Rivelty.Conf 2022: how to organize an inspiring top-level event
At the end of September 2022, we launched the third edition of the Rivelty.Conf — an annual conference for passionate experts in intranet, DEX, digital workplace and digital internal communications.
Rivelty.Conf 2022, like the previous one in 2021, took place at a tense time. Our team was faced with the task of running a conference during the uneasy situation in the country, and in the world. The goal was not just to organize an event, but also to create appropriate mood and space where professional people (members of the community) would focus on their favorite business, feel confident and at home.
As a result, 85 participants took part in the conference this time. Traditionally, we started the event with an ice-breaker dinner, followed by two intensive days: 11 keynotes, 10 Russian Intranet Awards 2022 winner cases, 4 workshops, a panel discussion.
It turned out to be our island of warmth, adequacy, tranquility, professionalism, intelligence, beauty, and soul. Where intranet, DEX, digital workplace and IC leaders got together, shared and exchanged their knowledge and experience, inspiring each other.
Concept inspired by our community
Each year, Rivelty.Conf gets a new concept, its main idea. Throughout many years, the community created by Rivelty.Intranet has been developing owing to people devoted to their job, people who are truly interested in internal communications and who don’t stop self-developing. These people inspire us so much, so the key message of the Rivelty.Conf 2022 crossed our mind naturally — “people who know all about the intranet”. These are not just words: all our speakers are experienced executives who’ve been working on employees’ comfort, experience and loyalty day by day. They know everything about international IT-solutions substitution, cyber security, mobile intranets and HR-automatization for frontline workers, digital workplace governance, and of course, supporting activities for employees during heavy stress, how to predict burning out and provide mental health support.
A program that reflects current trends of the industry
Elaborating the program for Rivelty.Conf, we always address the most relevant themes that answer important issues of present time. This year, the keynotes reflected actual, pressing matters, such as challenges of platform selection and governance issues, user-generated content management, intranet personalization for different target audiences, etc.
To start the conference, we presented the latest research results and analytics on the digital employee experience, pains, tasks and its development priorities these days. Every year, the Rivelty.Intranet team conducts the survey of 100+ companies of Russia and CIS to inquire about the current state of the intranet industry.
Most keynote speeches were dedicated to real case studies, including cases with international acknowledgement.
International speaker
International speakers who participated at the Rivelty.Conf previously had an absolute success of the audience. Even the online format of the speeches last year was greatly appreciated.
This year, we invited a speaker from Italy — Giacomo Mason. He is an expert in internal communications, intranet, DEX, and digital workplace with 20+ years of experience.
After discussing the theme of the speech, we asked Giacomo to record the video of him speaking for the conference. At the day of the event, we connected through Zoom, and he joined us for greeting and Q&A. The dubbing in Russian was added to the prerecorded speech, as the original was in Italian.
We received wonderful feedback and reviews from the audience. They noted the deep philosophical view of Giacomo’s speech, the choice and quality of the visuals in his presentation, warm Italian humor and culinary remarks.
“I always thought case studies were the most valuable content at conferences, but now I realized there is also supposed to be someone versatile and inspiring, not just an excellent expert in his field, but a bearer of more universal knowledge and attitudes”.
“The analogy of an intranet with a stone wheel, and a modern wheel is so eye-opening and simple. Great, inspiring visuals!”
Not only keynotes… Diversity of formats
We are sure that one of the key factors to keep participants interested and hold their attention is diversity of formats at the conference. Switch from one type of activity to another brings dynamics and increases involvement of the audience.
Apart from keynotes, the program also included workshops on migration of intranet from one platform to another, knowledge management, intranet promotion and evaluation of HR-projects.
One of the most popular activities of the Rivelty.Conf is a live demonstration of #RIawards winner cases. Included in the program of both days of the conference, demo sessions were run by leaders of the award-winning projects to showcase the real-time desktop and mobile intranets.
The purpose of this activity is to show participants the best intranets in Russia, to share the valuable experience, and to motivate them to drive their projects to new achievements and adopt best practices.
We dedicated four hours to this activity (two hours each day of the conference). Each demonstration lasted 30 minutes, and participants switched from one to another to display stand by a special signal. Such mode of action ensured that all participants got acquainted with maximum cases during the limited time of the conference.
This year, we also implemented the format of a panel discussion for the first time in our practice. And despite our doubts, it was a success! We invited intranet leaders and internal comms experts from different industries to discuss challenges, tasks, skills, what expertise is on demand now, and how they manage to work in a stressful situations during the last 3 years.
Participants shared that they liked the opportunity to hear different views on one subject.
Call for speakers
Besides our main speakers — experts from our local intranet community — we always look for new faces. This year, we saved two slots in the program and got about 10 requests for participation. To choose the TOP-2, we asked the applicants to record a video and send us examples of their presentation. Our final decision was made after personal interviews with finalists.
Winners of the Call for speakers didn’t have any experience on stage before, so our speaker’s buddies guided them how to prepare the competitive presentation, and run rehearsals. As a result, new speakers were confident at the day of their speech, and had successful performances. They became new respected members of the local intranet community.
New visual style and identity
Every time we create the Rivelty.Conf, we care not only about the quality of the content, unique program, the best speakers, pleasant space, delicious meals and other organizational matters. We spend plenty of time and forces to ensure a cozy atmosphere and comfortable ambience. Thus, each Rivelty Conference always gets its unique visual identity, which helps place our participants into the context of the event.
This year, we decided to use artificial intelligence to create images for the visual identity. As a result, we got bright multilayer illustrations, complex, multidimensional and full of details, just like the participants of our conference — professionals who apply the most modern technical solutions to solve creative problems.
Logo with a special meaning
We decided to make two versions for the Rivelty.Conf logo: Russian and English. In Russian, the last letter of the logo (Ф — it sounds like [f]) is designed like two crossed bubbles. It is not a coincidence — Rivelty.Conf is a place to communicate, network and share experience. We are glad we managed to reflect this idea in our logo.
Quality is in details
We always care about the style — every detail must be in the right place and confirm the top level of the event. Let’s say, “no random choices” — was our motto in preparing Rivelty.Conf 2022.
Thus, the diversity of abstract forms created by artificial intelligence, as well as two main colors — red and blue — were reflected in different branded products, such as badges, notebooks, banners, decor for the stage, etc. We’ve been choosing and validating even the color of the table covers.
The program of the conference was designed with a special care: it had to be not only stylish and beautiful, but also user-friendly. We are proud to achieve this goal.
We used every branding option that was provided by the space. For example, we branded the beautiful round window.
As always, we organized a professional photo-shooting area with a brand-wall. Besides, our guests had been asked to follow the dress code — we suggested they come in red or blue clothes, so all photos turned out to be very nice.
Of course, visual style elements perfectly suited the video content, including traditional intros for speakers.
Care for participants — our special focus
Rivelty.Conf is a place to exchange knowledge and experience. Also an opportunity to organize a comfortable space for members of the local intranet community. We consider this idea one of the most important missions of the Rivelty.Conf. We want to entertain (especially those who work from home and don’t have many options to meet colleagues). We want to cheer up during difficult times. We want to create a friendly atmosphere where everyone can relax and enjoy being part of a professional community.
First of all, we carefully chose the site for the event. A unique place that possesses warmth and coziness by itself. Our choice was made for an ex-Soviet cultural hall that had been reconstructed and restored.
Each speaker is assigned with “speaker’s buddy” — a Rivelty.Intranet employee who helped prepare presentations and keynotes: to guide through the structure, contents and visual style, to organize rehearsals, including the one at the site of the conference. This is a key factor to make high-quality content, as well as provide all-embracing support for speakers. We also implemented a special design for the stage, covered by red carpet, so that our speakers feel unique and remarkable — it is their moment of glory after all.
We decided not to record the speeches on video. Many speakers noted they felt more relaxed during their on-stage performance, as well as felt exclusiveness of the content they show.
We arranged a special area at the site of the event for those participants who have to work during the conference, or just want to relax.
We thought out every tiny detail, including common issues, such as comfortable seats for the participants, and catering — we tested all the dishes before the conference: not only the taste, but serving too.
Ice-breaker dinner
We promote special importance to the networking at the conference. This is the reason we started Rivelty.Conf with an ice-breaker dinner. Feedbacks of our participants prove — we managed to create a friendly atmosphere appealing to connect, communicate, and even quite simply chat.
Evaluation: maintaining high rates
Overall rating — 9.4 out of 10.
We maintain a high level of quality (9.5 in 2021, 9.6 in 2020), although our feedback survey showed that expectations grow, and much of the best features of Rivelty.Conf is perceived for granted.
“Thank you colleagues. This is the second year Rivelty.Conf is the only event I go to. No other event in the industry has the same level of expertise”.
“Thank you for the motivation for work, for sharing new ideas, and inspiration! I liked the idea of an ice-breaker, and the content of the conference. I’d like to participate in the RIawards this year. I liked the diversity of formats, constant communication with the audience, and reflection”.
Visual style — 9.5 out of 10.
Atmosphere and networking — 8.5 out of 10.
In social media, many participants noticed that Rivelty created a true community of intranet professionals and experts. Being a part of this community is an honor for them.
Speaker buddies support — 5 out of 5.
Top-5 Rivelty.Conf 2022 highlights:
- Keynotes quality (which is our pride, of course).
- Atmosphere.
- Diverse formats.
- Video materials.
- Networking.
Preparation — a long story to go
We started preparing Rivelty.Conf in May 2022, about 10 employees were in charge of this task. It took us 1151 hours to make this event a reality!
We are pleased to thank all of our participants who decided to come despite all the circumstances, as well as our honored speakers: Ilya Firsanov, Olga Mokhtina, Giacomo Mason, Nikita Tokarev, Alexey Rybakov, Igor Kuznetsov, Larisa Zelenkova, Sergey Zaykov, Maxim Manuylov, Vitaly Chesnokov and Alexey Kakunin.
Big thanks to our partners: Intry, Incomand, HRBOX, Teamly, VK Tech, Smartio. We appreciate their support, trust, adequacy and a high level of our collaboration.
Last, but not the least, are our Rivelty and Rivelty.Intranet teams represented by Dmitriy Bogdanov, Ksenia Bodrug, Ksenia Lazukova, Anna Serysheva, Arina Gorina, Arina Kazartceva, Olga Sivceva. Your commitment, creativity and devotion are priceless!
Read more about the Rivelty.Conf at https://conf.rivelty.ru/.
Follow the links to learn about Rivelty.Conf 2021 and more about the Rivelty.Conf on our website.
If you want to join us or are 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, DEX, IC and Digital Workplace in Russia.
