Case Study: Communications & Design for the 2024 Shift Happens Women’s Policy Summit
Cardboard stand-ups designed by Common Great to decorate the Summit venue
The San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, in partnership with IGNITE National, hosted their 2nd annual Women's Policy Summit “Shift Happens” in April 2024. The Summit is a celebratory, action-oriented day with approximately 1,000 attendees from the Bay Area. Common Great’s scope of work for the Shift Happens Women’s Policy Summit included five major areas:
Communications Strategy and Brand Architecture
Email and Social Media Marketing
Graphic Design
Website Design and Management
App Management and Engagement
Common Great Senior Consultant Kirsten Rogers worked with the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women for the inaugural summit in 2023 as an independent contractor. Director Kimberly Ellis invited Kirsten back to lead the marketing and communications and visual design elements for the 2024 summit. As Kirsten guided the strategy and vision, Common Great Associate Consultant Elise Anderson worked on copywriting and live event communications.
Common Great built on all the elements and processes Kirsten established in her work on the 2023 summit. The communications plan and deliverables captured the power of women leading change to shift policy, culture, and society for the benefit of women and girls.
Communications Strategy and Brand Architecture
The Summit communications strategy and timeline were meticulously crafted in partnership with the Department to ensure seamless alignment with their on-going communications. The plan we developed detailed the roll-out of all email and social media content, ensuring consistent and effective messaging throughout the Summit season.
Attendees at the 2024 Summit. Signage pictured designed by Common Great, including the event logo.
For the visual brand of the 2024 Summit, we undertook a minimal yet impactful revision of the existing branding, building off the strength of what Kirsten created in 2023. This update included the development of brand guidelines and the creation of branded templates for social media and email communications. These templates were designed to maintain visual and thematic consistency, reinforcing the brand identity.
We also crafted a core messaging document, which served as the foundation for all Summit communications. The document provided clear guidance on the tone and voice to be used, along with examples, boilerplate copy, and commonly used phrases. It ensured that every piece of communication resonated with the audience and aligned with the overall messaging strategy.
Email and Social Media Marketing
Over the course of our engagement, Common Great built and implemented the digital communications strategy the 2024 Summit, including:
16 emails sent via E2ma, the Department’s email marketing tool
72 posts published to social media pre-Summit
Instagram - 18
Facebook - 18
LinkedIn - 18
Twitter/X - 18
We have also created a Social Media Toolkit specifically designed for partners and speakers, complete with graphic assets, to facilitate their promotion of the summit, empowering them to effectively spread the word and generate excitement.
On the day of the event, we provided comprehensive social media coverage, including live posting and real-time engagement with attendees. We amplified the content shared by participants, fostering a dynamic and interactive summit experience.
Examples of attendee-generated content
Below are the platform-by-platform highlights, including the 213 new fans and followers acquired across all social accounts and 170+ new email addresses captured via the lead generation form at sfwomenspolicysummit.com.
Summit content reached 566% more accounts than in the previous quarter.
Summit content engaged 350% more accounts than in the previous quarter.
The profile page saw a 361% increase in visits over the previous quarter.
Total impressions increased by 1,072% over the previous quarter.
Number of net likes increased by 2.17% since the previous quarter.
Gained 358% more followers this period compared to the last quarter.
Total engagements increased by 711% since the previous quarter.
Twitter/X
Averaged 4.2% engagement rate on Summit content during the quarter.
Earned 7.6k post impressions during the quarter.
Summit Website
11k site visits during the quarter leading up to the Summit
8.4k unique visitors during the quarter leading up to the Summit
20k page views during the quarter leading up to the Summit
Graphic Design
Our creative brief was to develop visual assets that should make people feel love and inspire self-love and should communicate hope and progress, driven by the strength and grit of changemakers. Visual assets - from social media graphics to large scale signage - were designed to instill excitement and energy in summit attendees. Our mandate was to design elements that would equal the power of the summit content, from speakers to workshops to attendees. Specific deliverables included:
Graphics for social media and email, formatted for different social media platforms
Sourcing and design of swag for attendee gift bags, includes managing the relationship with the printer
Design of small to large-scale physical signage and other materials for the venue, includes managing the relationship with the printer
Design of digital assets needed for use throughout the venue
Graphic support for the video production team
Website Design and Management
Kirsten built a Squarespace website for the 2023 Summit. For our recent scope of work, we were tasked with updating and maintaining the site for the 2024 event. This including building out new pages, integrating the registration platform with the site, and updating all programmatic details, from speaker announcements and bios to agendas and session descriptions.
Thanks to a robust communications efforts, website analytics for 2024 outperformed the 2023 Summit promotion:
11k visits (78% higher than 2023)
8.5k unique visitors (85% higher than 2023)
20k page views (96% higher than 2023)
App Management and Engagement
The Department on the Status of Women used Whova for the 2023 and 2024 Summit app and registration management at Kirsten’s recommendation via our technology assessment and selection services. Whova is an event app that includes features like online registration, event management tools, attendee networking and engagement functionality and more. Our role was to set up registration, integrate it with the website, and use Whova’s built-in tools to engage registered attendees in advance of the Summit. Common Great also led the app-adoption strategy to make sure as many attendees as possible had downloaded the app and were using it. Some highlights of app adoption and engagement:
65% app-adoption rate
2,211 messages sent in-app between attendees and organizers (1,204 is the average for events using Whova)
30 meet-ups were created in-app by attendees
272 photos were shared by attendees in-app
74 community board topics were created by attendees (14 is the average for events using Whova)
Conclusion
If the photos shared above don’t capture it, the 2nd annual Women's Policy Summit “Shift Happens” was a success from our standpoint. Marketing for the event was effective and through graphic design we created an environment that delighted attendees.
If you’re looking for any of the following services for your next event, keep Common Great in mind:
Communications Strategy and Brand Architecture
Email and Social Media Marketing
Graphic Design
Website Design and Management
App Management and Engagement
Book a complementary call with Common Great Senior Consultant Kirsten Rogers to learn more.
