Reimagining event presentations to tell a visionary story

VMware explore live event
VMware Explore live event keynote

Project background

With significant product announcements and heightened scrutiny following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, they needed to ensure pixel-perfect precision in their presentation slides for their annual customer conference, Explore.

Industry

Services

The big challenge

Impressing customers and partners

Every year, VMware brings together customers, partners, developers, and staff to share ideas, grow relationships, build plans, and generate excitement for what’s to come.​ In 2022, its global event was rebranded from VMworld to VMware Explore to reflect the company’s expanding role as a multi-cloud technology innovator. The visionary theme demanded an equally visionary approach to presentations.

Photos from the live event

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VMware’s transformative journey with Duarte

Duarte partnered with over 20 VMware executives and thought leaders to create and deliver seven visually stunning and vitally important presentations for Explore. Touching a total of 450 slides (and influencing set design), our designers and coaches worked with each speaker to ensure their messages would make a strong impression and stand out in attendees’ minds.

Our process

Duarte mapped out a comprehensive event support plan, spanning discovery, content, design, and on-site production. Major decisions and recommendations were summarized in a “walking deck” to keep everyone aligned. Yet knowing some variables would continue to shift, we staffed our team with agile minds to pivot as needed.

Our insights

When our creatives were briefed on the updated event brand — featuring bright, whimsical landscapes — they imagined ways to use it thoughtfully throughout slides and staging. Duarte’s designers deconstructed the visual style into its essential elements, then reconstructed them into a toolkit for artfully visualizing any type of content, from architecture diagrams to case studies to stage-side panels.

Our approach

Coaches worked alongside presenters to shape talking points into crisp and compelling narratives while designers produced slides that told a cohesive visual story, using a presentation template to drive consistency and efficiency across hundreds of slides. Once on-site, our designers and coaches collaborated with speakers and event production staff to bring a flawless finish to the live show.

The results

In the words of one VMware team member, Explore was “the best yet”

A successful event that elevated the company’s visibility in the marketplace of ideas. With tens of thousands watching the live global broadcast online and in-person, announcements by the speakers generated buzz and captured attention from major media like Reuters, Forbes, and TechTarget among others. So, it’s no surprise the VMware team is already plotting how they’ll leverage our work on the next event, and we’ll be right there by their side.

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Major keynote presentations created

And we collaborated with 20 VMware executives and thought leaders.

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Attendees watched the keynotes

And were influenced by striking and impactful presentations.

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Impactful slides created

Yes, four hundred and fifty slides created that delivered a cohesive conference message.