How we created the Rivelty.Conf — communications with a passion conference. Changing the course of business conferences in Russia.
Rivelty.Conf — communications with a passion conference — is an expert practical conference where we talk about intranets, digital workplaces, DEX and digital internal communications channels, discuss problems, look for solutions and create new ways of communications.
Rivelty.Conf 2021 was the second conference produced by Rivelty. At the end of September 2021, we invited members of the Russian intranet community for an ice-breaker dinner, two main days, and a fall gala dinner. We had 15 keynotes, 4 workshops, 2 international speakers and 90 participants.
The first one — Rivelty.Conf 2020 we hosted in February 2020, just before the lockdown. And it was a success! We had high ratings on organization, speaker performances and networking! The Russian intranet community needed that. And we were sure we will host Rivelty.Conf 2021, we were just waiting for more relaxed pandemic measures. First, we had planned to host the conference at the end of June 2021, but due to the high infection rate of the new variant of the virus, we had to postpone it to the end of September. The situation in Moscow had been more stabilized that time.
How participants rated Rivelty.Conf 2021
9.5 out of 10 — this is how our participants rated Rivelty.Conf 2021. Last year, the rating was 9.6 out of 10. We were competing with ourselves!
Top 6 conference highlights noted by the participants:
1. Quality of speakers;
2. Atmosphere and networking;
4. Different formats;
5. Speakers’ introduction video cards;
6. Delicious catering.
4.5 out of 5 — average rating for speakers performances. The highest score — 5 out of 5 — went to Scott Fulton, Kirill Bordilovsky, Dmitry Bogdanov, Anna Stepanova, Mikhail Ivanov, and Elena Bogdanova.
Speakers also rated satisfaction with their keynote speech — 4.5 and the curator’s work — 4.9 out of 5.
8.6 out of 10 — overall rating for networking!
Most participants were delighted to see the presentations of the winner cases of the 2021 Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards and Russian Intranet Awards.
The style of Rivelty.Conf 2021
This year, we decided to update the style of the conference and its mood — we were not afraid of experiments, because we are our own clients. The main task was to create a cozy and friendly atmosphere, but at the same time, energetic and exciting for our guests and speakers.
We invited professionals of the intranet and digital workplace industry to get together and gain new knowledge. But we also offered them a pleasant space where they could communicate with colleagues, and enjoy all the advantages of the offline format — take a stylish photo in front of the media wall, see colleagues in person, get involved in a random backstage conversation with the speaker, and possibly meet a future business partner in the wardrobe.
Rivelty advocates a passionate approach to projects, and this is how our philosophy has affected Rivelty.Conf.
Cosmic visuals
We visualized the Russian intranet community as a belt of gold particles in a cosmic space. It became the main image of the event. Gold particles are seen as like-minded people who strive to bring real value to the industry. These are people who change the environment and drive the industry forward. Belt particles are attracted to each other. It forms a single passionate community.
The main colors of the conference were gold and blue. We wanted to add warmth to the business event with this fresh combination of colors.
We asked the speakers and participants of Rivelty.Conf to adhere to these colors in clothes. Most participants followed the dress code. Everything looked balanced and worked towards a common goal — the visual style, the guests, and the space. Also, designers have developed a new font, especially for our conference.
The design solution was balanced: we have achieved visual appeal, and also added practical elements to the event. In addition to color harmony of the media wall area, we paid special attention to the light. It helped to place the necessary accents, and thus improve the quality of the photo-shoot, even if pictures were taken on the phone.
Attention to space
The seating of speakers and participants was also a design. We have combined basic requirements with our notion of the comfort and beauty of geometry in placing tables and determining the distance to the stage.
We deliberately chose neutral site with concrete walls to blend it with our colors, texture and mood. The site had a round window, which we turned into a bright element of conference ambience. We used stickers and special lighting modes to make it bright and cozy.
We completely redesigned the stage: we installed two side wings, a powerful projector that creates a single visual space.
Care for participants
We went through each keynote speech with special attention. We assigned a curator to the speakers to help edit presentations. Special content was highlighted for the interests of the audience. The texts and visuals were adjusted to the conference style. This allowed the audience to perceive information in a comfortable way.
Each speaker and participant was provided with a badge with a tag “Passionate for communications”. Everyone liked the idea: the guests wanted to wear a badge, take pictures with it, and share them on social networks.
International speakers
The appearance of our international guests on the big screen was one of the most important highlights of the Rivelty.Conf program. Due to travel restrictions, they were not able to come physically, but participated online. We asked them to record their speeches ahead of time. At the day of the conference, we connected through Zoom, and they joined us for greetings part and Q&A. To the prerecorded speech, we added subtitles in Russian to reach everyone in the audience. It was definitely a challenge, but also a great experience and success.
Scott Fulton, international speaker from the UK, later wrote a post about the Rivelty.Conf 2021 in his blog “My keynote talk in Russia at a Conference for Intranet Professionals”:
You can see from the photos just how slick the event was, and it was clearly very well run. The organization that goes into these kinds of events should not be underestimated.
We have also received positive feedback from Monique Zytnik, and Andreas Ringsted, who joined us virtually from Germany and Denmark during the conference.
It was so lovely to see everyone together for a conference. The room and setup looked amazing, and we wish we could have been there in person. Not to mention the amazing looking buffet! We were so pleased to hear people ask questions at the end.
Cosmic photo session
For the key speakers, we organized an unusual photo session earlier this year. We wanted to present each of them as a star of the industry. And they were ready to experiment! Each speaker was portrayed as a space hero of the universe of like-minded people, who create digital comfort for employees and truly change the world of internal communications. Our heroes are the stars that you want to touch, learn from their experience, and become just as bright and inspiring. Everyone has their own style, ideas, and valuable experience!
Also, to humanize the speakers and to let the audience get to know them better, we made short video cards for each speaker. Video cards were played before their speech.
Ice-breaker dinner and both days of the conference — from morning till evening — were thought out in detail, even the color of the tablecloths had been chosen according to the style. Food was also part of the art design of the event. We tested the assortment, the taste of the dishes, appearance and the form of serving.
Honoring the most active participants of the Russian intranet community
During the gala dinner of the Rivelty.Conf, we congratulated the most active experts of the Russian intranet community. Those who have been making great contributions to the development of the intranet industry in Russia — Anton Muzhelskiy, Ksenia Lazukova, Kamilla Kulieva, Yulia Bolshova. We have also rewarded the author of the most popular article of our blog, Rivelty.Abatjour — Mikhail Ivanov, PSB Bank, the article “Newsletter helps employees survive self-isolation”!
We appreciate all our guests and most amazing and inspiring speakers: Scott Fulton, Monique Zytnik and Andreas Ringsted, Nikita Tokarev, Natalya Krasnobaeva, Victor Sorval, Olga Bogomolova, Kirill Bordilovskiy, Alexey Kakunin, Mikhail Ivanov, Andrey Litvinov, Evgenia Mikhaylova, Victoria Sokolova, Andrew Kravchenko, Egor Petrov, Anton Muzhelskiy, Alexandra Kudryavtseva, Vitaly Chesnokov.
Thanks to the wonderful partners: Andrey Litvinov, Intry, Alexey Kakunin, Incomand, Roman Vdovenko, 1C-Bitrix, Natalya Krasnobaeva, Hopper-IT, Vitaly Chesnokov, QSOFT.
Big thanks to our passionate teams at Rivelty and Rivelty.Intranet: Dmitry Bogdanov, Nadya Sholokhova, Ekaterina Ladgara, Irina Pavlyuchenko, Arina Gorina, Elmira Zaynasheva, Ekaterina Komarova, Sergey Smagliy, Arina Kazartseva, Anna Golubikhina, Anna Lapina.
Read more about the Rivelty.Conf at https://conf.rivelty.ru/.
More articles about the Rivelty.Conf here: https://abazhur.rivelty.ru/tag/riveltyconf/
If you want to join us or interested in participating/speaking next year at Rivelty.Conf, write to conf@rivelty.ru.
Connect with me on LinkedIn and follow Rivelty.Intranet to learn more about Intranet and Digital Workplace in Russia.
