Opportunity
The Hughes annual sales and marketing meeting brings together senior executives, engineers, and sales leaders from around the globe to recap their accomplishments, share their goals, and excite the company for the coming year.
Hughes teamed with TalkingTree Creative for the 20th year in a row to create a live experience with a hybrid component – their first live event since the pandemic. TalkingTree Creative coordinated and managed each division’s presentations with the collaboration of the Hughes team, while weaving a cohesive motivational message (Hughes – The Force of the Future!) and motivating attendees through the addition of our own original content.
All planning, creative, coaching, rehearsing and engineering had to be achieved virtually with few exceptions. Due to the uncertainty caused by the ongoing pandemic, the pre-production timeline was extremely short. Then, it was interrupted and restarted with a new date one month away.
The Solution
To create an immersive experience for the audience, TalkingTree Creative designed a visually engaging stage set situated in the corner of the ballroom with two projection surfaces (11x 35’) and one center screen as the backdrop to the stage. To save time on our tight deadline, we used the same stage and screen layout last used in 2020, but it was completely refreshed to look new and unique.
Because we didn’t know how many people would be able to travel and approximately 50% of the attendees were local, we planned a virtual component with the ability to stream the live event to the remote audience. This also enabled us to bring in presenters remotely, so they could appear onstage with the other members of their presentation team. In the end, we had most attendees at the live event and only a few online. All the presenters were able to make it in person, so that part of the capability offered a useful insurance policy.
Using the center screen as a digital set gave each presentation its own character and allowed for quick transitions between segments. To make the presenters’ material more accessible, TalkingTree Creative turned technical information into cinematic presentations and incorporated the Force of the Future theme throughout. Each of the presenters performed in a dynamic environment, which allowed them to deliver deep emotional impact and resulted in great audience retention.
The partnership between TalkingTree Creative and the Hughes event team enabled us to pull off an entirely successful production.
Impact
Employees attended this meeting and engaged in the experience. Not only were the stakeholders of the event elated, but also attendees commented that they actually got goosebumps due to their strong emotional reaction. The onscreen material also provided entertainment due to the planned interaction between the presenters on stage and the original videos displayed.
Hughes – The Force of the Future! proved to be an incredibly successful motivational theme, exciting the audience for the upcoming year. The company as a whole was able to communicate to each other a clear strategy and direction for the future, and moreover, inspired each other to think of new ways to continue growing their company.
