Best Charity Event / Event for Positive Change

Brandfuel – Humanitarian Xchange

Brandfuel were excited to be referred to the Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA) to respond to an RFP for a new summit. Working on a project with “purpose” meant we threw everything we could into winning the pitch. We came up with an event name, live website, graphic identity, and even a film to position the event and the challenges in the sector.

But we LOST.

HLA told us we were their dream agency and they loved the pitch. But we were too expensive. We agreed on a set of acceptable deliverables and standards to meet the budget and Brandfuel were very happily appointed.

The HLA wanted its one-day summit to be a catalyst to inspire, recruit and train one million new humanitarians. And they wanted an event platform that enabled the whole sector and “voices from the edge” to scope out what the future of humanitarianism should look like. They wanted 400 in-person attendees, 3,000 online registrations and a twin-track agenda.

Roll on eight months: the first Humanitarian Xchange was attended by 485 people in London and 5,488 humanitarians registered for the online event from across the world, with 1,500 – and counting – engaging with the on-demand content.

 

Cascade Productions – Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation 50th Anniversary Ball

The Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation was established in 1973 by retailer Iceland Foods. Since then it has raised over £34m for good causes. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the charity, Cascade proposed that the foundation hold a charity event at Liverpool Cathedral. Iceland had held Charity Ball events on a grand scale twice before, but never in a venue like Liverpool Cathedral. The primary objective was to raise money for the foundation and associated good causes.

 

CTL Communications – Making More Health: Collaborate. Ideate. Impact.

Inclusivity, sustainability and innovation. Three small words that gained worldwide impact for humans and animals in vulnerable communities at a change-making event.

Making More Health Together 2023 is one of the most vital annual milestones for MMH, a long-running partnership initiated by Boehringer Ingelheim in collaboration with Ashoka, which has now grown to include other leading social impact partners.

Underpinned by the theme of ‘Collaborate. Ideate. Impact.’ – this two-day conference packed in 27 tailored sessions, including branded keynotes, workshops, immersive exhibition showcases, pitch sessions and a glamorous networking dinner. All managed from a dedicated event app and virtual platform.

Bringing over 1,000 like-minded healthcare partners together from across the world in-person and virtually after a bespoke communications campaign, we designed a dynamic location for our combined in-person and virtual audience to engage, collaborate and network towards one common goal: to find more sustainable solutions for the most pressing healthcare issues of our time.

The result? As one delegate put it: “Such an amazing and important forum to bring together social innovators with a company that cares so deeply, thank you”.

 

emap Publishing – Property Week’s Inspiring Women in Property Awards

Launched alongside Property Week’s “Inspiring Diversity in Property,” the IWiP Awards pioneered a transformative approach to an enduring diversity, equality, and inclusion (EDI) movement in the property sector. Celebrating a wide array of contributors—women, male allies, teams, and organizations—the awards set a new inclusivity standard. Their innovative approach combines industry research, pledges, and a digital EDI hub, driving measurable EDI progress.

A diverse panel of 41 professionals ensures a fair judging process, highlighting the awards’ integrity and the collective EDI advancement effort. Achieving an 89% satisfaction rate and a marketing campaign with a 54% email open rate underscores their creativity and impact. The event’s financial success, doubling revenue targets, retention of agenda partners and extensive unsolicited inquiries for the next edition reflect strong success and industry support.

Featuring elements like a fireside chat with Oti Mabuse and collecting EDI pledges, the ceremony innovates attendee experience and EDI commitment, encouraging participation. Ongoing engagement with Property Week’s EDI hub and industry dedication show the awards’ positive change role, positioning the IWiP Awards as a deserving Best Event for Positive Change 2024 nominee, for their outstanding success, lasting impact and excellence in promoting sector-wide EDI.

 

GAconf

GAconf is a two day non-profit conference for game development professionals, on making games accessible to disabled players. 2023’s Europe event was the first in-person one since COVID lockdowns. It was a hybrid event both at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre on London’s South Bank, and remotely via Zoom and Discord.

The event has three primary goals –

• Help to drive accessibility in the games industry forward, through sharing insight and practices
• Act as a community hub, bring developers together with each other and with their disabled audiences
• Act as a best practice example of how to make events themselves accessible to disabled attendees

Attendees left with inspiration, new contacts, and practical tips to ensure any game can reach as many people as possible, so no disabled player is unnecessarily excluded. Pushing the field forwards, helping developers to realise their vision for as much of their audience as possible, and enabling disabled players to benefit from the access to recreation, society and culture that accessible gaming is uniquely able to offer.

 

Lightbulb Teams – Water Works: Protecting Sight & Saving Lives

Global healthcare company Merck Pharmaceutical works to deliver innovative health solutions. A purpose-led organisation, using the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world is the foundation of everything they do.

Their companywide commitment to corporate social responsibility made Lightbulb Teams the perfect immersive event experience partner. In January 2023, Merck and Lightbulb Teams delivered a Senior Leaders Sales Meeting with a difference when they came together to build water filtration systems for some of the 2 billion people worldwide for whom clean and safe drinking water is not easily accessible.

Lightbulb Teams inherited Merck’s deep appreciation for life as its own to bring an experience to the company that connected with its brand, mission and purpose. The WaterWorks programme amplified the caring nature embedded in the DNA of Merck employees. The practical outworkings of participants’ generosity and selflessness are what made this event truly unique to any other team-building experience. Feedback exceeded expectations with one delegate describing it as “…especially satisfying – almost ‘spiritual’” and the partnership will continue to grow with plans in place to deliver Lightbulb Teams’ newest teambuilding experience, Toy For Life, to a Merck cohort throughout 2024 and beyond.

 

Neon Agency – Whisker Whispers

The strategic brand activation for the Movember 2023 campaign aimed to drive awareness and registrations through various media platforms. It targeted ABC1 males aged 18-49 and secondary audiences, intending to connect Movember to men’s health and relevant causes, particularly in Ireland. Objectives included expanding the campaign, instilling urgency in messaging, encouraging donations, and leveraging media channels for buzz.

The event, titled “Whisker Whispers,” held at The Well, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, featured a speakeasy-style ambience. Eventbrite facilitated registration, while Movember’s media partner amplified the event. Decor included moustache-themed elements and experiential offerings ranging from a live mural artist to a DJ, shave-down pods and much more.

Attendees enjoyed a bespoke menu on the night, with the ‘Meaty Mo’ pizza and ‘Whisker Sour’ cocktail, available throughout November at the venue, with proceeds supporting Movember.
Increased sign-ups and heightened visibility of the charity reflected the event’s success in fostering community involvement and support for Movember’s cause.

 

Team Tactics – Wheels For Walkies

Established in 1995, Team Tactics are always on the front ‘paw’ when it comes to creating new, exciting but also charitable team building activities. As an office full of dog owners, this event is very close to all our hearts and is like no other. As many of us will see first hand or on social media, there are many animals where canine wheelchairs can create a more complete life for our pets. Some dogs may be paralysed, have had an accident, or with old age such as arthritis and other related degenerative deceases. With these state of the art wheelchairs, dogs can walk, jog, fetch …having a full Dog’s Life!  Corporate teams work together in small groups on various challenges to win parts to build top of the range dog wheelchairs. This activity offers a rare opportunity to build team morale, improve communication, leadership and teamworking, whilst also creating a way to give a dog back their freedom.

 

TRO – Anthropy 2023

Anthropy 2023 was a magical, emotional meeting of minds – at an even larger and impressive scale.
Enduring a turbulent and unprecedented few years post Covid-19 and Brexit, Britain needed something new to genuinely drive change and bring people together.

Delivering the largest crowd sourced agenda the UK has seen, Anthropy was born. For the second year running, senior leaders and influential individuals attended for 3 days and committed to finding new connections and new solutions to take this country forward.

Once again, the renowned Eden Project in Cornwall closed its doors to the public and welcomed a diverse range of ‘Anthropists’ to ideate, debate and collaborate on crucial topics from education and health to sustainability and technology.

Notable attendees included Piers Linney, Kamal Ahmed, Rain Newton-Smith, Lord Deben, Jade Blades, Darcy Bussell, Dame Sharon White, Emma Bridgewater and Alex Mahon. Senior stakeholders of major organisations attended, EY, Omnicom, NatWest, Seven Trent, Schneider Electric and many others.

This game-changing event achieved over 250 million in media reach, made 41,000 social impressions per day and forms the basis of the first ‘Anthropy Annual Insights Report’ alongside research conducted with Ipsos, launching on 22 April 2024.