The ASAE Summit Awards have taken place at Washington, D.C.’s National Building Museum for more than twenty years, so it was important that we created a web-based platform, graphics, and overall feel that stayed true to the legacy of the event. To make sure attendees felt like they were still in ASAE’s signature awards environment, we incorporated imagery from the National Building Museum into the backdrop of multiple areas of the website – visually placing the evening’s events within the museum’s lobby, stage, and more. We also made sure the design delivered a truly red carpet feel, combining the luster of golds with the modern yet elegance of black-colored graphics. This design was applied not only to the platform, but throughout the show’s content within the speaker slides, sponsor branding, event videos, and more to elevate the experience from start to finish.

When planning and producing the awards program content, we knew that ASAE’s typical 1-hour show would not be as effective for virtual attendees. We collaborated with the ASAE team to scale down the show to a 30-minute, video-driven program, and worked alongside our LAI Video colleagues who developed 7 different videos that artfully recognized award winners, as well as the industry, while remaining relevant to current times. The pandemic played a significant role in the video content – kicking off the program with a moving montage that acknowledged the extraordinary responses from associations during these challenging times via a COVID-19 response video. The evening ended with a musical performance straight from Nashville, closing out the program in a memorable and special way.