Corporate event design in Saudi Arabia: the Outliers Investor Summit

One thing that clients are saying to me again and again: in this age of encroaching AI, human connection has become twice as valuable. In fact the conversation I’m hearing is very much an embrace of both: luddite denial is off the menu. Yet there’s this ongoing sense that interactions within highly curated events are the preferred way of starting or building business relationships.

This was really brought home to me a few times this year. Firstly in April at the NorthWall Capital Investor Day at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge. A private event for investors, it brought together a unique group of people who shared a common interest in what the firm they’d backed were doing now – and next. Second, at the London Wine Fair at Olympia in May for Mentzendorff when a sense of taste, of seeing, holding and discussing the new season’s product, was so important. Then thirdly, in October I travelled to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for the Outliers Builders Summit where innovative founders met to discuss and formulate the Middle Eastern regional business trends of the future.

My team and I had the privilege of a ringside seat at each of these, seeing how our work provided a sense of coherence to these occasions. I’ve always loved design that you can touch. When I started the business, that used to be stationery, folders, political reports, magazine advertising or the occasional graphic for a van. The game-changer this year has been the idea of beautiful design for every touchpoint and the impact that makes on attendees, particularly with our recent corporate event design in Saudi Arabia. That work enhances the space, warming the backdrop so it feels special and brands the all-important photography and video of the summit, conference or trade fair.

As a demonstration of how design for an investor event can not only dress but elevate it to an remarkable and memorable occasion, I thought it would be interesting to document how we worked on the Outliers Builders Summit and the key milestones in the runup to the event that meant the real-time rollout was seamless.

Understanding the challenge

The Outliers Builders Summit has grown year on year since its founding and gained an outstanding reputation as a gathering of people thinking about where business and economies are heading. It’s also an event which has a deliberately fresh take on the very nature of a summit. That’s whether that’s the discussion topics chosen in the various sessions in the day, the third party activations taking place, or indeed its location. This year was no different with this year’s location in a former primary school turned event-space in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter.

Given a characterful venue was our distinctive and memorable backdrop, we began the project with a fantastic starting point. The brief for this specific corporate event design in Saudi Arabia was to take the work we’d completed on their financial services website design earlier in the year and build that into a series of dynamic and visually pleasing set of physical touchpoints throughout. The crowd to impress were the summit’s attendees of their LP base, local and international investors as well as the founders behind an increasingly impressive and ambitious set of portfolio companies.

What made the Outliers Builders Summit succeed

Three great decisions

In the success of Outliers Builders Summit, I believe these factors were decisive:

• a realistic 3+ month timeline that allowed for thoughtful design development;
• a genuinely comprehensive approach that treated every touchpoint as strategically important;
• strong, collaborative leadership from Outliers’ leadership who understood their brand and the value of design investment.

Deep understanding of their audience and a sense of place

In competitive investment markets, a confident, outstanding event can function as a kind of relationship-building infrastructure and act as your most powerful brand statement. When working in Gulf markets this is deeply enhanced by a sense of personality and business differentiation and respect for your audience and their culture. A great guest list, stand-out venue and immaculate branding that offers connection and convenience builds credibility in a way that no other marketing or impact initiative can achieve.

Great partnerships

Allow time, process and budget for every aspect of a great event. That counts across design and production where preparation and contingency repays itself time and again. Work exclusively with quality suppliers, ideally with whom you have a longstanding relationship, as cutting corners here undermines the entire investment. Finally, it’s a simple point, but as you go, take note of ways you’d improve things. These observations are invaluable for ensuring next time is even better.

How to plan a corporate event

Here’s how we structured the four-month delivery timeline, phase by phase, with key takeaways for project planners at each stage.

July:
Strategic planning and creative direction

With a great working relationship with Outliers established over many months, we knew a structured timeline and plan built together was going to be key to the success of this project. We went through every deliverable from digital output go-live dates to print file delivery timings and worked backwards.
We quickly agreed that agreeing an overall creative concept would come first, with sample designs for the invitations being the vehicle for showcasing this. We also made a clever plan for the website, designing it with ‘maximum content’ but creating a system where all the content could be added and then launched incrementally as details of the event were announced.

What VCs should know:
Your event timeline begins long before briefing your teams. Build teamwork across businesses you’re hiring by making the introductions and letting relationships build early and organically. A bridge between local and international suppliers is the secret to success in delivering events in Gulf markets, particularly in the KSA.

August:
Design Development

With the invitations completed and sent, throughout August we worked on the web page. Deceptively simple, this had to work hard, providing a building sense of anticipation ahead of the event and a way of quickly referring to the seminars on the day. We worked first on a content wireframe for the site, then applied the design, including custom animations, as this was agreed with the team.

As this was going on, we developed an overall signage design concept that as it was rolled out, on a dynamic and attractive ‘three cube tower’ concept that could be wrapped with our design and created a memorable theme for everything we delivered.

What VCs should know:
Allow time for design to be developed then applied. The success of the Outliers Builders Summit was that the preparation of a coherent look built credibility. When every touchpoint, from the first welcome sign to stickers for the back of their phones, reflects your brand values, it signals rigour to your audience that backs up your team when it really counts.

September:
Production

We worked with Outliers’ local event planning firm NightOwl. Their outstanding team were our ‘feet on the ground’ locally and we were able to build a great relationship with them. For Outliers it meant every small detail was in hand; for us working off-site, we had an ongoing dialogue of questions, iterations and checking meaning. Throughout, we knew exactly what we had to design, with real measurements, practical information and an excellent second pair of eyes on everything we submitted.

It also meant that when unexpected changes occurred, such as the introduction of a new kind of signage in the form of suspended graphic panels added to local ironwork frames we could quickly adapt. We’d agreed our core design concept months before, ensuring it was strong enough to be applied to a different format.

What VCs should know:
Organise a communications strategy for delivery partners. Some use Slack, others a group business WhatsApp, but ensure you’re wrapped in and can offer guidance and course-correct when issues or uncertainties arise. Also: don’t panic when the unexpected occurs. The best suppliers can keep cool heads too and remain agile, delivering what you need, even if that wasn’t part of the original plan.

October:
Delivery and on-site coordination

The team and I gathered at the venue the day before the Summit and were on site as signage arrived and was assembled, answering questions as all the different elements arrived from the different delivery partners and the teams creating brand activations alongside Outliers. We tested absolutely every part of the digital assets announcing seminars and speakers that was on-screen for each session. Inevitably this had to be adapted in real time as extra speakers unexpectedly joined, or in one case someone was unable to attend. We’d created the presentation files so knew them inside out and were able to provide amends, solve problems and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

What VCs should know:
Let your team do their job as the event rolls out and work through a carefully planned To Do list, covering everything you need ready during the fit-out day. At a major event inevitably not every tiny detail will go absolutely to plan, but with a little luck your production partners can react swiftly, resolve issues and it’ll feel completely seamless.

Do you need corporate event design in Saudi Arabia?

Whether you’re working in a financial services business in San Francisco or Saudi Arabia (and anywhere in between), we can work on designs from the creative to the corporate, depending on your brief and budget.

Call us on +44 20 7351 4083 or email us direct.

Find out more

Our portfolio page about Outliers’ corporate event design in Saudi Arabia

More of our work for Outliers VC

A portfolio of our work for clients in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh

More of our branding and web design work for financial services firms