Chicago is the second-biggest trade show city in America and the epicenter of healthcare, manufacturing, and B2B conferences. Scott has worked the Chicago circuit for years: HIMSS healthcare conference exhibitors, McCormick Place booth traffic for B2B companies, private corporate events across the Loop and the North Shore. Based in Kansas City, available throughout the Chicagoland area.
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McCormick Place is the largest convention center in North America. The trade shows that move through it (HIMSS, the National Restaurant Association Show, the International Manufacturing Technology Show, PACK EXPO, Graph Expo, and dozens of industry-specific conferences) draw hundreds of thousands of qualified B2B buyers per year. Chicago's corporate event economy is measured in the billions, and the exhibitors on those floors are spending tens of thousands of dollars per square foot hoping to turn passing traffic into pipeline.
Scott's Chicago work has concentrated on trade show booth activation, particularly for HIMSS-exhibiting healthcare companies where the buyer pool is specific (hospital system CIOs, clinical informatics leaders, health IT procurement) and every qualified conversation has real enterprise-deal value attached. A healthcare IT booth at HIMSS is an attention-economy problem: ten thousand buyers walking past nearly identical-looking booths, all pitching "interoperability" and "patient outcomes." A working close-up magician changes the dynamic. The booth with a small crowd around a magician is the booth buyers stop at, and once stopped, they're open to the actual conversation the sales team needs to have.
Beyond HIMSS, Scott has worked Chicago trade shows for industrial manufacturers, technology companies, and B2B services firms. The pattern is the same in each case: booth activation during show hours, hospitality suite or client-dinner entertainment in the evening, and a post-show leads list with substantive prospect conversations attached.
Chicago also has a deep corporate event market independent of the trade shows. Private leadership offsites at the Chicago-area hotels, sales kickoffs at the McCormick-neighboring venues, product launches at the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, and client-appreciation events throughout the Loop. Scott has performed stage shows and close-up strolling magic for Chicago-based corporations as well as visiting Fortune 500 teams running multi-day events in the city.
Every routine centers on volunteers from the audience. The selection rotates based on the room, the runtime, and what will land hardest with the crowd in front of Scott. None of these are demonstrations of skill. They are designed to fool people, and to give the room a shared moment they keep talking about after the night ends.
Four volunteers come up. One envelope holds a hundred-dollar bill. One by one, three are eliminated game-show style. The last volunteer picks: switch or stay. They lose. Scott wins. Nobody knows how. The volunteer goes home with a consolation prize and a story.
A volunteer signs a card. It vanishes. It reappears, frozen inside a solid block of ice that has been sitting in plain view the entire time.
The whole audience shouts out numbers, added together on someone's phone. The total matches a prediction unrolled across the stage, four feet long. Flipped upside down, the digits spell out the company name, the guest of honor, or whatever the night is celebrating.
A volunteer scrambles a cube themselves. Scott solves it in three seconds behind his back. Then does it again. This time, halfway through, the second cube vanishes.
The event planner sends a photo of the CEO or guest of honor ahead of time. On stage, they sign it, watch it get ripped up, and watch it come back together with the signature intact on the restored piece.
Two volunteers, hands locked into a Victorian-looking contraption. The fun is in their faces, not the gag.
Other routines rotate in: a signed paperback page that tears itself out and reappears in Scott's pocket; a drink-mixing trick where everything pours together and separates back; a jelly-bean prediction strong enough to fool other working magicians. The final running order, along with any custom touches like the photo or the prediction, gets settled on a pre-event call.
Close-up magic in and around your booth at McCormick Place, the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Navy Pier, or any Chicagoland trade show venue. Particularly effective for HIMSS, National Restaurant Show, and other large B2B conferences. More on trade show work →
A 30-60 minute feature for an annual meeting, sales kickoff, client event, or leadership offsite in Chicago. Works at venues from Loop hotels to North Shore corporate campuses to Michigan Avenue ballrooms. More on corporate stage →
Strolling close-up magic for corporate cocktail hours, client-appreciation events, and private dinners in Chicago. Works especially well during trade show weeks when companies are hosting side events for prospects already in town. More on close-up →
Every engagement begins with a conversation. You tell Scott about the evening: the audience, the tone, the outcome you're trying to land. What reference material the room will find funny. Whether there's a retiring executive whose thirty-year tenure deserves a callback. A product launch you want written into the closing illusion. A sales number the CFO wants celebrated.
Those details get worked into the show before the night arrives. Most of the job happens before Scott walks on stage.
What the venue needs to provide. Very little. A defined performance area and an outlet within fifty feet of the stage. Scott brings his own props, his own lighting where needed, and a full professional wireless microphone and PA system. A venue mic is optional, never required. His PA is also available for the client's use during the evening if you want it for music, announcements, or another speaker. He arrives early, works the room before the show, and leaves you free to focus on the hundred other things a corporate event has running.
Audience range. Twenty people in a boardroom, a thousand in a hotel ballroom, or any number in between. For very large rooms, confidence monitors or a house camera feed are standard, and most venues that size already run them.
Chicago engagements are custom-quoted based on format, duration, venue, and travel. Travel, lodging, and per-diem itemized separately. Proposal within 24 hours of a conversation.
Personal reply within twenty-four hours of inquiry, followed by a proposal. Holds are released in the order received.
Final figures depend on format, audience, travel, and custom content.
Scott also performs for adult private parties and milestone birthdays and children's birthdays. Different formats, same standard.
A Kansas City trade show booked by a Chicago-area exhibitor, October 2025.
Chicago-area manufacturers, B2B technology companies, and healthcare exhibitors regularly bring Scott to trade shows, including shows held outside Chicago when the audience justifies the travel. The pattern is consistent: magic stops attendees who would have walked past, the scripted product message lands while they're engaged, and the booth rep meets a warmed-up prospect.
After the show, the same buyers join the client at an after-hours event. Magic continues. Conversations continue. Relationships that wouldn't have existed without the show are built in two evenings.
A Chicago-area exhibitor brought Scott to a Kansas City trade show in October 2025. This is a single moment from that booth, the kind of stop-and-watch reaction that turns booth traffic into qualified conversations.
It's why Chicago manufacturers, healthcare exhibitors, and B2B technology companies keep booking Scott, including for shows held outside Chicago when the audience justifies the travel.
A Chicago-area exhibitor's booth at a Kansas City trade show, October 2025.
Scott is based in Kansas City and travels to Chicago for bookings. Chicago is a short flight (under two hours from KC), so travel logistics are straightforward. Travel, lodging, and per-diem are itemized separately in the proposal.
McCormick Place (HIMSS and other B2B conferences), various Loop and North Shore hotel venues, and corporate event properties throughout the Chicagoland area. If you have a specific venue in mind, ask. Scott has usually either worked it or has contacts on property.
HIMSS is specifically a healthcare IT buyer pool: CIOs, clinical informatics leaders, health IT procurement, and executives buying multi-year enterprise software. The sales cycles are long, the deals are large, and the conversations at the booth are high-stakes. A trained corporate magician who understands that context (rather than a generic street performer) will warm those specific buyers for the specific conversation your sales team needs to have. Scott's HIMSS work is calibrated to that environment.
Yes, and multi-day is often the most efficient format. The per-day cost drops on multi-day packages, and Scott gets time to calibrate the booth routines to your actual prospect pool after day one's feedback.
Yes. Independent Chicago corporate bookings include annual meetings, sales kickoffs, leadership offsites, client-appreciation events, and product launches. The client list is local corporations as well as visiting Fortune 500 teams holding multi-day events in Chicago.
HIMSS and the National Restaurant Show both book 6+ months out. Smaller Chicago trade shows typically book 3-4 months ahead. Corporate events independent of trade shows (annual meetings, kickoffs) typically book 2-3 months ahead.
