Accelarate

Outpacing expectations: Accelarate

Each year, Accela, a trusted provider of cloud solutions powering government operations, hosts Accelarate, a user conference for partners, vendors and customers. It’s a chance for the different groups to network, learn more about Accela solutions and discuss the coming year.

USER CONFERENCE

SOFTWARE

800 ATTENDEES

Laying the groundwork

A large event full of nonstop activity, the gathering requires careful planning, coordination and creative thinking—along with a sharp eye for timeline and budget parameters. ETA has worked with Accela to conceptualize, develop and produce the event since 2018, collaborating on everything from thematic elements to lighting, talent, presentation coaching and beyond.

As former Accela Senior Vice President Heidi Lorenzen explained, Accela has turned to ETA throughout the years to help balance big picture goals with on-the-ground practicality: “ETA really gets to know and understand us and what our goals are, what our constraints are, and really works with us to make sure that those are met, and that we’re still creating an incredible experience for our customers, prospects and partners, all within our set of goals.”

Coordinated—but not inflexible

With so many stakeholders, it’s easy for an event of this magnitude to stall on approvals and chain-of-commands. To avoid any bottlenecks, we held regular calls to keep progress moving while communicating key information to decision makers.

We also stay flexible in our approach in order to accommodate new ideas that best suit the occasion. For the 2022 event, which took place in Salt Lake City, the Accela team wanted to play up the Olympic connection (given the upcoming winter games) by hosting their appreciation party at an Olympic Circle property closer to Park City than the main event venue. As a result, we designated a separate crew to support that location for a day and a half.

Producing priceless moments

One of the event’s keynote speakers planned to deliver an out-of-the-box presentation focused on the idea of bringing people together. The talk included an interactive component in which he would orchestrate one harmonious voice out of different audience groups. An exercise in discipline, intentionality and ambition, the exercise started with the speaker playing different clips, then inviting the audience to sing along in various layers.

While the magic of the moment belonged to the presenter and the audience alone, ETA played an important — if not invisible — supporting role. As ETA Director of Production Bruce Lankford explained, this moment needed crystal clear audio, carefully planned acoustics and a knowledgeable partner to succeed.

“We had to think about speaker placement and look at the actual wavelengths in the room to make sure he could hear the audience and the audience could hear him. You had to be able to hear yourself to stay on pitch and get the harmonies,” said Lankford. “We also needed to be prepared for moments of playback. The pre-planning was really important to make sure our technical team was completely aligned.”

In the end, the performance went off without a hitch—and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house by the time the last note had finished.