Senior strategist Caroline Lee went to GDC 2026 and came back with notes on how game developers design for players with arcs, not attendees with badges, and how much smarter experiential could be if we borrowed their tools.

A vendor takes your brief, builds your booth, sends an invoice, and wishes you luck. A partner is already thinking about your CES 2027 story right now.

At Natural Products Expo West, one thing becomes clear within the first ten minutes on the show floor: attention is the currency. With thousands of brands competing for the same buyers, retailers, and media, success comes down to who can stop you in the aisle—and keep you there long enough to create a memory.

Sport is no longer competing against the rival team. It's competing against everything: The bar for "worth it" has never been higher — and a lot of what's getting labeled as such isn't clearing it. There's a name for that. It's called innovation theater. And NSF made clear it's everywhere.