NEXT 2018

We spent our second year of building the NEXT conference brand focused on building on the community we had started in our first year. During the conceptual phase of the NEXT 2018 identity, we looked at a few illustrative and experiential concepts for the visuals. Ultimately though, we decided to literally focus on the people who were doing amazing things for their business and the world using Hitachi technology.

We worked with our customer advocacy team to start implementing a new process - as they filmed their customer story videos, we sent a still photographer along to capture some portraits of them in their environments. We secured permission to use these to promote the NEXT event, paired them with quotes, and treated them with a colorful duotone to make the experience come alive onsite.

While working out the signage, we also looked at some more unique sponsorship opportunities - like branded escalators, elevator banks, and enormous column wraps. In general session, we pushed the envelope by creating motion-based keynotes for our speakers.

Our closing party was the showstopper of the whole event. We shut down the Gaslamp District in San Diego and threw a huge street party with food, drinks, roaming entertainment, giant swing sets, and more. The team had a blast finding clever opportunities to extend the NEXT brand into the streets of San Diego.

In connection with all this, we also did some targeted and location-based advertising for our company brand throughout the city and airports so that attendees really felt the power of our brand throughout their entire stay from start to finish.