Xerocon Brisbane 2019 - 'The Coachella for Accountants'

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Vision

Vision

Leading accounting software company, Xero had three key objectives in mind for its Xerocon Brisbane event – Australasia’s largest technology conference for the accounting industry: to create an inspirational and educational experience that would encourage networking.

Xero selected INVNT to produce, manage and design all aspects of Xerocon Brisbane, including budget, venue, third-party vendors, speakers, the attendee journey and creative concepting.

Creative perspective

With Xero’s objectives firmly in mind, we leveraged our proprietary creative and strategic methodology known as INVNTion™ to extract the brand’s key messages and weave them into a consistent narrative. This narrative was used to inform the conceptualisation, design and production of the entire experience, resulting in a highly customised event that spoke to Xero’s brand values.

As a tribute to the ‘sunshine state’ we devised a Miami theme for the main event, which was evident across various touchpoints, from a 24-metre custom-built pink pool filled with 250,000 balls to a pink DJ booth where DJ Clariti set the tone across the two days.

We partnered with Fenella Kernebone, the head curator of TEDxSydney to curate the guest performance and speaker program, which featured talent such as YouTube ‘beat-box sensation’ Tom Thum and London bombing survivor, Gill Hicks.

We designed a 360-degree custom built stage for keynote presentations, and used four 12m x 7m custom made fab frame screens to created a cube structure which hung over the stage. We lowered in an X-shaped lighting installation for the breakout sessions, which created a visual division and enabled the audience to navigate to their designed zones with ease. When it came time for a keynote presentation, the X-shaped installation was lifted so the audience could enjoy them as a unified group again.

INVNT handled networking drinks at the end of day one, where we built a Perspex stage over the pool and flew Lionel Cole in from Los Angeles, and we also produced the ‘Brisvegas’ themed wrap party, which comprised five themed rooms that were designed so as to encourage social sharing globally.

Results

The 3,300 strong event was an immense success overall, with delegate satisfaction recorded at 8.3/10. The #Xerocon hashtag saw 6.3K mentions and 30.3K engagements on social media, meanwhile the hashtag trended on Twitter from 9am on day two of the conference.

Xerocon secured extensive press coverage across industry and mainstream media including Sky News, Forbes, The Australian Financial Review, The Herald Sun, The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, Stuff NZ (syndicated), CIO NZ, NZ Business, Campaign Asia, B&T and Spice News. A LIST Guide named Xerocon Brisbane the country’s best event of 2018.