Include
Wunderman Thompson / Seattle / 2021
A DIVERSITY & INCLUSION EVENT
The task at hand.
In December of 2020, our Microsoft Events client casually mentioned they were working on a global Diversity & Inclusion event. Naturally, I shoved my ACD peers aside and rushed to beg for the assignment. They reached out to my team to tackle the digital venue experience. Our task was to assemble a digital experience that would include comms strategy, registration, speakers rollout, live event, and evergreen content.
As an immigrant working in a white-man-dominated industry, the idea of me being able to partake in something so close to my heart, and doing this at a global scale was literally an item on my bucket list. I wanted to do whatever I could to help spread this message and I’m proud of how my team and I were able to impact the work. Plus, we got to work with Satya Nadella and Michelle Obama—sorta.
CHALLENGE & AUDIENCE
Microsoft needed to solidify its commitment to increasing diversity and strengthen inclusion without making it about its offerings. This was a galvanizing global event meant to jump-start the conversation amongst employees, future employees, partners, customers, media, and D&I influencers. Positioning Microsoft as the convener and keeping the marketing agenda out of it was imperative.
Furthermore, we needed to coordinate internal and external attendees and their content.
Strategy
Our strategist put together a powerful yet simple plan. We had two channels to communicate key beats from the event Learn and Reflect, Listen and Understand, Engage and Act messaging pillars. Email, social, and our registration site work in symphony for four weeks, all comms had to address the full spectrum of audience needs, to increase relevance and anticipation. We would equip people with the right tools to explore the content, enable them to connect with each other to exchange experiences and POVs, and providing them with an evergreen experience for them to come back or share these values for themselves.
The final product.
The work was broken into five phases, from registration to evergreen, to facilitate the flow of registration, content creation, speakers announcements, content programming, etc.
I guess this is where I tell you how difficult everything was, and I wouldn't be lying, however, as difficult as it was, the team pulled through with a positive attitude against all challenges that such a short deadline brings with. Nah, instead I’m going to tell you I’m so proud of my lil crew of two designers, one UX designer, one accessibility expert, strategist, account supervisor, and of course our fearless project manager.
PHASE ONE AND TWO: REGISTRATION
This phase shed light on the dates of the event, highlighted some speakers, and grounded the user on the goal, dynamics, and tools available for the event. There were a couple of social posts that went along with this launch and an email to MSFT employees.
The concept of sketching came from the idea that nothing in the world is as important as humans and that it is only when we come together in unison that we can create a better world.
PHASE THREE: LIVE EVENT
Lights out. We intentionally made this phase look and feel a little more intimate, almost as if you have walked into the event in person, everything darkens up and the stage is the main focal.
We used Pubble to enable attendees to communicate via chat with us as well as between themselves.
Users were able to organize their day by selecting the sessions they would like to attend by adding them to “my event”. Tool pages were enabled at this point to facilitate the search of content and sessions.
