The event took over 300 hours of design work from a team of four graphic design artists.Photo: Courtesy of edgefactory
Held at Hilton Boston Park Plaza, the event spanned two weeks and two brands: From Feb. 17-20, One Identity, which operates under the Quest umbrella, hosted its employees, and then from Feb. 24-27, Quest was on site.
Over the course of both weeks, 1,200 attendees gathered for the usual sessions, but it wasn’t a conventional (aka blah) sales kickoff meeting. Edgefactory took inspiration from the rich history of this year’s meeting location and blended it with a modern twist.
“We do everything we can so that it doesn't feel like a boring business meeting,” said edgefactory President and CEO Brian Cole. To do this, the Orlando-based production company rebranded the entire hotel, incorporating a funky twist into its traditional style and reimagining public spaces with modern furniture, lighting, digital signage, animated projection mapping, and irreverent custom art.
“We wanted to make the hotel feel like it was theirs,” he said. “From the first step into the hotel you were immersed with branding for NXT.”
This was done by creating a pastiche of pop art visuals and classic masterpieces that covered almost every inch of the hotel interior including over 16 elevators that were wrapped inside and outside with whimsical images like a portrait of Benjamin Franklin plastered with a banner reading “In Quest We Trust.”
Kind of like Bridgerton on acid.
Even the company’s PowerPoint presentations were branded with art-inspired NXT graphics. Cole explained that the concept spoke to the software company’s mission: “We're celebrating the past as we're looking ahead.”
The production company also faced an interesting challenge over the two weeks. There was a bit of downtime between the two separate meetings that comprised the conference. But instead of breaking down all the signage, edgefactory worked with Hilton Corporate to keep the LED screens installed and simply change the displays to advertise Hilton with a similar pop art vibe.
As in previous years, edgefactory also produced the conference’s own TV station, called NXT+, which was hosted by Nick Xavier Tanner (ICYMI: His initials are NXT). The character was played by a comedian who interacted with guests throughout the conference. An on-site photo and editing team compiled the channel content that was shown throughout the event.
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