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“Every client has a story. It's the creative's job to bring it to life."
Marriott International was gearing up to host an exclusive three-day event for 500 of its esteemed general managers (GMs) and wanted to leave a lasting impact. Their mission? Leave the traditional conference format behind and immerse guests in an extraordinary multi-dimensional program. Enter Megan and team, ready to exceed all expectations for an unforgettable experience.
Megan Angle
- 20+ years of professional media experience
- Goes by Megan “The Mangler”
- Has three busy daughters
- Drawn to creative storytelling
- Calls family her “why”
The Challenge
To execute the customer’s vision, Megan and team needed to develop and coordinate event strategy design, the thematic and multimedia creative, complex event technology and overall staging and production — for both outdoor and indoor event spaces. The star of the show, however, would be vibrant motion graphics to keep the audience’s attention while reinforcing an engaging event theme. Cesar and Autumn, rockstars from the Encore Creative Content Studio, immediately got to work on solutions. Pulling this off would be no small feat. It required cohesion across design, lighting, projection and LED screens, collaboration with Marriott International and buy-in from clients across multiple stakeholder groups.
The Solution
After presenting their concept to the customer, Megan, Cesar and Autumn received enthusiastic approval and wasted no time in bringing the idea to life. Autumn developed a playful overarching theme, “Let’s Go,” which evolved into the daily subthemes “Go Forth,” “Go Far” and “Go Fearlessly” to reinforce the event’s central concept. To really blow attendees away, Cesar developed incredibly complex 2D and 3D motion graphics that seemingly leapt off the screens! Executing this required close collaboration and extensive testing pre-event and on-site with lighting and projection experts. The remarkable end result?
- In one session, a sailboat cruised beyond the screen’s borders, emphasizing the “Go Far” subtheme.
- In another, parachuters seemingly soared out of their frame, immersing attendees in a stunning 3D experience that embodied the “Go Fearlessly” message.
| Key Solutions Used in This Story | ||
|---|---|---|
| Creative | Production | Technology |
|
Event Strategy & Design |
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The Result
The in-house team of imaginative and dedicated creatives set the stage for an electrifying experience, flawlessly executed. The brilliant visuals, ranging from printed applications to immersive general session content, elevated the programming’s impact and kept participants buzzing with excitement long after the final session. In the customer’s own words, “The creative team at Encore challenged us to think differently than we ever have to deliver a product that our GMs had never seen before. They not only delivered but also exceeded every expectation from start to finish.”
Explore More Stories and Solutions.
From routine challenges to the moment of truth that threatens to derail your event, our people solve them
flawlessly. Explore their stories.
We See Solutions.™
“There is no problem without a solution"
For decades, Encore has helped bring the Annual InterContinental® Miami Make-A-Wish® Ball to life, making it bigger and better each year. The challenge for the 2022 festivities? Make the event more magical than ever by immersing the participants in an unforgettable experience to increase levels of excitement and inspire greater donations. With Alberto and team on the task, consider the wish granted.
Alberto Castillo
- Thousands of events
- National Ambassador for Encore
- Developed/runs local workshop for Event Managers
- Loves ATVing in the Everglades with his daughters
- Always entertaining guests at home
- Family and faith are his guiding forces
The Challenge
For the 27th Annual InterContinental Miami Make-A-Wish Ball, Alberto and team were tasked with making the gala event more magical than ever in unique, immersive and memorable ways — with just three compressed setup days. The creative ask:
- Stage an engaging opening reception, including a branded publicity “step and repeat” backdrop and reception with silent auction areas.
- Create a “supernature” themed experience between the reception/silent auction areas and the grand ballroom gala event space.
- Bring to life an immersive “NY aquarium” in the grand ballroom for the main dining and open auction event.
- Delight participants with live performances and an iconic entertainer.
- Further surprise guests by executing an afterparty featuring a multi-act cabaret show and nightclub experience, requiring a major room flip in just two hours.
The Solution
Alberto and team worked closely with multiple stakeholders from the hotel, the Make-A-Wish Southern Florida chapter and their third-party designers to make the dream come true.
Solutions included:
- Sourcing people and gear from 20+ regional venues, with Encore working 24/7 shifts over three days.
- Creating a transitional experience between the opening reception/silent auction and grand ballroom that featured a mesmerizing “supernature” LED tunnel depicting the New York subways overtaken by nature.
- Producing the grand ballroom event, including a 140-foot LED wall to create a “NY aquarium” experience with coral-like décor, beautiful lighting and ambient audio that brought the underwater world to life.
- Creating an outfitted performance stage for the live auction and applause-worthy entertainment.
- Quietly flipping the prior reception/silent auction rooms into a surprise afterparty with a multi-act cabaret show and DJ while guests enjoyed the grand ballroom event.
- Perfectly planning and executing everything from staging, video and audio to complex lighting, rigging and power for an astounding start-to-finish event experience, using three highly skilled project managers across rooms and a stage manager for the big show.
| Key Solutions Used in This Story | ||
|---|---|---|
| Production | Technology | |
| Staging Services Scenic & Décor Show Management | Audiovisual Solutions LED Walls Audio Video Infrastructure Services Rigging Power | |
The Result
The inspirational event left both the customers and charity ball participants in awe. The guests were so moved by their experience that it was a history-making year with a record-setting $5.4M raised in just one night. This was more than twice as much as the previous charity ball! For the customer’s vision and charitable event goals, it was truly a larger-than-life dream come true.
Explore More Stories and Solutions.
From routine challenges to the moment of truth that threatens to derail your event, our people solve them
flawlessly. Explore their stories.
We See Solutions.™
“We are here to support
the client and earn
their trust”
With a customer’s most important dinner of the year coming up, they wanted to ensure the event would be memorable. Their vision? Elevate a traditional dining experience into a festive year-end celebration gala, integrating storytelling, gastronomic, visual and acoustic elements to wow their important guests.
Enter Miguel and team, ready to help deliver a multi-sensory experience set to impress.
Miguel Sanchez
- 18 yrs. of experience
- 1,000+ events and counting
- Loves spending time with his 6-year old son
- Loves playing billiards and video games
- Active gym-goer
The Challenge
Develop the idea that the client envisioned to create a whole experience and not just serve a traditional dinner. Part of the challenge was to achieve synchrony at the time of the service for the 380 guests, thus merging gastronomy with technology, in addition to matching the size of the venue with the hanging points and the space between each table.
The Solution
With the technical experience of Miguel and his team, it was possible to have the same signal that would simultaneously reproduce the content at the 38 tables and individually for the 380 diners.
With professionalism, it was possible to maintain excellent communication, successfully coordinating all those involved (venue, business partners and our production staff),
By capturing the different elements in a layout, it was possible to adapt the technical needs to the infrastructure and hanging points of the venue.
| Key Solutions Used in This Story | ||
|---|---|---|
| Creative | Production | Technology |
| Event Strategy & Design | Audiovisual Solutions | |
The Result
Thanks to Miguel and team’s technical expertise, collaboration with all parties and innovative mindsets, the gala was a memorable celebration for all attendees. Due to the team’s collaboration and dedication to each detail, the more than 380 guests experienced a truly unique gourmet dinner adventure. The attendees left impressed by the year-end festivities, and the customer was equally pleased, delighted at how Encore had helped plan, synchronize and transform their critical event into a unique sensory experience.
Explore More Stories and Solutions.
From routine challenges to the moment of truth that threatens to derail your event, our people solve them
flawlessly. Explore their stories.
- The pandemic forced the meeting and event industry to hit the pause button. In that pause, the industry was given the opportunity to rethink how things are conventionally done to see how we might improve. Why is that necessary? Let’s see where conventional thinking has gotten us: The average event participant contributes almost a quarter of a metric ton of CO2 emissions per day at a conference.
- 70 percent of event speakers worldwide are men.
- 58 percent of managers say they must reinvent their organization to survive, yet 75 percent of transformation efforts fail to deliver.
- Attention spans — thanks to mobile devices — are only eight seconds long, yet conference programs are still filled with hour-long lectures.
Clearly, it’s time to break free of industry norms so we can overcome these challenges. How can meeting and event professionals find solutions to these challenges? Design thinking.
“Design thinking is one of the most powerful ways that event professionals can approach their events,” said Anthony Vade, Encore event experience strategy director. “It allows us to navigate the complexities that exist in our stakeholder relationships to find the most elegant solution to create the change that events need to create.”
To generate awareness, conversations and potential solutions, Encore partnered with IMEX America to create an immersive BREAK FREE booth on the IMEX America show floor.
What we were trying to achieve
Goals for this journey of transformation were to:
- Encourage the industry to challenge the status quo.
- Show participants that they can break free from whatever is holding them back.
- Spotlight the themes of connection, inspiration and collaboration.
- Connect participants with the Encore team and get them talking about topics that impact organizations, local communities and the world.
Our approach
- The Encore Strategy team used tools to unlock empathy and analyze stakeholder needs.
- Once stakeholder needs were defined, the experience designed focused on how to fulfill them by making design choices that would elicit human emotion, drive interaction and spark meaningful conversation while delivering on IMEX partnership goals.
- The Encore Creative team conceived, designed, wrote and produced the content, including a video in the second room, which was displayed on a 12-ft. high, 180-degree LED screen.
- The Encore Sales Engineering and Application Development teams collaborated to customize its Chime Live Engagement Platform to create engagement opportunities and collect data for the Sales and Marketing teams. The platform was used to drive engagement from poling attendees to create real-time word clouds to providing attendees the opportunity to visualize IR-generated content, Encore’s Chime Live platform was the experience platform glue. Click below to read the BREAK FREE Survey Results below.
To align with IMEX America’s zero-waste event initiative, the Encore team made conscious decisions to reduce waste within the booth space:
- Using reusable printed items
- Replacing traditionally printed items with projected or digital content
- Using reusable pipe and drape rather than carpet or built walls
- Using water bubblers instead of water bottles
- Refraining from giving away SWAG items
- Serving bar drinks from recycled and alternative materials
Outcomes
“The experience for me was really about a conversation and how we break free from the surface-level conversations and get a lot deeper,” said Ashley Lawson, vice president of business partnerships, Achieve Incentives & Meetings. “We have the power to make changes and going through this experience, this exhibit, we can break through the surface-level conversations of sustainability, DE&I, and get a heck of a lot deeper to talk about the actions that we can take to actually make change.”
Industry influencer Julius Solaris shared in his social recap of BREAK FREE at IMEX America: “Go big or go home. Without a shadow of a doubt, the exhibit game’s absolute winner was Encore with its BREAK FREE activation. A monumental experiential journey. It could have been less brainy at times with the six QR codes to scan, but it doesn’t matter. Showing up with this level of bravery matters. I see you there thinking: ‘But they must have spent millions!’ Some booths may have spent even more than them but aligning the presence with the message is everything.”
Other results:
- More than 900 people experienced the Break Free activation at IMEX America.
- Nine media outlets, including MPI, Skift, Smart Meetings and Meetings Today, provided media coverage of the booth during IMEX America.
- Encore reached all eight of its top-tier trade targets, including all major industry media, which will provide coverage on Encore and its innovative end-to-end event solutions through Q1 2023.
- To deepen the connection between the BREAK FREE experience and industry customers, Encore is releasing a Break Free from Conventional Thinking guidebook with chapters being released in November and December 2022.
- Encore successfully delivered the message to venue partners and meeting and event participants that it is an important industry partner that can provide end-to-end solutions, deliver transformative experiences and help industry professionals manage rising costs with its innovative solutions.
Encore’s Break Free ’22 Video Highlights:
Continuing the conversation
Encore does more than start conversations. It also cares about walking the talk. One example is around sustainability and how Encore is deepening its commitment beyond offering sustainable options for event technology.
Company-wide, Encore is finalizing our 2021 Global GHG emission footprint so it has a baseline to put goals around, including ones that involve our in-property inventory and operations. Looking ahead to 2023, Encore will put its first electric vehicle (EV) trucks on our fleet and install a solar farm at our largest U.S. facility in Washington, D.C. to offset power consumption for that location and return excess energy to the grid.
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