Designing and Building a Brand for a Conference or Annual Meeting
The artwork for an event is the first step in building a brand for a conference or annual meeting, and serves as the foundation for all collateral materials that will be created throughout the year. The process to create a comprehensive event brand begins over a year before the event. The 2016 WOCN Society & CAET Joint Conference is a great example of how a conference brand is built and how all the collateral material created for the event comes together.
The Foundation
The 2016 WOCN Society conference is in Montreal, and the theme is “Crossing Borders, Breaking Boundaries.” The artwork used a pattern of geometric shapes with a shattering effect to represent the boundaries the WOCN Society is breaking in 2016. A color palette, fonts, banner, and logo were all part of the artwork.
Get Ready for Registration
Once the initial artwork is approved and completed, collateral material is produced continuously throughout the year and right up to the day of the event. The WOCN Society started by producing a save-the-date postcard and a special reminder on the back for attendees to get their passports ready. Save-the-date and registration open ads were created for the Society’s journal. We also created roadblock ads for the web advertising that registration was open. “Proud Supporter” brag badges were designed for members to upload to their social media pages, and social media banners were designed for the WOCN Society’s Twitter and Facebook pages. We created an interactive registration form along with a call for abstracts with an eye-catching gloss spot varnish that was printed and mailed to members. An infographic-style, two-page ad highlighted special statistics about the meeting such as the amount of symposia, sessions, networking events, attendees, etc. Finally, a 16-page registration brochure includes all the information about the conference.
Going the Extra Mile
The WOCN Society thought outside the box for this meeting and collaborated with creative and digital media teams to create a unique and special animated feature for all attendees that addressed all the things attendees need to know before they go to an event in Toronto. The video followed the animated character, Nurse Nancy, through all the steps involved in getting ready for a meeting outside of the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx80EHsjPmk
Several other materials were created specifically for use onsite at the meeting. These included a huge 3-D booth graphic and flyers. A miniature keycard schedule-at-a-glance booklet is a way for members to have the schedule on hand at all times. APP graphics, such as a multiple splash images of varying sizes, a home page banner, and App store icons, were created for the WOCN Society’s Annual Conference app. PowerPoint templates were created for all the speakers to use on their presentations. A group of workbooks were designed and printed for the members at the event. Last, a 68-page final program was prepared for the event and includes schedules, speakers, and advertisements, along with a save-the-date ad with the new artwork for the 2017 meeting!
