Event Spotlight: There’s No Keeping Connection at Bay
When it comes to virtual events, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. Bringing in experts, like our trusted production partner EPMC, enabled us to put together a temporary studio inside Bay Alarm Company’s headquarters and produce a seamless virtual award ceremony during the pandemic.
We all faced more than our fair share of twists and turns thanks to the pandemic. For Bay Alarm Company, the challenge was how to pull off their annual awards celebration in the virtual realm. One thing was for sure… the show must go on!
Bay Alarm is a tight-knit, family-focused company that is growing fast, and maintaining that family-like culture is extremely important. Once a year, they celebrate the company’s accomplishments with over 1,000 employees across all departments and multiple states. This awards celebration typically happens under one roof. Obviously, those plans had to change in 2020.
Sound the (Bay) Alarm!
How do you pull off a highly anticipated in-person event when gathering in large groups is out of the question? You bring it into the virtual realm. In order to ensure the same heart and soul was poured into the virtual event, Bay Alarm partnered with Kennedy Events to make their vision a reality.
The program needed to hit many favorite elements from their in-person event. Highlighting superstar volunteers and employees who went above and beyond with customers was a great way to show off what makes the Bay Alarm family so special. The program also needed to provide an opportunity to hear from leadership about the state of the company; something that was especially critical during the pandemic. Though they wouldn’t be able to walk across an actual stage, Bay Alarm wanted to spotlight the award winners live and ensure that they didn’t miss out on their moment in the spotlight. One final challenge: creating a space before the stage program started that allowed employees to “bump into and catch up with” colleagues that they hadn’t seen in months.
Pick the Right Platform
When it comes to executing this jam-packed program, choosing the right platform was essential. For Bay Alarm, Hopin was the answer. The all-in-one event management platform checked the boxes needed for this event to be a success.
Producing a safe and socially distanced ceremony also presented an interesting challenge to create a meet-and-mingle aspect that would engage the audience through the screen. Of all the platforms we considered, Hopin most closely replicated the kind of spontaneous meeting that you would have at an in-person event. For Bay Alarm’s event, networking was a necessity; this event is the one time each year that the company’s entire team is able to come together. The solution was a series of virtual rooms created in Hopin which provided engagement opportunities for attendees in smaller groups—and we had a team of experts waiting in the wings to assist the attendees with any troubleshooting issues. Themed rooms like “Women of Bay” and “15-Year Club” encouraged a sense of community while creating a dedicated space to foster connections. The “Get to know the CEO” room was an employee favorite.
Once the show began, everyone felt like they had had that important opportunity to catch up with colleagues and settle in to enjoy the show. To further enhance the family feel, by integrating with Zoom, we were able to highlight award winners from their homes and give them an opportunity to appear on a virtual stage for their well-deserved accolades. Cue the applause.
The Right Location and the Right Team
Now that we had the right platform and all the program elements lined up, we needed to pull them all together with an incredible MC. By enlisting dynamic and engaging VPs from within the company, we were able to bring cohesion and humor to the evening. How did we pull this off? Location, location, location!
When you think about virtual events, “location” might not be the first thing that comes to mind because we assume everyone is set up in front of a computer at home. However, producing an event that combines both live and recorded elements actually required the creation of a temporary broadcast studio at Bay Alarm’s headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area. From this central location, we were able to set up a stage for all the live moments with the company VPs along with our team of technical experts to handle all of the behind-the-scenes magic.
The key to success for Bay Alarm’s virtual award ceremony was putting together a team of master timekeepers and tech taskmasters to coordinate the combination of pre-recorded content, live-streamed speeches, and the virtual awards’ stage. Bringing in experts, like our trusted production partner EPMC, enabled us to produce a seamless virtual event during the pandemic. Program queues, scripts, slides, and winners waiting in the Zoom-wings were just a few of the carefully coordinated components of this complex event that our team blended together into a beautifully packaged program. The results were engaging, informative, and heartfelt from start to finish.
Stay Compliant with COVID Regulations
Obviously, managing a live broadcast during a pandemic is a challenge. While hosting the event in the virtual realm safeguarded Bay Alarm’s employees against possible health risks, we came into the broadcast studio with an extensive list of COVID compliance rules. With an on-site technical team, you must keep public health restrictions in mind. Having a COVID compliance officer on-site to enforce the strict pandemic protocols, ensured that the entire team was able to safely inhabit the same space.
Ready to Start Planning Your Next Event?
With rules and regulations around COVID in constant shift, Kennedy Events can help you navigate the ins and outs of the new event reality. Schedule some time with us today and learn how our expertise in both the virtual realm and live, in-person events can take your company to the next level while helping you ensure the health and safety of your attendees.
MAGGIE KENNEDY
Maggie Kennedy is the co-owner of Kennedy Events is a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.
About Kennedy Events
Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
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