Case Study: OOTB.NRW Award at PIRATE Live 2020
In September 2020, PIRATEx produced the OOTB NRW Award Show for the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Innovation, Digitalisierung und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. The annual OOTB NRW Award show highlights some of the most innovative startups from NRW, and shines a light on those companies disrupting industries, innovations and markets. This yearly event is highly anticipated by the entire local startup ecosystem, as startups nominated have a chance to win a share of 50,000 euros in prize money.
An event concept as innovative as its audience
With the focus of the event on innovation, disruption and fresh ideas, the OOTB NRW Award aims to bring the entire community together and places a huge emphasis on public participation. Months before the award show takes place, an informational campaign is launched to encourage the public to nominate startups, win prizes, and identify the local companies that are truly thinking “Out of the Box“. Once the nomination campaign is complete, a comprehensive video production begins, to share the nominated startups on social media and raise awareness of their innovations. The video campaign helps to further share the stories of the startups and founders to a wider audience in advance of the awards show. On the night of the award show, the public has the chance to vote for their favorites along with the assembled panel of judges.
The planning for the awards show began nearly a year in advance, as PIRATEx worked alongside several teams on the development of a multifaceted video production campaign highlighting each of the nominated startups. The team also worked to develop a novel concept for the awards show production. When the planning began, designed a production concept to delight the OOTB NRW’s invited audience with a “moveable feast”. The production was to include a glittery and inspiring evening taking in the awards show’s startup pitches on a boat travelling down the Rhine river under the stars. The river production was to be held concurrently with our own event, PIRATE Summit, with the boat “docking” at the Summit’s Odonien location to connect both events.
The pandemic and the pivot
Early in 2020, as the production moved from planning to execution, it soon became clear the OOTB Award show as planned would not be possible. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic threw many events into disarray, and cancellations filled the calendar.
But PIRATEx wasn’t ready to join the chorus of cancellations.
The region’s business and startup community looks to this event each year to come together to connect, support one another, and keep up with the latest innovations. We knew it would be possible to hold the event safely if we got creative with the concept and embraced digital solutions. Inspired by our own roots in the startup ecosystem, we moved agilely to pivot to an entirely new concept, a hybrid event production. At the time, the terminology of a “hybrid” event hadn’t become commonplace. It was time to leave the boat and jump entirely into the virtual world!
Creating a “hybrid event” before hybrid events became commonplace
The PIRATEx team quickly looked to our digital event partners to see how we could combine our vision with an event concept suited to the existing hygiene restrictions at the time. Putting our heads together, the team developed a concept that would combine a socially distanced physical studio production with live remote attendance. The event would be produced onsite, and streamed live to the wider community, allowing the entire ecosystem to take part.
Moving quickly, we connected with our friends and longtime collaborators Talque to develop an online interface for virtual attendees to view the event’s livestream and interact with one another, as well as to vote on the different presenting startups. We looked to find a suitable venue with enough capacity so that a selected amount of guests could join safely at a distance. Due to the ongoing pandemic, it was important every aspect of the event was designed to ensure our guest’s safety. Conscious of the numerous hygiene restrictions at the time, the PIRATEx team developed a comprehensive plan to ensure our onsite participant’s safety, including mask protocols, cleaning, air circulation, one way traffic and social distancing. Our production team used masks and a remote setup and crew, so that as few onsite personnel were required as possible.
Don’t let your audience down, get creative!
On the night of the event, we welcomed the OOTB’s speakers and judges under strict covid testing rules to a specially created studio in our home city of Cologne. They were joined by a select team of videographers and production coordinators to orchestrate the event and connect the onsite portions with our remotely attending participants. The event’s evening schedule allowed the nominated startups to pitch live to an awaiting virtual audience, just as they would have in person. We livestreamed the night’s pitches in real time, facilitating the voting on the platform’s interface so that our remote attendees were able to engage and participate. Throughout the evening, the PIRATEx team staffed the conversation and interaction on the event’s virtual platform, helping to answer questions and guide participants through the navigation of the night’s festivities.
After a few unexpected challenges in the lead up to the event–the result was an amazing production and we enjoyed every moment of it.
Written by:
Felix Josephi
PIRATEx Managing Director
