Dartmouth College’s Campaign Leadership Retreat
On September 24 & 25, 2020, Empire produced a two-day virtual leadership retreat for Dartmouth College’s Call to Lead Campaign.
The series of virtual plenary discussions, workshops and activities were designed to steward, educate and motivate Dartmouth’s most active Campaign volunteers to continue their good work and keep up momentum at a challenging time for philanthropy. The event was hosted by Dartmouth’s Call to Lead Campaign Executive Committee and was intended to sharpen focus and accelerate activity in the Call to Lead campaign’s 7th year, as well as facilitate the move to digital engagement for the majority of the year ahead.
The Leadership Retreat began with a plenary discussion of what is at stake for higher education in these unprecedent times. Dartmouth College President Phillip J. Hanlon and Laurel Richie, Chair of Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees outlined Dartmouth's plans to proceed with purpose, empathy, and a heightened sense of possibility. Key members of the College’s leadership, board of trustees, and volunteers were then invited to actively participate in smaller, more intimate customized workshop sessions across areas of the virtual event platform.
Leveraging the unique capabilities of virtual event technologies to provide new and powerful opportunities for connecting and interacting, building community and celebrating, Empire created a fully custom, visually rich virtual event center, modeled on Dartmouth Hall, that incorporated a variety of virtual tools including a robust speaker directory, customized attendee profile pages, and a “Leadership Library” filled with resources that allowed Dartmouth College to plan, promote and execute the Leadership Retreat as a launch pad for future virtual events.
The virtual event platform, Virtual Dartmouth Hall, will serve as a facility for Dartmouth Advancement to conduct engagement events for Dartmouth’s Global Alumni, Volunteers, Senior Leadership, Administration, Faculty, Staff and Students, facilitating their ability to efficiently and effectively convene various Dartmouth cohorts for a multitude of purposes on one easily-accessible online platform.
The designed and branded platform will serve as a hub for alumni resources that can provide the ability to search an alumni directory, event attendee bios, content from a collection of multimedia digital resources and more.
Building on Dartmouth traditions and values, this virtual space represents the rising of a new building and dimension to Dartmouth life.
The Empire team worked closely with Dartmouth College in every aspect to curate the overall event, the virtual event platform, develop Run of Show, and handled logistics for all speakers and college leadership.
To see all of the above moments and more, visit this page https://vimeo.com/467823801/60f355f448
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
