Achieving authentic connection virtually
The last six months have been an exercise in turning lemons into lemonade for companies across the events industry. From convention centers transformed into hospital wings to credentials companies pivoting to create PPE, we are proud to be part of an industry that manages to evolve again and again.
At Grae, we wanted to use our skills to support another industry hurting in the wake of Covid: the arts. With that in mind, we teamed up with ECHT, a Brooklyn-based arts nonprofit providing space & opportunities to artists of all disciplines through wide-ranging programming, workshops and community-oriented events. We offered our services pro bono to help ECHT bring their five year anniversary celebration and fundraiser to life.. digitally.
The virtual event, RECONNECHT, took place on August 15th and was a huge success. While you can read more about the events’ objectives and achievements in our case study, below we share how our workflow allowed us to produce a virtual event driven by connection.
Event Vision Statement:
Because of our core audience’s experience at our 5th Anniversary Celebration, they will know ECHT is an important part of the fabric of the arts community, they will feel a buzz that sustains beyond the event and they will formalize their involvement with ECHT.
Metric Identification
In collaboration with our client’s we establish the vision, goals, and KPIs to measure them against in the end.
As we would with any client, we began with a deep dive on ECHT’s core values to truly understand the “why” behind the organization. After speaking with each member of the team, watching videos of past events and digging deep on social media platforms, Alex Rogers led the ECHT team through a visioning exercise to give form to the event. Over four sessions we were able to identify key objectives and establish KPIs accordingly. We also walked away with a vision statement to filter all ideas through moving forward.
Ideation & Integration
Collectively we get all the ideas on the table, good and bad, then pick the best and move from ideation to integration.
Ideation spanned from which event platform to use (Grae now has a database of more than 100 virtual event platforms to choose from!) to event naming and branding. True to our promise, we brought all of our ideas to the table and sorted the good from the bad. For example, encouraging artists to share what they have been working on during quarantine was a great idea that resulted in the beautiful compilation video to the right, while asking artists to contribute to an outdoor art shrine in Brooklyn didn’t mesh with the vision for an inclusive event that would allow attendees from across the country to participate instead of staying local.
The event was framed around coming together, both to celebrate five years of ECHT, but also to connect artists and audience while Covid still keeps us physically apart. With that in mind, combined with a love of puns, the name RECONNECHT was born. Branding included vibrant colors that would pop on the digital background and symbolize the diversity of artistic mediums and community members at the event. The branding also included an image of hand clasping together to symbolize connection.
To stay true to ECHT’s mission of authentic expression and genuine connection, we chose the platform that would be most accessible for a wide range of attendees, and allow for audience participation: Zoom. To ensure a unique and quality experience we proposed a combination of live and pre-recorded content that would flow seamlessly from one moment to the next. We were also honored to be able to work with our Technical Director, Ryan Drozd, a seasoned sound engineer and tour manager, who’s been honing virtual tech and sound management to ensure all the artists sounded like you were sitting in the room with them.
Constant Communication
On-site we bring full transparency on how we are tackling issues that inevitably arise, and how we continue to make decisions based on our original framework
Once the workback plans for marketing, outreach and production were confirmed, Grae and ECHT stayed in constant communication leading up to and during the event. From weekly meetings to a dedicated Slack channel we stayed aligned, made sure nothing slipped through the cracks and addressed obstacles collaboratively as they appeared. By doing so we were able to incorporate several last minute partnerships and promotions, raise more than three quarters of the fundraising goal before the actual event, and manage through last minute tech rehearsals.
During the event itself we successfully tracked live fundraising, cued live performers and speakers, and managed a few surprise technical issues with ease. Between Grae and ECHT’s teams 388 slack messages were sent the week of the event!
Review & Reconciliation
Just as important as planning and execution is the reconciliation of budgets and measuring our success against established KPIs
The event technically ended at 9:30pm, but the dance party following lasted for hours. Our work didn’t stop there either. When measured against the vision, goals and KPIs established three months earlier, RECONNECHT was a major success. While we loved helping ECHT engage new audiences and smash attendance and fundraising goals, the most inspiring part was feeling the connection in the *zoom* room. “It floors me that even on Zoom, the energy for ECHT was palpable,” Sandi, a RECONNECHT attendee shared.
From ideation to execution, we are thrilled to have been part of this event. If you are interested in learning more about ECHT or in attending future ECHT events, visit their website or follow them on social media at @weareecht.