How to stand out from the mind-boggling number of other conferences already on the market? How to attract business clientele to this new event format when its reputation hadn't been established yet? How could we reconcile the sometimes divergent worlds of business and creativity? The challenge was to design a brand platform that had as much impact as the conference content.
Ensure the first edition of the event distinguished itself by generating a lot of buzz and attracting a new generation of visionary business leaders on the lookout for innovative content.
We were inspired by the line: 'Mettez-vous à off, on vous met à on' (Switch to off - we’ll switch you on), with energy, light and connections as major thematic elements.
We applied the visual language of power bars and electrical connections in a variety of ways throughout the space. In addition, we created animated, personalised, typographic introductions to reinforce the idea that the impressive line-up of speakers were there to spark people’s imaginations and fuel their creativity. Throughout the day, artists working with 'tape art' gradually filled the space, fully immersing participants in the experience.
Our goal was to reach to reach a target audience of upper echelon attendees, and we did indeed attain this objective — half of the participants included presidents, vice-presidents and managing directors from the business world as well as cultural organisations.
There was another first — many attendees reported that instead of sitting through an endless stream of speeches, as in traditional conferences, they enjoyed an inspiring, enriching and immersive experience.