Deloitte - Best Corporate Event

Company: Deloitte, New York, NY
Company Description: Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services. Our global network of member firms and related entities in more than 150 countries and territories.
Nomination Category: Event Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Corporate & Community - Corporate Event

Nomination Title: 2020 Deloitte Technology Fast 500

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is a leading technology awards program. For more than 25 years, it has recognized the most innovative and fastest-growing public and private technology and life sciences companies in North America. This year, due to the pandemic, we would have to celebrate winners in a much different way—we would have to pivot from separate in-person events across the country to virtual events while continuing the tradition of honoring and celebrating our winners. We set out to create a unified national-level event experience while still maintaining the regional winner events where we could continue nurturing our relationships while making new connections.

Rankings on the Fast 500 are revealed during celebratory events, which incentivizes companies to attend. Instinctively, we knew a standard virtual event or Zoom call wouldn’t align with our technology-centric brand and program. So, we synthesized feedback from past events and program sponsors, leadership, and local marketplace teams to inform and design a compelling virtual experience. We executed atwo-pronged virtual event strategy of hosting: 1) a premier national event followed by 2) regional winner celebration breakout events.

We were able to celebrate all U.S. winning companies for the first time in the 26 years of the program. We opened the celebration with a unified national event and created 10 customized, unique regional winner events that expanded our reach, deepened our impact, and elevated the program. Once attendees joined the platform, they were seamlessly moved from the national plenary session featuring a high-profile keynote speaker to their respective regional event, where they experienced their own local leaders, speakers, content, and sponsors in addition to announcing their market’s winning companies’ rankings.

The virtual event platform allowed for a broadcast quality, mixed reality experience that projected speakers onto a virtual stage in front of a virtual audience. We elevated the production value and user experience through professionally produced videos, including a Fast 500 program overview and region-specific winner countdown videos. We also knew we needed a high-draw, nationally known keynote speaker, so we tapped tech luminary Guy Kawasaki for the national plenary event. To make the virtual events as engaging as possible, we offered live Group Chat, one-to-one ‘Connect’ messaging, and a ‘Resources’ section within the platform that offered relevant content, thoughtware, links, and surveys for attendees. Additionally, we created a sense of community for winners by offering video networking. This allowed winners to submit and view short video messages from other winners and offered links to our Fast 500 Winners’ Community site.

Overall, the shift to virtual achieved some impressive results, with 500 attendees, 424 winning company attendees (+33% YOY, 85% of the overall attendance). The most important metric was the number of winning companies that attended, and we netted a 48% YOY increase compared to 2019’s in-person events. Plus, we had strong penetration with our desired audience, with 76% being C-suite or Executive.

Leadership, sponsors, and winning companies reported it was the best virtual experience they had attended all year. We built on and strengthened our relationships with the winning companies, creating future business opportunities.To date, we’ve associated$5.24M of new or add-on business opportunities from winning companies.

Optionally, list the appropriate creative and production credits for the nominated event, such as the following: Advertising Agency/City: Client: Art Director: Cinematographer: Creative Director: Designer: Director: Illustrator/City: Music Producer/City: Photographer/City: Printer/City: Producer: Production Company/City: Programmer: Writer: Web Development Firm/City:

All work was completed by ourin-house agency,The Green Dot Agency.

To view an overview video of the 2020 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 virtual event:
https://tc.touchcast.com/s/i5rp83ipzb (Password: fast500)