Growing Community through Event Experiences

CLIENT Assembly Required LA

SCOPE BRAND STRATEGY / EVENT PRODUCTION

Meet the conference series that equips people to build better communities together.

THE CHALLENGE

As a modern agency in a challenging climate, we wanted to bring something new to our local community. Something that would provoke new thought and catalyze real change. As we began tossing around the idea of hosting a conference, we took a hard look at ways to do it better than the status quo. In Baton Rouge, we noticed two issues holding our creative community back. First, much of the great talent grown and educated in Louisiana leaves for more attractive markets. Second, the creative talent that does stay around remains insular, networking in isolation of other booming industries. Conferences that currently exist for creatives are most often big annual affairs that give attendees a temporary high, but do little by way of follow-through during the rest of the year. 

OUR GOALS

We know that great things happen when people come together. We believed we could amplify that effect by equipping a community with tools and a platform to continue those conversations. We established the following goals to guide our decision-making:

  • Unite professionals from industries that normally wouldn’t intersect;
  • Connect local people to national thinkers who will challenge their perspective; and
  • Empower attendees with inspiration and pragmatic advice to do great things in their communities.
THE SOLUTION

Assembly Required was a quarterly conference series that brings attendees a new experience and new conversations every three months. Each event invited hundreds of attendees to experience an unconventional venue, discuss a new theme, taste local chefs’ work, and interact with national speakers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders in an intimate setting. After the initial 4-part series, we launched the spin-off, Some Assembly Required, which brings all of the best aspects of the quarterly Assembly to smaller groups in intimate bi-monthly gatherings held at the new ThreeSixtyEight office.

Full Project Overview
In just one year, ThreeSixtyEight hosted 4 sold out Assemblies:

Women in Leadership · Innovators in Food · Masters of the Story · Creatives in Tech

  • Speakers
    0
  • Attendees
    0 +
  • States Represented
    0 +

Tasked with creating a visual identity to launch the series, our design team created a system that stood as a cohesive brand through four unique event experiences. This brand would be executed across environment, staging, print collateral, merch, digital advertising, marketing assets and more.

AT ITS CORE: A SPEAKER SERIES

Assembly Required is a speaker series with a twist. We set out to find top-notch professionals that would offer our guests unique insights and pragmatic advice. We didn’t search out career speakers. Instead, we coached real pros, the kind who get their hands dirty in their work, to give their best performance powered by designed slides to drive home their keynote and produce a show flow that engaged every member of the audience.

Watch the talks here.

“No matter the topic, I always walk away inspired with practical tips I can use both personally and professionally. And if that isn’t enough, the food is always on point. What can I say, it’s Assembly Required – you don’t miss it, period!”

— AMY PHILLIPS / CO-FOUNDER OF CULTIV8 CREATIVE
Achieving Virality

Nearly one year after speaking at Women in Leadership, we watched in awe as Dima Ghawi’s keynote was picked up from our website by Goalcast and shared across the world on Facebook. Dima’s message about shattering your limitations has now been viewed by over 39 million people and shared more than 78k times. You can watch Dima’s complete talk, along with all of our other speakers, on the AR website.

Authentic Sponsor Shoutouts

We desired a mutually-beneficial experience for our sponsors and attendees through authentic integrations of their brands within our events. Our sponsors enjoyed perks like direct access to our attendees during networking times, a platform for product samples and brand announcements, and shout-outs during the show through video production and integration into our slide design.

Improving the Conference Experience

In planning each event, we put intentional focus on all the extras that turn your typical speaker conference into unique event experiences. Some notable additions were: free coffee vouchers for meeting with new connections at local coffee shops after the event; local food and business showcases before each event; guided conversation prompts, and the Dear World storytelling workshop.

VIP Speaker Lunch

Perhaps our most impactful experience was the opportunity for about 40 VIPs to have lunch with the speaker of their choice (early bird tickets are #worthit). We were excited to see local attendees connecting with industry leaders, start-up founders, CEOs, and visionaries for genuine conversation and great advice. The VIP lunch was heavily mentioned as a highlight throughout post-event feedback.

Over 600 Tickets Sold

Through a synchrony of content creation, social media promotion, digital advertising, video production, and good old-fashioned outreach, our marketing team spread the word beyond our existing brand following to capture new fans and secure varied attendee rosters for each of our four sold-out events. The Assembly Required website saw 7.5k unique visitors over the year, and the Facebook account reached up to 1.7k people in a single day. 

AND IN THE END...
  • WOULD ATTEND AGAIN
    0 %
  • NEW BUSINESSES LAUNCHED
    0 +
  • TSE HOURS INVESTED
    > 0
Previous Case Study

Raising $250,000 for clean water
Next Case Study

Telecom Recruiting Goes Tech
Ready to get experiential?

Get In Touch

Check out our book!
x