A community event to remember

On February 22nd, 1100 locals came together and filled the ballroom at Fairmont Chateau Whistler in the name of mountain culture. Uprising was a night for the community, by the community. On the outside, Uprising (we hope) looked like a polished and professionally-run event. On the inside, well, it was also that. But it was also a group of people simply yearning for an event that stood for what makes Whistler so incredible - its people and the energy and creativity they all bring, and the mentorship that follows. With that in mind, we decided to peel back the curtain a bit and show you what it took to pull this thing off.

Process

To solve the task, we used the framework we use for many of our client projects. We can’t show you how all of the sausage is made, but the general framework looks like this:

Concept + voting

Throughout the whole morning, 8 teams of 5 worked together to develop their own concept for the event - all of which were to be pitched to the full agency over lunch. 

As lunch came and went and the teams presented their concepts, one concept was chosen - one that had community and mentorship at its core. That concept is what eventually became Uprising after an afternoon of the full team fleshing out all the details of the event from sponsorships, to venues, to photography teams. You name it, we discussed it.

As each week passed by, we crept closer to the night of the event as tickets began to sell and sponsors came on board to support the cause of fundraising for Protect our Winters Canada. 

As far as what will happen next year, we’re going to let the chips fall where they may for now. In the meantime, we’ll continue doing what we love: being outside, and telling stories about people being outside.