ServiceNow - Best Employee Engagement Event

Company: ServiceNow, Santa Clara, CA
Company Division/Group:ServiceNow Strategic Events
Company Description: ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) is making the world of work, work better for people. Our cloud based platform and solutions deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity for employees and the enterprise. For more information, visit: www.servicenow.com.
Nomination Category: Event Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Corporate & Community - Employee Engagement Event

Nomination Title: Sales Kickoff 2021

Taking a live annual Sales Kickoff that’s about bringing the global sales organization together for “big moments” of recognition, team building, and networking and transforming it into an engaging, and educational virtual experience—that was our challenge for Sales Kickoff 2021 (SKO21).

We set out to develop three days of content and created an agenda for each salesperson based on geography and role. Content was to be bite-sized and served at an attendee-friendly pace, in a follow the sun delivery to accommodate our global audience.

A “Workflow Revolution” theme—playing off of ServiceNow’s new “Let’s Workflow It” corporate campaign—was weaved throughout the program.

Program elements that made SKO21 awesome included:

Opening Keynote featured upbeat music, executives dressed up as revolutionaries, and short clips highlighting 2020 successes. Chief Revenue Officer and SKO21 host Kevin Haverty encouraged at-home participation by asking people to repeat key messages following his lead, generating a sense of togetherness.

Awards & Recognition Segment, a tuxedoed Haverty “zoom bombed” unsuspecting Top Performer award winners during staged meetings with their managers.

Account Team Simulation Challenge—4,000 SKOers participated in this sales simulation training. Teams were selected ahead of time, with salespeople auto directed to their assigned group from the digital platform.

SKO21 Platform—SKOers joined their sessions from one single-player experience, through predetermined agendas—no need to build an agenda or worry about what was coming up next. The player interface included components to create sense of community and fun:

-Hype videos played before content
-Filler videos, including photos of our salespeople from around the globe
-Animated shark (Sales Kickoff mascot) emoji added to Chat

SKO21 Kit—SKOers received a package with items to enhance their experience—Chromecast device; SKO21 socks; “Workflow Revolution” branded fedora, a branded coaster with offer to purchase their favorite beverage and expense it; and more.

Birds of a Feather sessions—During registration, SKOers selected their top three choices from a list of hobbies. This data was used to create live, region-specific talks. Sessions included:

-Golf with PGA golfer Rickie Fowler
-Football with former Manchester United player Gary Neville
-Travel with Travel Channel’s Samantha Brown
-Fitness with American Ninja Warrior co-host Akbar Gbajabiamila
-Cooking with celebrity chef Curtis Stone

Closing Celebration— Our production team created an MTV-worthy music video using clips of our in-house band playing from home. The concert aired on a platform built just for SKO21 that enabled attendees to watch the video together and chat. All were encouraged to use the Chromecast device (see SKO21 Kit) to cast the concert to their big screens, turn on their cameras, and get their families in on fun!

This first-ever virtual Sales Kickoff offered touch points to motivate, align, educate, and inspire attendees. It was deemed an overwhelming success by ServiceNow executive team: “We gave the Events team carte blanche and, in ServiceNow style, we have raised the bar, set the new standard, and shown we can excel in any environment!!”

Attendee survey results exceeded expectations with ratings averaging 4.8 and above “I have never been more pumped! Being virtual, I never thought we could capture the power that this event did”.