Virtual Events That Meet Chick-fil-A Standards

Scaling an in-person event without sacrificing quality

Chick-fil-A is one of the largest American fast food restaurant chains and the largest whose specialty is chicken sandwiches. Every year Chick-fil-A hosts a series of events for their operators and suppliers to network, learn, and grow the business.

OVERVIEW

The Fall Forum and Partners Meetings are a time for strategy, shared vision, and new big moves. At this event, guests will hear messages from Chick-fil-A’s Executive Committee and business leaders, and participate in live Q&A sessions. While each covers different topics, both provide an opportunity for attendees to learn more about changes to the food, operations, and any other topic that will impact their business. It also provides a two-way dialog and an opportunity to celebrate success, connecting corporate leaders and operators in Q&A sessions and personal interactions. Since 2020, Chick-fil-A has offered a virtual version of these events to support operators and partners who can’t attend in person. But, true to the high standards of Chick-fil-A, the virtual experience needs to be excellent.

SOLUTION

The content of these events includes a range of content, from pre-recorded presentations from group leaders (e.g. the menu team introducing new items) to interviews with leadership to skits and live discussions with Q&A sessions. We worked closely with our agency partners and the Chick-fil-A team to seamlessly weave pre-recorded and live content into a seamless event, then streamed it to our OnBoardU live event platform.

Our Virtual Events team was on-site with cameras and equipment to produce the show, stream the live content, and pipe in participants from all over the country. Like any live event, we had to adjust to a few unexpected twists, but ultimately the event continues to get high ratings for quality and engagement.

Branded Platform

Use our proprietary platform to fit the Chick-fil-A brand and give users a unique login.

Live Streaming

Stream live keynote speakers along with Q&A’s that audience members can engage in.

Scripted Content

Produce informative and educational content for presentations and interview sessions.

THE CHALLENGES

Bringing all of the pieces together into one live event.

Events are challenging, but combining pre-recorded and live participants from multiple locations adds a significant amount of complexity to the production. We built out a set of standards and creative guides to ensure the pre-recorded content was consistent, leveraged advanced technology to accommodate participants from everywhere, and ran scenarios to ensure we were prepared for anything.

There was great content and an incredible lineup of speakers for this event, but it wouldn’t happen without a place for this event to live online. We used our proprietary virtual event platform, OnboardU, to host this event and deliver both pre-recorded and live content to the event attendees in a system that was super simple to use. The platform was branded to Chick-fil-A to deliver a seamless experience, and integrated Q&A allowed everyone to participate in real-time.

As attendees waited for the event to begin, they were entertained with an event countdown, pre-roll commercials, trivia and event information as they waited. During the event, attendees could ask questions to the hosts while watching a session so it could be addressed during the live Q&A sessions. All attendees also had access to go back into the platform after the event and watch polished replays from previous days.

It was our responsibility to ensure that all of the event went smoothly down to the final event closing. We had our small team stage a studio where we managed the livestream simultaneously with the pre-recorded content as one cohesive event. We also supported the live chat, Q&A question board and troubleshooted any questions a user may have while they were attending the event. After a long two days, a lot of chicken and great conversation, everyone left inspired and thankful for the opportunity to participate.

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