It Took a Village

“Just like, if you want people to support Israel, you’ve gotta bring them to Israel,” Rabbi Mi- chael Schwab said, “if you want to get people involved in AIPAC, you gotta take them to the Policy Conference.” Rabbi Schwab was sitting on a square stage in AIPAC Village on Monday afternoon, moderating a session called “Movements Aligned: Rabbis Supporting AIPAC in Their Communities.” The stage — the AIPAC Village Meet the Experts Stage — was surrounded on three sides by aluminum bleachers, a seating choice that helped lend the program a friendly, casual air.

It was one of many studiedly laid-back room sets in AIPAC Village, the bustling social and networking hub of the 2013 AIPAC Policy Conference, built across Halls A and B in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center — 345,000 square feet in all. The space is below ground, with 30-foot ceilings, but the vibe was anything but hollow or subterranean, because AIPAC and its general services con- tractor, Hargrove Inc., presented AIPAC Village as a sprawling country picnic. Massive sup- port pillars were draped in green and brown fabrics, making them look like trees. Eating areas were fringed with white picket fences.

Eight food trucks served barbecue, Asian, and other cuisines. Six private presentation areas were enclosed with the sort of white vinyl tents you’d find at a garden wedding. Comfortable chairs and conversation pits were everywhere.

The challenge was “to make that space feel like you’re outside,” said Chris Fulghum, senior account executive for events for Hargrove. “You didn’t want to feel like you were going downstairs into the basement. You wanted to feel like you’re going to a destination.”

AIPAC Village was anchored by a sweeping, in-the-round Conference Concierge area that served as an information and help desk. Along the far wall stood a line of mall-style shops, including a bookstore, a coffee bar, and various hospitality lounges. The Policy Conference doesn’t have a formal trade show, but AIPAC Village had an exhibitions component in the form of Innovation Show- cases spotlighting Israeli companies such as Mobileye, which makes collision-avoidance systems for cars; Water-Gen, a manufacturer of water-generation systems; and SpaceIL, a

nonprofit organization working to land an Israeli spacecraft on the moon. “We always spend a lot of time every year looking at how can we make the customer experience better,” AIPAC’s Jeff Shulman said. “We have brought a lot of new retail concepts into play.”

AIPAC Village, which debuted at the 2012 Policy Conference, was an outgrowth of the event’s soaring attendance. “They really got to a point where the food-and-beverage was crushing them,” Fulghum said. “They would feed everybody in every session every day, and everything [was] kosher. They had to re- think how to feed that many people.” Thanks to all that trafic, the Village quickly evolved into “a community space for all those people who were crisscrossing.”

Hence the many conversation areas. “As big as it was, they wanted to create some intimate spaces to allow people to chat, and create an environment that was inviting,” Fulghum said. “They’ve been very good about trying to mix their overall policy goals and objectives with ways to make the guest experience warm and inviting.”

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JUNE 2013 PCMA CONVENE

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