ZUM's Behind the Scenes Experience at Microsoft Ignite 2019
Our team just got back from Microsoft Ignite 2019, where we supported almost 20 sessions and keynotes.
With over 45,000 attendees, the event is held in Orlando, FL at the Orange County Convention Center. It is a premier event where IT professionals and decision makers come together to learn first-hand about new Microsoft technologies, talk with experts, as well as mix and mingle with other attendees.
Most of our work was done in the weeks leading up until the event â our team was heavily focused on many of the sessions for the Azure team, who made several big announcements and needed their PowerPointâs to be elevated, on brand, and cohesively flow together.
Along with Azure, we assisted Microsoft Teams by designing a few of their sessions focused on innovations in Microsoft Teams Meetings.
Our most notable contribution however (and the reason we were asked to be on-site in Orlando), was for the Tech Keynote: âMicrosoft 365 and the future of productivityâ with Corporate Vice President of M365, Jared Spataro.
ZUM worked alongside Spataro and the M365 marketing team to craft a compelling story which helped them introduce new innovations and their messaging: âMicrosoft 365 is the worldâs productivity cloudâ or as Jared reiterated a couple of times, âa productivity service that puts AI to work for you.â
âIt's fundamentally a service that is meant, that is designed to unlock human potential. And put simply, we are trying to design and develop the world's best cloud for helping you to get things done.â
Jaredâs keynote had explicit direction in wanting to bring forth the concept of a virtuous cycle that gets better every time you use it, followed by a breakdown into 6 different categories that demonstrate AI at work. Our art direction team proposed a futuristic, AI type graph that would flow through the keynote and connect his message to the IT audience. On the outside it was very simple and understated (taking a cue from Satyaâs keynotes), but with a touch of complexity to convey AIâs dynamic possibilities.
The weekend, before his keynote, it was an enriching experience to polish the keynote with the M365 marketing team (who are our long-time clients) in Orlando. There is so much that goes into these keynotes that people donât see from an audience perspective (demos, customer stories, messaging, speech writing, graphics, sound, video, etc.). One of my favorite parts of being an Art Director at ZUM is to see it all come together from backstage. This was my third Ignite and by far one of my best experiences.
Check out the keynote here, itâs worth a watch.
Working too much & didn't take very many photos... oops!