HOW TO STAND OUT IN LA 2028: FIVE EVENT TRENDS THAT WILL DEFINE THE OLYMPIC SEASON

The 2028 Olympics will transform Los Angeles into the center of global attention. Millions of travelers, creators, athletes, brands, and media outlets will flood the city. Every neighborhood will have its own gravity, and every brand will be fighting for cultural relevance, visibility, and emotional impact.

The challenge isn’t simply showing up—it’s showing up in a way that feels intentional, hyper-local, elevated, and unforgettable.

Here are the five trends that will define Olympic-season activations—and how brands can position themselves to stand out long before the torch arrives.

1. Sustainable Storytelling (Not Just Sustainable Materials)

Sustainability in 2028 won’t be something you tack onto the operational checklist. It becomes a narrative—an experience decision, a brand value, and a guest expectation. The most memorable Olympic activations will be those that treat sustainability as part of the story guests walk through, not just an internal requirement.

Circular Design & Material Intelligence

Instead of building single-use installations that land in the dumpster on closing night, brands are moving toward modular scenic elements, reusable structures, and designs built for multi-city journeys. Pieces that begin in LA may travel to Paris, Singapore, or New York—not because it’s efficient (though it is), but because it signals foresight and responsibility.

Equally important is the shift toward responsible materials. Scenic teams are prioritizing FSC-certified wood, reclaimed or repurposed decor, fabric backdrops instead of vinyl, and eliminating anything that can’t be recycled—PVC, foam boards, Styrofoam. Even the décor that does have a one-city lifespan should be designed for donation to local community centers, youth arts programs, or nonprofits.

Venue Selection With Sustainability in Mind

Your venue is your first sustainability decision. Olympic-year audiences will look for more than aesthetics—they expect alignment with values. Choosing LEED-certified venues or spaces with energy-efficient systems, robust recycling programs, composting capabilities, and low-waste operational policies allows brands to telegraph responsibility before a single guest walks in.

Choose a Sustainability Goal Early

Brands that win will begin with clarity:

• Is the goal waste reduction?

• Carbon neutrality?

• Local sourcing?

• Community benefit?

Picking one north star early prevents “greenwashed” afterthoughts and helps guide decision-making across fabrication, F&B, staffing, and experience design.

Digital-First Guest Experience

Print is phasing out. Going digital with invitations, schedules, signage, RSVPs, and check-ins dramatically reduces waste—and creates a cleaner, more intuitive guest flow. In the Olympic season, where audiences are global and moving quickly, digital-first is luxury.

Sustainable Food & Beverage

F&B becomes one of the easiest—and most visible—proof points of sustainability. Compostable serviceware, reusable drink systems, local sourcing, and donation partnerships ensure that the guest experience remains elevated while reducing environmental footprint.

Education Through Engagement

Sustainability resonates most when guests get to participate. Interactive signage explaining material choices, workshops or tastings connected to local and eco-forward vendors, check-in moments where guests choose a sustainable action—these become the memories that stick.

When sustainability becomes part of the guest journey—not just the ops plan—it becomes part of the story they take home.

2. Tech Integration With Purpose (Not for Show)

Olympic-season activations will be packed with tech. But the brands that win will use technology with intention—to deepen immersion, strengthen insight, and expand accessibility.

Purposeful tech doesn’t distract. It dissolves into the moment.

Think a room transformed through projection mapping. Interactive walls responding to movement. Light shifting to guide a narrative. Spatial sound design that moves with your guests. These elements aren’t meant to impress—they’re meant to transport.

On the operational side, QR-based check-ins, live polling, and sentiment trackers arm brands with real-time insights that help optimize experiences across multi-day activations.

Add accessibility—captions, translation tools, assistive listening devices, mobile navigation guides—and tech becomes the backbone of inclusion. And during a global sporting event, inclusion is non-negotiable.

Our golden rule: Tech should serve the people in the room, not the deck.

3. Hyper-Local Cultural Integration (LA’s Real Advantage)

LA isn’t a city—it’s a mosaic of micro-cultures. Every neighborhood has its own identity, tone, rhythm, and creative language. Olympic-year activations that ignore these nuances will feel generic. The ones that embrace them will feel electric.

Imagine an activation shaped by Venice’s surf culture and street art. Or a Leimert Park moment honoring Black creative history. Or a Koreatown culinary takeover featuring rising local chefs. Downtown might lean tech-forward and architectural, while Malibu offers sensorial wellness.

LA food culture—tacos, Korean BBQ, vegan soul food, fine dining mashups—becomes its own form of storytelling. Integrating food and beverage through interactive tasting moments, chef-led demos, or culturally rooted snack experiences gives guests a visceral, memorable connection to the city.

During the Olympics, culture is currency—and LA will reward brands who treat neighborhoods as collaborators, not canvases.

4. Smart Luxury: Elevated, Intentional, Human-Centered

Luxury in LA isn’t loud. It’s thoughtful. It’s sensory. It’s precise.

Guests notice lighting warmth, scent strategy, table textures, staff energy, check-in flow, and whether gifting feels curated or cliché. Smart luxury is a study in detail—one where every decision feels intentional and no moment feels rushed.

This is where gifting becomes powerful. When done well, it becomes an extension of the experience—something guests post, keep, travel with, and talk about.

If you need structured inspiration, The Swag Upgrade Playbook: 50 Creative Ways to Wow Your Event Guests is a tool we share with clients to help develop gifting strategies that actually match LA’s sense of elevated simplicity.

5. Experience Ecosystems, Not One-Off Activations

The Olympics aren’t a moment—they’re a multi-week cultural gravity field. Brands that appear once and vanish will struggle. Brands that architect experience ecosystems will dominate.

This might look like:
A pre-Olympics neighborhood tour.
Micro pop-ups across multiple districts.
A hospitality hub that evolves weekly.
Digital content that mirrors the physical footprint.
A gifting program woven through every touchpoint.
A post-Olympics storytelling arc that extends brand relevance globally.

The most powerful strategy is one that scales: bold enough to be recognizable, modular enough to travel, and flexible enough to remix in real time.

The Bottom Line

If you want to stand out during LA 2028, don’t chase spectacle. Chase substance. Chase culture. Chase intentionality. Build experiences that feel like LA—not like a generic event dropped into the wrong place at the wrong time.

LA rewards brands that do their homework. And by the time the world arrives, the ones who started early will own the narrative, own the neighborhoods, and own the moments people remember long after the flame goes out