Speakeasy has been producing high-impact annual conference events and films for global investment firm Newton Investment Management for eight years.
The theme of the 2017 event at etc. Venues County Hall, London – From Fake News to Artificial Intelligence – was about how technological disruption, from self-driving electric cars on our roads to android robots in our homes, is set to revolutionise our lives. Meanwhile, the political landscape is disorientating, with policies announced in tweets & elections fought on Facebook. Set against this backdrop, Newton’s intention was to enable delegates to cut through the noise of misdirection and uncertainty to offer perspective. The alien and monkey emojis created to establish the brand of the conference combined the latest social media trends with the age-old theme of the maxim of the three monkeys and its associations with turning a blind eye to impropriety.
The graphical theme ran throughout the venue to enhance the delegate experience from the moment they walked in with large branded banners, branded directional signage, branded registration desks, two large LED walls in the main conference room and a thought-provoking opening film to set the overall tone of the conference.
Our opening film engaged the audience from the outset and immediately captured their imagination and attention. Presented as an authentic public broadcast transmission, the film creatively intercut excerpts from keynote speeches and interviews featuring world leaders and technology billionaires – to create an alternative (fake) speech. This was augmented by ‘fake’ news captions and surreal compositions featuring emoticons, digital interference static and graphical typographical headlines. All these motifs combined to deliver an expressionistic, surreal and darkly comic event opener.
Previous event themes have included Space, Optical Illusions, Through the Looking Glass & Heads Together.
