INVNT - Xerocon Brisbane 2018
Name of Organization / Company: INVNT, Sydney, NSW Australia
Category: Award for Innovation in Business-to-Business Events
Entry Title: Xerocon Brisbane 2018
Essay:
BRIEF
Leading accounting software company, Xero had three key objectives in mind for its Xerocon Brisbane event – Australasia’s largest technology conference for the accounting industry: to create an inspirational and educational experience that would encourage networking.
For Xero it was essential the event:
• Provide plentiful opportunities for attendees to network.
• Encompass an informative speaker program.
• Attract 3,000+ attendees.
• Achieve a delegate satisfaction level of more than 8/10.
• Attract high levels of social engagement, including 5K+ mentions and 25K+ engagements.
• Feature in various mainstream and marketing industry press.
STRATEGY
With Xero’s objectives in mind, we leveraged our proprietary creative and strategic methodology, INVNTion™ to extract the brand’s key messages and weave them into a consistent narrative. This narrative was used to inform the conceptualisation, design and production of the entire experience, resulting in a highly customised event that spoke to Xero’s brand values.
EXECUTION
As a tribute to the ‘sunshine state’ we devised a Miami theme for the event, which spanned four of the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre’s halls. This was evident across touchpoints including a 24- metre custom- built pink pool which was filled with 250,000 balls, a basketball court where attendees could shoot hoops with NBA stars, and ping pong tables.
We partnered with Fenella Kernebone, head curator of TEDxSydney to curate the performance and speaker program. Talent included:
• YouTube ‘beat- box sensation’ Tom Thum.
• London bombing survivor, Gill Hicks
• Mark Manson, author of ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F&*k’
• Andy Dexterity, who finished off day one with his rendition of Queen’s ‘Somebody to Love.’ Keynote and breakout sessions
For the keynote we created a custom- built stage that was ‘in the round’, which meant the audience surrounded the stage in a 360- degree design that was shaped like the Xerocon ‘pin logo,’ and for the breakouts we lowered in an X- shaped lighting installation where the four breakout sections were washed in different colours, enabling attendees to navigate with ease.
Day one concluded with networking drinks, where we built a Perspex stage over the pink pool and flew Lionel Cole in from Los Angeles.
The wrap party
We hosted a ‘Brisvegas’ themed wrap party at theatrical night club Cloudland, which comprised five themed rooms which featured a range of activations that were designed to encourage social posting and sharing globally.
These included the Rainbow Room, which featured a gold balloon installation and was filled throughout the evening as guests danced along to beats from party band Funk n’ Stuff, a Chapel experience which featured a custom made alter and real- life Elvis, who entertained and ‘married’ guests, and a Cigar Lounge concept, which featured a roulette table and croupier.
RESULTS
• The event saw over 3,300 guests.
• Delegate satisfaction was recorded at 8.3 out of 10.
• The #Xerocon hashtag saw 6.3K mentions 30.3K engagements on social media.
• The #Xerocon hashtag trended on Twitter from 9am on day two of the conference.
• Xerocon secured extensive press coverage across industry and mainstream media including Sky News, Forbes, The Australian Financial Review, The Herald Sun, The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, Stuff NZ (syndicated), CIO NZ, NZ Business, Campaign Asia, B&T and Spice News.
• A LIST Guide named Xerocon the country’s best event of 2018.
Cara Weers, Senior Event Manager at Xero said: “It was INVNT’s unmatched reputation to conceptualise, design and produce the world’s most memorable ‘live brand experiences’ and Xero’s commitment to excellence that led us to partner. Each member of the INVNT tribe share a challenger mindset, where status quo is never enough. This combined with their integrated approach and seamless delivery resulted in a jammed packed extravaganza full of engaging content and experiences, making it one of the best Xerocon’s yet!”
LINKS:
URL 1
https://youtu.be/zTaoVYc7J8A
URL 2
https://www.campaignasia.com/gallery/case-study- xerocon-brisbane/447174
URL 4
https://news.alistguide.com.au/2018/12/top-5-events-of-2018/