PROJECT

Client: ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America)
Event: ICBA Live! 2020
Location: Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, Orlando, FL
Date: March 2020

2020 was our second year working with ICBA, so it was the first full-cycle year where we were able to not only start at the very beginning with them, but we could also leverage our work from the previous year to help build on the attendee experience.

PARAMETERS

This conference usually features three days of keynote general sessions. Here’s some of what the client wanted us to help them accomplish in those days:

1. First and foremost, they wanted to engage and entertain their attendees. These community bankers traveled from all over the country to be there, and they had a right to expect not only a good show, but a fun one. And with the show being in Orlando, the client asked us to incorporate entertainment elements that reflected Central Florida’s theme park and attractions culture.

2. They also really liked an element we had introduced in 2019, which was creating video content onsite from interviews with attendees and staff. The association leadership particularly liked the idea of honoring the staff and their contributions, and the members appreciated hearing from each other on topical issues. So ultimately, they wanted us to integrate a similar approach in 2020.

3. Another key element was recognizing the association’s 90th anniversary. And because this was happening in 2020 there was a lot of emphasis on vision/the future, so the client also wanted us to find ways to feature the next generation of community bankers - namely, the children of the attendees. So we needed to celebrate the past, and then look actively to the future.

PROCESS

To accomplish the first set of objectives, we brought our partners at ODD-O-TS' Entertainment aboard to help color and flavor all three days of sessions with diverse characters and acts. We identified options that would call to mind the various theme parks in the area, and came up with specific opening entertainment for each of the three days, including an interactive Day 1 walk-in experience.

We even came up with a way to bring back some of the entertainers for the Day 3 finale (more on that below).

Addressing the second set of objectives required a good bit of advance planning, and more than a little elbow grease.

Part of addressing the 90th anniversary meant hearing from staff members who had years of history with the association, many of whom would not be onsite at the Conference. To overcome this, we arranged for small interview shoots in the client’s two offices - one in central Minnesota, the other in Washington DC - in the months leading up the event.

We then interviewed the remaining staff members on the first day of load-in in Orlando, and our onsite editor got right to work to ensure that the first video would be ready for the opening general session.

Meanwhile, the onsite video crew got to work collecting interviews with attendees (and attendees’ kids!) that we would use for video content to be played during the three days of sessions.

The third set of objectives was the most challenging to bring to life, but they were also really rewarding.

With the 90th anniversary successfully addressed in the opening video featuring long-tenured members of the staff, our focus turned to messaging around future planning, business succession, and above all, kids to represent the future. We worked young people into the show everywhere we could, including an 11-year-old singer to perform the national anthem, and an honor guard from the local high school JROTC.

We also pitched a finale that would see the now-familiar attendee interview videos transition into sound bites from their kids, and then into a Day 3 live on-stage finale with a choir of young singers and an encore performance from the interactive entertainers.

General sessions successfully book-ended!

OUTCOME

The elements all came together beautifully. The attendees really engaged with the entertainment, the five onsite videos we created helped tell a developing story over the course of three days, and the kids in the show were a hit - particularly the pint-sized super-stars in the children’s choir.

Our client Jan Meyer, Executive Vice President of Sauk Centre Operations, Conventions & Meetings at ICBA, had this to say:

“Working with Odyssey Creative has been an amazing partnership! They are extremely creative and have a unique ability to take our concepts, no matter how vague or detailed, and make them come to life in so many different facets of messaging from digital to live entertainment. They are always willing to go the extra mile for the best outcome.“

Our two top priorities are a great show and a happy client, so we’re going to record this as a W.

Here’s a quick look at the finished product:

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ADDITIONAL STORY POINTS

Another part of our scope of work was developing the motion graphics package for this project. We were directed to use the show’s approved color palette to develop similar but incrementally different looks for each day.

Incidentally, the COVID-19 crisis was literally unfolding during this event, so our whole team will remember this conference as the time when we coached presenters NOT to connect when they greeted each other onstage. We usually actively encourage it because contact shows warmth and connection between people to the audience, but this time we had other advice:

The Odyssey Creative team is a little bit different from show to show - depending on the scope of work, the size of the project, and the specific skill sets required. This was our core team for ICBA Live 2020 (not pictured: our onsite videographer David, and our onsite editor Cameron).