythm & Blue dancers, which set the energy for everything that followed. We ended on a high note with an announcement that got everyone talking: next year’s President’s Club will be in Hawaii. Attendees left with something big to work toward, and we’re already deep into planning.

When the CEO took the stage, cold sparks went off during the speech, adding a moment of drama that made a big keynote feel even bigger. Cold sparks are a favorite of ours for corporate events because they add impact without heat or smoke, so they’re safe for indoor ballrooms.

Events like this succeed on the details guests never see: timelines, run-of-shows, room blocks, vendor schedules, and an awards ceremony that runs smoothly from the first name called to the last. That’s the part of the job we thrive in, and it lets the client and their team enjoy the experience.

Between the end of the corporate sales rally program and the start of the gala, we had just 1.5 hours to completely flip the space. It was all hands on deck as our team and vendor partners transformed the room and built out a massive cocktail hour, complete with photo ops and vertical screens. It was a real challenge, and one of the most rewarding moments of the whole event. When guests walked in and the room was ready, and did it feel SO good to see open mouths from how the room was unrecognizable!

We closed the rally with an announcement that got everyone talking: next year’s President’s Club will be in Hawaii. Attendees left with something big to work toward, and we’re already deep into planning. Stay tuned for more on that!