Unilever's Digital Commerce Summits
The brief
Unilever wanted an event that would bring their global digital commerce team together, to recognise their hard work, invest in their growth, celebrate their successes, and inspire them to look towards the future with excitement and optimism. The added challenge was that this was first conceived in 2020, when Covid had put plans for an in-person event in Shanghai on hold, and teams were under greater pressure than ever before, being asked to do more with less while responding to rapid changes within the business.
In 2023 we ran this event for the fourth time.
The solution
We flipped the event to a hybrid event, spanning four days and multiple time zones. A diverse cast of over 50 speakers delivered sessions on AI, transformational leadership, sustainability, performance marketing and entrepreneurship. For a team shouldering the burden of rapid growth, providing a strong self-care element as part of the programme was vital. From self-shiatsu to sleep, from breath work to mindfulness, we sourced experts who lit up the screen and provided practical tips to implement immediately.
Our role
Forgather co-created and project managed this event from start to finish - partnering with Unilever across the content, speaker lineup, design and branding, marketing, logistics and production. Not content with the usual Zoom offering, we created our own TV studio in the heart of Shoreditch (whilst adhering to Covid guidelines), to create a broadcast quality production that kept the remote audience engaged.
“Cracking event, very inspiring. Who knew a virtual event could be done so well!”
“Unique one of a kind event. I felt like I was watching a tv show with high quality content on eCommerce combined with cool sessions on how to take care of yourself.”
Proud moments
Achieving rave reviews: 85% of attendees gave the event a 5* rating, and a net promoter score of +86.
Managing the complex choreography of filmed interviews, live studio content and fully virtual panels from 8am to 8pm for four consecutive days.
Conquering customs challenges to ship books to 200 guests around the world, written by our speakers, as a pre-event gift.
Taking virtual event quality to a new level - with a bespoke platform, TV-broadcast production quality, daily video messages to keep attendees engaged and audience participation via Pigeonhole.
The success of our collaboration has meant we have gone on to work with Unilever on many other virtual, hybrid and in person events, across digital commerce, health & beauty, nutrition and the value channel.
Praise
“Forgather was the perfect event partner for our eCommerce growth Summit. From instantly being able to understand the brief and form a proposal that stood out from the crowd to the delivery of the event, which was just faultless from start to finish.
The team are passionate, hardworking and are always thinking of the small details that make an event so special. They sourced an incredible line up of external speakers for us covering a wide span of topics from yoga to future retailer trends and worked side by side with our team to deliver one of the best events we have held. I couldn’t recommend the team enough and we can’t wait to work with them on our next event!”
Claire Hennah, Beauty & Wellbeing Chief Customer Officer & Digital Commerce Officer, Unilever
