Client
Year
Deliverables
Media Relations
Thought Leadership
Creative & Brand Design
Situation
The American Iron and Steel Institute has trusted Franco to plan and execute Great Designs in Steel (GDIS) – the longest-running automotive materials symposium in the world – for more than a decade.
By 2026, GDIS entered its 24th year (with the 25th anniversary on the horizon) and the job had evolved tremendously. AISI didn’t just need a well-run event. They needed a partner who could:
- Keep an almost 25-year-old flagship symposium feeling fresh and relevant to a new generation of OEMs and engineers
- Prove ROI to sponsors and exhibitors year over year, during a time when marketing budgets are shrinking
- Extend GDIS’s influence beyond the event itself – into media coverage, thought leadership, social reach and ongoing email campaigns
- Turn attendee, speaker, sponsor and even non-attendee data into a real-time feedback loop instead of a one-time survey
- Act as a strategic advisor on where the industry is going and how the event should evolve
Approach
Franco manages and executes the full event lifecycle, ensuring it runs seamlessly.
Registration & Session Q&A Management
Franco manages the full 1,000+ attendee registration experience, from registration workflows and attendee communications to reporting, badge management and on-site check-in. The team also oversees the live session Q&A process, enabling attendees to easily submit questions while helping moderators facilitate organized, engaging discussions with presenters.
”This was the smoothest check in and submission of questions to date!!! Well done!
GDIS 2026 Attendee
Vendor Coordination
Franco serves as the lead point for all vendors – Wi-Fi, security, AV / Sound & Lighting, printing and signage.
Sponsor Management
Franco manages all coordination with GDIS sponsors and exhibitors. Our work includes securing sponsors, overseeing sponsor fulfillment, exhibit hall management and layout development, serving as a liaison between the venue and sponsors, and providing on-site support for each during set-up day and event day.
“As this was our first time exhibiting, we found the event to be extremely meaningful, as we had the opportunity to interact with many visitors. We would certainly like to consider becoming a sponsor again next year.”
GDIS 2026 Exhibitor
“Exhibit Hall was laid out well. It provided great visibility for supplier booths, appropriate space for content from suppliers, and ample space for attendees for networking/eating.”
GDIS 2026 Attendee
Segmented, Data-Driven Email Marketing
Rather than one email list and one message, Franco manages segmented OEM and non-OEM audiences with different subject lines, send times and content. The approach is tested and iterated in real time, down to send-day and preview-text experiments.
Session Moderator Management
To ensure sessions run smoothly during the event, Franco works closely with each track moderator. The team hosts virtual training to educate them on their responsibilities as well as how to facilitate the Q&A session with each speaker. We also offer onsite troubleshooting support and develop tangible packets with a variety of printed resources for the moderator to be successful in their role, including detailed scripts for each session and answers to frequently asked questions.
Media Relations & Thought Leadership (since 2023)
Franco leads the proactive media outreach strategy – pitching trade press, coordinating on-site interviews and securing bylines that put the symposium’s technical content in front of, not only key media, but other stakeholders in the industry.
Speaker Coordination (since 2024)
Franco manages end-to-end speaker coordination, serving as the primary liaison between OEM presenters, AISI leadership and event partners. The team oversees speaker recruitment and confirmations, presentation collection and review, deadline management, session logistics and ongoing communications to ensure a seamless experience for presenters and attendees alike.
“First class organization, team and support. Everything was easy, understandable, and flowed seamlessly, from registration to post-presentation follow-up.”
GDIS 2026 Speaker
Creative & Brand Design
Franco designs every visual touchpoint of GDIS, including informational pull-up banners, exhibit hall signage, attendee lanyards and tote bags, the speaker PowerPoint template and the opening remarks presentation. Franco also redesigned the event’s full look and feel this year, moving to a modern, dark-toned aesthetic carried through each visual piece of the event.
And new for 2026, we designed personalized thank-you post cards for each speaker, moderator and exhibitor.
End-to-End Feedback Ecosystem (expanded significantly since 2022)
In previous years, survey feedback covered attendees and sponsors. By 2026, Franco’s feedback ecosystem covers the entire audience journey – attendees, non-attendees, no-shows, sponsors/exhibitors and speakers – with every survey result feeding directly into next year’s planning.
“You can count [us] in for 2027!”
GDIS 2026 AttendeeGNS
“You and your colleagues did another fantastic job.”
GDIS 2026 Attendee
Results Summary
Franco helped strengthen GDIS’s position as a premier industry-leading symposium by increasing attendee conversion from 57% to 70%, achieving a 45% average email open rate, growing the event to 26 sponsors with 100% year-over-year sponsor retention, and providing AISI with actionable insights to continuously improve future events.
Testimonial from main client contact – Brian Esterberg:
“Together, we executed this year’s GDIS Symposium about as flawlessly as I could have imagined. And that doesn’t happen by accident—it’s the result of months of planning, collaboration, brainstorming, feeding off each other’s great ideas and energy, focus, and a lot of hard work behind the scenes.
[This year’s event] was executed incredibly and our teamwork made this happen, and you all absolutely crushed it.
Thank you for your partnership, your dedication, and your unwavering enthusiasm throughout this entire process. And just as importantly, thank you for making this such a fun and genuinely rewarding experience for everyone involved.”
