360 Live Media - Best Association Meeting

Company: 360 Live Media, Washington, DC
Company Description: 360 Live Media is an event strategy, marketing and design agency that helps associations maximize the impact of their events to advance their mission. We drive tangible business results by helping organizations modernize their approach to events, membership, and revenue.
Nomination Category: Event Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Conferences & Meetings - Association Meeting

Nomination Title: ASCEND: Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration and New Discovery

The date on which this nominated event took place: 16-18 November 2020

Describe the nominated event's communications objectives and how it met those objectives, including the event's genesis, development, performance, and results to date (up to 525 words).

THE OPPORTUNITY

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recognized that its 50-year-old event, Space Forum, was at an inflection point. To meet the future needs of the space industry and humanity, AIAA partnered with 360 Live Media to develop a bold new experience called ASCEND.

ASCEND stands for Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery. It is a first-of-its-kind event convening the entire space ecosystem—not just traditional players like defense, commerce, policymakers, and universities, but also non-traditional industries like mining, pharmaceutical, and hospitality, which have an equally vital role to play in advancing humanity’s off-world future.

DEFINING THE VISION

360 Live Media established five core principles to guide ASCEND:

-A new purpose and vision to generate an experience that unites the ecosystem of the finest thinkers, entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, and space industry luminaries.
-A new audience targeting and acquisition approach that focuses on a well-defined population.
-A new curriculum methodology that establishes the macro-, meta-, and micro-level topics that frame the experience.
-A new physical and virtual environment that supports this new strategy, aligning people, topics, and problem-solving with outcome-focused work.
-A new brand that stands out from other space events.

BUILDING AND LAUNCHING THE NEW EVENT

360 Live Media led the development of the ASCEND branding, curriculum, economic pro forma, pricing model, venue selection, virtual strategy, website, public relations, media planning and buying, and integrated marketing campaigns driving acquisition of attendees and industry partners. The strategic pillars that made ASCEND successful were:

Be the platform of the future: For the first time, the aerospace technical community shared the same stage with non-technical professionals to foster greater collaboration and a shared vision of a common future. The collaboration began 6-months before the inaugural event via the ASCENDxSeries, which were niche, one-day virtual summits that connected sponsors, speakers, and attendees. This free, virtual event series offered the ideal scenario for prospecting non-member leads for the pinnacle event in November.

Attract the right people: 360 Live Media used data and insights derived from persona research to drive a successful acquisition campaign that attracted both the endemic and non-endemic target audience.

Be unapologetically different: To differentiate itself from other space events, ASCEND employed nontraditional marketing strategies that included geofencing and guerilla marketing activation campaigns at competitive events, securing a panel on the coveted SXSW 2020 lineup, producing an early-adopter video campaign, and launching an ambassador program.

RESULTS

ASCEND registrations were acquired more than one year before the doors opened. The inaugural year of -ASCEND beat the registration goal by 50%—bringing in more than 3,000 innovators, disruptors and visionaries from 32 countries.
-Media coverage of ASCEND was earned on WIRED, The Motley Fool, The Washington Post, Quartz, GeekWire, CNN Business, Forbes, Tech Crunch, POLITICO Space, Brink, and NPR.
-186,293 individuals interacted with the event website. The bounce rate was incredibly low at only 5.26%.
-The event design included workshops, pitch sessions, town halls, debates, networking receptions, 200+ diverse sessions and a dynamic partner Engagement Zone.
-The nonendemic, nonmember, science-interested public gave ASCEND a very high NPS rating of 44.