Taking CGA’s annual meeting from expected to memorable.
CGA’s Annual Meeting had long served an important purpose: bringing representatives from member companies across the compressed gas industry together for meetings, technical exchange, networking and recognition. For CGA24, the organization wanted something more.
The direction to HDG was simple: make it great.
With six months from planning through onsite execution, HDG took responsibility for rethinking the conference experience—bringing the creative ideas, event expertise, management systems and production partners needed to transform a familiar annual meeting into four days of intentional interactions, hospitality, entertainment and memorable experiences.
Rather than simply producing what CGA had done before, we showed them what the event could become.
Creating the experience—and making it happen
By the time HDG stepped in, four months of the normal planning window were already gone, leaving us six months to rethink and deliver an event that would typically require 10–12.
There was no prescribed theme, experience plan or list of events waiting for us. HDG developed the concepts, presented and sold them into CGA leadership, refined them through approval, then built the budgets, schedules and operational plans required to make them real.
We approached CGA24 as one complete attendee journey—from promotion and arrival through meetings, networking, hospitality, social experiences and the closing celebration.
The conference message, “Setting the Standards for Today and Beyond,” connected CGA’s role within the compressed gas industry to a more forward-looking annual experience. HDG carried that idea through communications, signage, staging, apparel, giveaways, sponsor environments and onsite graphics.
But the branded environment was only one part of the assignment.
HDG managed food and beverage, hotel coordination, budgets, vendors, trades, entertainment, transportation, golf, hospitality, seating and lounges, registration environments, décor, activity areas, setup, teardown and real-time onsite needs.
Six months. A 10–12 month job. One chance to get it right. We invested where it would make the greatest difference—delivering the polish and attendee experience of a much larger corporate conference without requiring a Fortune 500 budget.
More than conference management
Creating the ideas was only the beginning. HDG also managed what it took to deliver them.
CGA24 was held at New Orleans’ historic Hotel Monteleone—a distinctive venue with real space limitations for a modern conference. HDG had no advance walkthrough, so planning was built from photography, floor plans and room information.
Rather than let the venue define the limits of the experience, we rethought how the space could work.
Our team coordinated directly with the hotel, venues, vendors, tradespeople, entertainment partners and transportation providers while managing schedules, budgets, approvals, production and onsite execution.
Food and beverage was planned across the full conference program—from everyday hospitality and lunches to board functions, networking dinners and special events. HDG managed the F&B budget with the hotel, investing where it would improve the attendee experience and finding efficiencies where it would not.
We also coordinated event environments, seating and lounges, signage placement, activity areas, registration, décor, apparel, giveaways, transportation, golf, entertainment, setup, teardown and the constant onsite needs of a multi-day conference.
The result was a level of attention, polish and experience more commonly associated with much larger corporate events—delivered by working smarter within the space and budget, not simply spending more.
Making New Orleans part of the conference
HDG wanted attendees to experience more than the inside of a meeting hotel.
New Orleans became part of the event itself.
We worked with local vendors, tradespeople, entertainment partners and transportation providers to build destination-specific experiences into the conference—from a transformed hotel event space and Night in New Orleans party to an after party, golf at TPC Louisiana and a planned second-line-style procession that brought attendees into the surrounding streets.
Each experience required its own logistics, hospitality, entertainment and production planning, but all were managed as part of one coordinated attendee journey.
The result was not simply more activity. It created opportunities for CGA members to connect differently—with the organization, with one another and with the city hosting them.
Closing on a different kind of stage
The conference culminated with CGA’s annual awards celebration at The Fillmore New Orleans.
Historically, the awards program had taken place in a more traditional hotel meeting environment. HDG proposed taking the closing event outside the hotel and turning it into a true finale.
We managed the experience from concept through execution, including venue coordination, budget, food and beverage, transportation, seating, branded environments, signage, stage requirements, décor, vendors and onsite production.
HDG also redesigned CGA’s awards across nine categories, working with CGA and the awards production partner to create a new recognition system for one of the association’s most important annual traditions.
The Fillmore gave the conference a closing moment that felt worthy of everything that had come before it—celebratory, unexpected and distinctly different from previous annual meetings.
Setting a new standard for the annual experience
CGA24 demonstrated what happens when creative thinking, attendee experience and event management are treated as one responsibility.
HDG did not simply brand an existing program or manage someone else’s event plan. We conceived the experiences, presented the ideas, earned approval, found the right partners, controlled budgets and schedules, solved venue and logistical challenges and remained responsible through final onsite execution.
The project established:
· A completely reimagined CGA annual meeting experience
· Conference messaging and a cohesive CGA24 visual system
· A planned attendee journey spanning onsite and offsite experiences
· CGA’s first Networking Break Lounge integrated with the exhibit environment
· Full event management across budgets, F&B, hotel coordination, vendors and logistics
· Destination-driven entertainment and New Orleans cultural experiences
· Golf, transportation, hospitality and offsite event coordination
· Conference signage, staging, collateral, apparel and giveaways
· Registration, sponsor, newly designed Lounge area and activity environments
· Nine newly designed CGA award categories
· A reimagined closing Safety Awards celebration at The Fillmore
· Setup, teardown and ongoing onsite event support
CGA leadership told HDG afterward that CGA24 was the best annual meeting experience they had been part of, while attendees commented throughout the conference on the difference in organization, entertainment and engagement.
CGA later publicly described its 2024 Annual Meeting in New Orleans as a “record-breaking success.”
CGA asked HDG to make the annual meeting great. CGA24 showed them what was possible—and set a new standard for what would come next.
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