A Passport to Engagement: How Barcami Lane Elevated ALA Boston’s Conference Experience

At the ALA Boston 2025 Annual Leadership Conference & Business Partner Expo, networking became an exciting and interactive experience instead of just ticking off another item on the schedule.

Barcami Lane, an accredited Massachusetts-based association management company, partnered with one of its long-term clients, ALA Boston, an association of legal administrators, to create a custom conference passport designed to boost engagement between attendees and business partners.

This project shows how creative design can turn ordinary interactions into meaningful experiences at association events.

The Challenge

With nearly 60 attendees and 47 business partners in attendance, ALA Boston wanted to strengthen engagement in the exhibit hall. Exhibitors often compete for attendees’ attention, so the chapter’s leadership searched for a creative way to raise interest and encourage meaningful conversations.

Barcami Lane collaborated with ALA Boston to build a solution that combined strategic planning and creative design, giving attendees great reasons to explore every part of the exhibition hall.

The Creative Concept

The result was a 20-page passport booklet inspired by a real U.S. passport. Because it was tied to the event, every "High Roller" business partner got a unique stamp created. As attendees stopped by their tables, their passport got stamps, kind of like souvenirs showing where they had traveled.

Inside, the passport featured:

• A detailed map of business partner locations.

• A key that listed company names and table numbers.

• A personalization page where attendees could write their names.

• 12 pages dedicated to stamp collection, providing space for up to 47 business partner visits.

To encourage participation, the passport included a “Passport to Prizes” challenge with four reward tiers:

• Tier 1 (1–4 visits): Bronze prize of $250

• Tier 2 (5–8 visits): Silver prize of $300

• Tier 3 (9–11 visits): Gold prize of $500

• Tier 4 (12+ visits): Diamond prize of $1,500

The passport instructions concluded with a personal message from ALA Boston’s president, Janet Adie, encouraging attendees to “Have a JANTASTIC time visiting our business partners.”

The Experience

Over two days, the passport became a conversation starter and a collector’s item. Attendees compared stamps, shared progress, and revisited partners to fill remaining pages.

By the end of the conference, 25 attendees had completed the challenge and four walked away with prizes. In total, the event brought together 104 participants, including business partners and law firm administrators. The passport gamified standard exhibitor engagement into an interactive journey full of real connections and friendly competition.

The Result

With the conference theme, “The Future of Leadership – Thriving Through Change,” the passport helped ALA Boston:

• Encourage movement across the expo floor.

• Create meaningful conversations.

• Increase visibility for business partners.

For Barcami Lane, the project demonstrates how creative design and strategic execution can elevate the conference experience. The passport challenged attendees to interact in a fun way while strengthening business partner connections.

About the Partnership

ALA Boston has been a legacy client of Barcami Lane since 2022, following Barcami Lane’s acquisition of the chapter’s former management company. The partnership continues to soar through collaboration on events, mixing professional development with engaging attendee experiences.

Final Reflection

Good association management ensures operations run smoothly; great association management also creates moments that bring people together.

Through the ALA Boston passport project, Barcami Lane showed that it is among New England’s leading association management companies, delivering an event experience that turned networking into an adventure.

Team Credits:

Barcami Lane thanks the client team Emily Dodge, Melissa Johnson, and Lyly Pham for their hard work on this project and a successful conference.