In a galaxy far, far away, known as the Orange County Convention Center, an impressive alliance of thought leaders, C-Suite executives, policymakers, and industry professionals converged. Together, they formed the 2024 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Global Conference. The event was the epicenter of the latest in emerging tech, cybersecurity, and groundbreaking AI. This utopia represented the future of healthcare information technology and the place where tomorrow's health is born.

During that balmy March week, a presence emanated from the glittering Orlando cosmos. A familiar name with a trusted reputation cut a path through foot traffic with as much ease as a lightsaber, opening a new horizon for Leidos Inc. Despite the phantom menace of a hard-to-impress audience coupled with ambitious goals, this guardian of technological innovation set its sights on intergalactic ROI.

Do or Do Not. There is No Try.
For 55 years, Leidos has been helping customers leverage science and technology to make the world safer, healthier, and more efficient. Ethisphere, a global leader in defining the standards of ethical business practices, named Leidos one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. Like the Jedi, its powerfully protective presence radiates across the solar system. It has footholds in everything from space, defense, and aviation, to government, civil, energy, and life sciences, but it was its healthcare tech solutions on display in Orlando.

The company's advanced healthcare systems thrive across multiple vertical markets, with a vast presence in the United States government. Much of its work orbits around four key areas of technology specialization. Like an elite squadron of X-Wing pilots, the team includes thousands of cybersecurity professionals, making the organization a recognized leader in cybersecurity for the federal government. Its digital modernization initiatives are akin to upgrading a fleet of starships featuring cutting-edge cloud services and IT solutions. Leidos helps its clients harness the power of AI, guiding them like seasoned Jedi Masters through the complex and promising realm of machine learning data. The company's software is secure and operates at lightspeed, ensuring protection and efficiency in equal measure. The dizzying details of each market can be as deep as an information black hole.

What Dr. J. Robert Beyster started as a “crazy little company” in 1969 has grown into a Fortune 500 with more than 48,000 employees. Leidos' many perspectives and problem-solving skills have earned it a reputation for providing solutions that support and transform clients' missions. The company's innovative spirit and big-picture thinking found the company turning the lens inward for its 2024 HIMSS showcase, a fitting gesture for a company with a name snipped from the word “kaleidoscope.”
As Leidos approached the conference, it had an unfractured vision and crystal-clear goals. It wanted to continue to showcase the company as an innovative, technology-driven expert in the healthcare industry. It wanted to deliver information that could be easily absorbed by an on-the-go, information-stuffed audience. Even more critical was the company's desire to stop those frenzied folks in their tracks, piquing their curiosity and driving them directly into its booth. The final item on the company's challenging quest was capturing and tracking accurate attendee metrics. Tapping its creative and production partner, The Virtual Wild, the team set out to propel Leidos further into the future of healthcare.

Attack of the Clones
Entering the show floor of advanced healthcare technologies can feel like flying the Millennium Falcon at lightspeed without a manual. Absorbing information as new tools, systems, and possibilities whiz by can be overwhelming. Leidos knew it needed to stabilize the attendees long enough to show them the light. However, the goal of wooing many of those 30,000 attendees was lofty. The event's audience was a constellation of high-profile healthcare technology professionals. The show floor was teeming with competitors vying for the same attention, and the frenzy of people rushing to appointments made chance encounters a challenge. Even if a booth staffer managed to grab someone's inquisitive gaze, holding it long enough to create a meaningful connection was more challenging than it was for a stormtrooper to hit a motionless target.
The team's first hurdle to conquer was designing an engaging demonstration with an undeniable gravitational pull. The show's audience had become accustomed to droning PowerPoint presentations, so Leidos knew it needed a showstopper that captured the fly-bys, sucking them into the company's orbit. The answer came in the form of simulated replicas. Leidos executives and an esteemed selection of subject matter experts were transformed into life-size holographic clones via recordings of their human selves. With the help of spinning LED fans, 3D projections of their ethereal doppelgangers shined onto the show floor with stunning realism. The holograms interacted with convention attendees through messages and livestreaming. While some greetings were prerecorded, a hidden onsite green room in the booth gave the executive team a chance to interact in real time. The room, fully outfitted with audio-visual and recording devices, provided a live feed of the show floor into the space, allowing anyone in the green room to interface with the convention floor. As attendees strolled by, apparitions of the Leidos team materialized seemingly out of the ether, much like Princess Leia beaming from R2-D2. As guests stopped, mesmerized by the translucent figures manifesting out of thin air, they were awash with the first strains of Leidos' messaging.

The synthetic simulacra didn't stop there. Once attendees were captivated, they discovered they could also artificially clone themselves. Utilizing the same green room, participants had the opportunity to cross the physical threshold and enter the holographic realm. The added interactive layer was for more than just guest enjoyment. In addition to creating another atmosphere of engagement within the booth, it acted as a thriving Leidos lead source and subsequent USG social media marketing tool. Guests who shared their contact information would receive a recording of their hologram performance, and they eagerly posted videos of their spectral moment online. As a result, the company amassed plenty of additional prospect details and waves of attendee-driven social media exposure.

The Force Awakens
Masters guided attendees to the next level of their Leidos training. Once they finished marveling at the hologram, the sales team led the star-gazed guests to an augmented reality interactive sliding touchscreen wall. The structure stretched across half the booth and was resplendent in the signature ultraviolet of the Leidos logo. Dotted on the wall's surface were oversized diagrams of each of Leidos' vertical markets. A sliding touch screen sat neatly on a track overlaying the length of the display. As guests slid the smooth screen over the wall's icons, additional details sprang to life on the mirrored surface. Participants could see how Leidos' systems work in areas like clinics and the battlefield. They could easily access the specifics through the touch screen. It was like gazing at the universe through a starship's viewport. With each slide, attendees were transported to new realms of understanding, driven to explore Leidos' advanced solutions in an engaging and enlightening way.

Unlike pre-programmed PowerPoints that force-feed information in a straight line, the custom-built system delivered nonlinear content, allowing team members to travel back and forth between topics. They could explore a participant's curiosity on the spot. Rich with visuals and details that could be effortlessly processed, the touch screen wall provided easy-to-understand information at the attendees' fingertips. The force of their cutting-edge technology was undeniable, inspiring attendees to explore plenty of new horizons.

All Will be Revealed
The final layer of the booth's activations revealed a behind-the-scenes spectacle similar to uncovering the secrets of the Death Star, but with much less destruction. Leidos achieved its final critical objective of success measurement by deploying a specialized AI-powered computer vision system integrated into the hologram and sliding wall. This advanced software meticulously cataloged and analyzed booth attendee metrics. It distinguished between staff and the public, recognizing subtle differences between the faces of strangers and team members. The system could scan foot traffic flowing through the booth's gravitational pull. It was sensitive enough to calculate the number of new individuals who entered the booth's range and whether those individuals engaged for longer than a few moments. It monitored how long attendees remained captivated by the hologram and sliding wall, logging these interactions throughout the show. The data collected was like a star map, turning a universe of information into measurable insights, illuminating the booth's successful ROI.


Jedi Masters
When the sun set on HIMSS 2024, Leidos' results were staggering. Word of mouth on the show floor generated 84 attendees who directly interacted with the live hologram. The AI tracking captured more than 7,000 unique hologram impressions, which represented 7,052 individuals who stopped to observe the mesmerizing spectacle. The total foot traffic was a crowd of 16,588 people who flowed through the exhibit space, along with countless impressions from social media. The explosive crescendo of the experience was the drastic 22 percent increase in scheduled private meetings. The 2024 traffic builder generated a mind-expanding 135 meetings compared to 42 meetings in 2023. The results even stunned our Sizzle Awards judges, with one remarking, “That increase in private meetings was huge.” For another, the power was hard to deny. “The numeric results reported by Leidos demonstrate that this was a successful traffic builder.”
Based on the show's high success, Leidos is deploying the booth's stellar activations to various events in the upcoming year. Meanwhile, the creative content of the sliding screen is being modified for use on tables and websites, allowing Leidos sales staff to take their success off the trade show floor. In the words of one judge, the results were “Another great example of leveraging experiential success at future events.”

As the final credits of HIMSS 2024 rolled through the Orange County Convention Center, it was clear that Leidos had not only captured the attention of the galaxy of healthcare professionals, but also established itself as a true force within the industry.

With its immersive experiences, Leidos transformed its booth into a guiding star, a trusted navigator through the ever-expanding universe of healthcare technology. The seamless blend of the hologram and sliding wall created an interstellar journey that left attendees with a deeper connection to the future of healthcare. The interactive displays, much like a Jedi's training, offered a hands-on experience that allowed visitors to not just witness. but truly grasp the potential of these groundbreaking innovations. It was clear that Leidos charted a course for success that would resonate far beyond the show floor. May the force of innovation continue to be with them.E