200+ Guest Classy Evening Virtual Event
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Each year OnBoard holds an evening reception to present their Annual Study report and celebrate the presentation of the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Award to an outstanding woman board member. This highly anticipated annual event was important to OnBoard and the 2020 event was scheduled for November 11, 2020.
As the date for the 28th Annual Study and the presentation of the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Award drew closer, it became evident to the OnBoard leadership that the event would need to be held virtually. Lisa Robinson, President, OnBoard Inc., reached out to the NeOlé team to find out how the fun, joy, engagement and celebration that guests of the live event have come to expect over the years could be transported to a virtual environment.
When Lisa approached Neolé, she had a pretty good idea of how this classy evening should unfold but wondered how to do it and in a manner that worked within their budget.
Lisa expected 200-300 guests, and she envisioned that an important part of the evening would be small-group “receptions” held in breakout rooms that people could move between by themselves. OnBoard was planning to send charcuterie boards and small bottles of champagne to all the guests to enjoy during the reception.
After the reception, Lisa envisioned everyone being brought together in a central space for the presentation of the Annual Study and to hear the keynote speaker, Mariah Stackhouse, KPMG brand ambassador and LPGA Tour player. The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Award would then be presented to the 2020 recipient, Cynthia Day, President and CEO of Citizens Trust Bank.
Neolé met with Lisa to understand her vision and make recommendations on how to make her vision a reality.
Lisa was concerned about ensuring the sponsors were recognized for their contributions, and we created slides displaying the sponsor logos that were shown as people arrived at the event in Zoom, as well as during Lisa’s presentation. Since November 11 was Veteran’s Day in the US, Lisa wanted to recognize the day with musical interludes of the songs of the five military elements throughout the evening. NeOlé created a playlist with the music and played them between segments of the event. We worked with Lisa to coordinate her role as MC and to understand how best to support the presentation of the Annual Study with slides. Lisa had arranged for a video to be recorded of the socially distanced award presentation to Cynthia Day, and NeOlé edited the video to be shown during the evening.
Finally, for the reception, we recommended breakout rooms named with well-known golfing terms (e.g., the 19th hole, the green, hole-in-one, etc.). We gave the guests the ability to see who was in each reception room and visit their friends by joining whichever rooms they wanted.
In the week leading up to the event, we worked with Lisa to arrange rehearsals with all presenters, the keynote speaker and the award recipient. During the rehearsals, we practiced slides, moderating Q & A, and showing videos. We prepared a virtual meeting guide for OnBoard to send out to all attendees, with tips for ensuring a smooth and seamless experience.
“Before learning of Neolé and meeting the team, I had considerable angst about an upcoming event that is usually celebratory. The technical logistics and ‘room for errors’ were significant. NeOlé put my mind at ease and delivered. All of our participants, speakers, and the like, were very impressed with Neolé ’s professionalism and attention to detail – as was I.”
Over 200 guests
10 golf-themed breakout rooms with the ability to move freely between the rooms
Presentations interspersed with music from the five military elements in honour of Veteran’s Day
Audience interaction with keynote speaker through moderated Q&A
Socially distanced award presentation recorded and shown during the event