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Event Production Showcase: A Financial Firm’s National Leadership Event

When a Chicago-based finance company started planning its full-day leadership meeting for 600+ company executives from across the US, the firm partnered with L37 Creative to manage event production details and inspire attendees with powerful visuals, engaging content, and interactive breakout sessions.

The finance company’s marketing executive, charged with selecting the event production vendor, explained why he chose L37: “Everyone else sold me technology and service, but L37 sold brand strategy. They focused on understanding our company’s vision for the event, and then they added to it from a visual and technical perspective.”

During an initial planning session, the company’s key executives were brought together to clarify what a successful event includes and what they wanted to accomplish. “We had a lot of people contributing and sharing different ideas and L37 captured and distilled those down to expertly define our goals – which were to magnify our new brand image and inspire all 600 attendees,” said the marketing executive.

With expectations defined, L37 advised the company on how best to maximize their budget.

The basic setup included a mid-sized stage, multiple screens, and two cameras in the main room, and a similar, smaller setup in three breakout rooms. While the setup is standard for many presentations of this type, a limited budget put some pressure on L37 to find a creative solution so the attendee experience was not compromised. With budget management in mind, L37 recommended keeping breakout rooms simple and invest in making the main stage the focus of the event experience. With eye-grabbing visuals displayed on LED TVs surrounding the entrance to the ballroom, L37 helped the finance company usher its attendees into a room that was equally stimulating.

“The main stage is where the company c-suite will speak, it is where the company will make its first and last impression, and it is where attendees will spend the most time. When budgets get tight, we focus the budget where the client focuses the experience,” said L37 Creative’s Director of Live Events, Evan Thompson.

To energize the setting and pull through the company’s brand, L37 designed a stage set that framed the focus of the experience in a visually appealing way. This set included a combination of four branded, glowing towers, a customized stage backdrop, and graphics on the screens that matched the look and feel of the room.

“The stage they designed was just the right amount of pop. It made every executive feel like they worked for a cutting-edge organization, but it was not over the top. We will use this setup again at similar functions,” said the financial firm’s marketing executive.

The client came up with additional ideas during the show, which were embraced by L37. As a joke, one of the executives asked about having his own walk-up music. When L37 said they could easily accommodate, the rest of the executives asked for their own as well. The exercise added energy to both the presentations and the crowd.

“It’s not simply that L37 is prepared for the unexpected; I think they actually enjoy it! They are nimble and capable of making things happen quickly – and if they’re feeling stressed, you’d never know it,” noted the marketing executive.

“Ensuring success for our clients is why we do what we do,” noted Evan Thompson. “Whether it’s a sales meeting for 5,000 or a leadership roundtable for 50, we challenge ourselves to always up our game and over-deliver every chance we get.”