From the Nominator

"“The future starts now. The future starts with you.” 

These words from Emory University’s president resonated across the quadrangle during a multi-day, multi-city campaign launch celebration with innovative twists on traditional launch events. The major donor events were split over two nights, increasing total attendance to more than 600 while simultaneously decreasing density for COVID protocols. The event was expanded to provide a similar guest experience for 2,000 university faculty, staff, and students at a campaign “open house” before transforming yet again to host 5,000 alumni and parents at reunions and homecoming and family weekend.  

Each event featured five dome structures for guests to safely explore and engage versus passively sitting and listening. The first three domes highlighted the extraordinary work of faculty, researchers, and students in a live podcast recording studio via Ted Talk style presentations, as well as in an interactive “museum” connecting scholars with physical representations of their research. The final two domes activated our guests as storytellers as they recorded their own personal testimonials in StoryCorps-style audio booths and added their vision for Emory’s future to a digital wall.  

Three days later, these experiences moved to New York, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and North Carolina for the first phase of a year-long regional launch. The key programmatic elements, plus the interactive guest storytelling and vision sharing components, were recreated in each venue. This expanded the reach and impact of the launch while collecting alumni stories from nearly 600 guests to add their unique vision, voice, and perspectives to the campaign."

From the Judges

While Emory University was fortunate to have a large budget for their campaign launch, we were impressed by how they used their budget across multiple events and opportunities to reflect the impact of the campaign and get their messaging out. They showed demonstrable impact and results stemming from this series of events, which engaged multiple geographies. We also liked how they made COVID-smart choices in their selections of venues and experiences.