Montréal’s Vocation Events offers personalized event production that energizes and engages people, and that’s exactly what they set out to do when tech company Astro reached out to them in spring 2024. As co-founder and executive producer Vanessa Langevin puts it, “They wanted to create an event that would result in content that would ultimately make what they do more well-known.” Vocation pride themselves on creating impactful experiences that encourage valuable human connections — here’s how they did it for Astro.
The event: Astro Together 2024, May 28, 2024
The client: Astro, creators of an MIT-licensed open-source build tool by the same name that is designed to build fast, content-driven websites with a static-first architecture for quicker loading times. The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2019 and their clients include Google and Microsoft.
The challenge: To create an inaugural in-person event for Astro in Montréal — where they have a large client base — that would result in the creation of content to feed the company’s lead-generation and marketing initiatives for months to come. In many ways this project began backwards: the need was for content, and the event was a means to that end.
The strategy: Stage the moment with the future in mind to bring the event into a larger strategic perspective. “Creating content out of an event that can be used in a company’s greater marketing plan is a conversation we’ve had with a lot of clients,” says Langevin, “because it helps them to tap into a whole other layer of budget. Then we can plan the event itself not just from the perspective of what’s happening live, but also what we’re looking to capture and how we’re going to use it over the next year or two.”
The method:
- Location: Vocation Events chose the Belvedere in the Old Port of Montréal, a malleable space with breathtaking views of Old Montréal and downtown on one side, and views of the water, Parc Jean-Drapeau and the Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome on the other.
- Space design: With a dark palette and great lighting design, they built two different environments: a presentation area and a networking area, within which there was also a chill-out zone — a quiet space to allow for social and sensorial battery recharging.
- Interactivity: In the networking area there were all sorts of activations to spark conversations, like video games, pinball and air hockey. There were couch formations for small-group conversations and fun interactive stations, including a super popular make-your-own-tee merch stand, where you could pick your Astro design and colour mix and watch them make it for you live.
- Personalization: The food stations were also designed for interaction: the main attraction, a taco bar, allowed for pick-your-own-toppings, while the cookies from local bakery Bernice came in many varieties and the signature drinks (decked out in Astro’s brand colours) could be alcoholic or not. The most personalized, however, was the coffee bar where a robot could turn your face into latte art.
- Accessibility: As with all events, Vocation paid special attention to making sure every participant would feel at home at Astro Together 2024, in terms of diet, non-alcoholic options or spaces that foster neurodivergence. “It’s essential to ask clients questions about who their participants are, and then to really listen,” says Langevin. “Who’s coming, why are they coming, what do YOU want them to get out of it, and what will make them feel most comfortable.”
The result: With a vibrant and celebratory event in a gorgeous location, Vocation Events helped Astro strategize to build an innovative IRL event that created content that was repurposed as marketing material well beyond the confines of the event. From social media content to blogposts to video material ready to be inserted into pitches and presentations, the lasting results of this event made the absolute most of that glorious Montréal day in May.
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