Global Witness: 30th Anniversary Celebration

The challenge

After an extremely successful collaboration supporting Global Witness on fringe events at COP28, in Dubai Oddity was asked to produce an event to celebrate 30 years of Global Witness. The evening brought together the founders of the organisation, who were stepping down, current and former employees, donors, and Global Witness friends to recognise past achievements, hear from a leading global activist, and secure funding for the continued success of Global Witness. 

The solution

Over the course of four months, we approached the event with our four phases - Discovery, Planning, Execution, and Evaluation:

• First of all, we set up a kick-off call to identify the core objectives of the event and identify the support required by Global Witness. We identified the following areas: venue discovery and contracting, event logistics, branding and content, budget control and management, attendee communication, speaker communication, and supplier management.
• In November, we went into planning mode with the Oddity team completing a venue outreach across London to identify a unique venue for a special evening. After the site visits, Frameless was chosen due to its central location and customisable digital galleries, which provided a wow factor and could showcase the groundbreaking work of Global Witness in an engaging, impressive, and unique way. 
  • Due to the added complexity of customising the space with digital artwork, Oddity liaised between the production team at Frameless and the creative team at Global Witness to ensure Global Witness's vision was realised. This included edit requests and testing site visits to ensure a seamless production on the night. 
  • Using the shared events inbox that was key to the COP28 events, we created, distributed attendee communications, and responded to enquiries and concerns for the 30th celebration. During this process, we needed to establish a streamlined system for collating all invitees, as some employees from Global Witness sent out personalised invitations to their most valued attendees. 
  • As the project developed, Oddity was asked to advise on and execute pledge activations. We brainstormed and presented multiple options to the client, and decided on a solution of pledge cards and iPad plinths, which incorporated a balance of discreteness and visibility, as well as helping curate the sessions and advising on best practice. Working alongside BBC journalist, Kirsty Lang, we created a storytelling interview that showed the peaks and troughs of the Global Witness story. 
  • In addition to the digital artwork, Oddity also sourced and managed suppliers for physical branded items, which included a photo backdrop, 16 wall panels, sustainable badges and an external bar. 
  • Throughout the project, it was imperative to keep sustainability at the forefront. Oddity took measures to source sustainable, reusable and recyclable materials such as DISPA, made sure to limit physical printing, and consulted on a vegan and vegetarian canapés menu and catering numbers to reduce wastage. 
• During execution, the Oddity team provided a smooth onsite experience with a robust registration process and provided support to the attendees on the evening. As well as venue and production management, the team provided hospitality for the VIP speakers and guests to ensure their needs were met. 

The results 

• Global Witness celebrated a successful 30 years and repositioned their priorities and their new direction to key figures for the future.
• The event was very successful, with 150 attendees from across the climate sector. 
• The Global Witness team were able to secure additional pledges from key figures and reconnect with their audience. 
• Frameless provided the wow factor venue they were after and guests were left feeling inspired and humbled by the stories they heard. 

Client feedback
I wanted to thank you and the whole Oddity team for all your work and for always going the extra mile! I’m so grateful to have had you all onboard and being able to count on you with every little thing we needed – also thankful for your tastebuds, as the food was absolutely delicious!I know we will catch up soon, but did not want to miss the opportunity to say THANKS whilst we’re all still freshly over the moon about the event.