In this series, features and series developer Heather Nicholls takes you behind the scenes of some of the most compelling brand activations and events.
In this edition, we meet OrangeDoor, the agency behind the EMEA leg of ServiceNow’s World Forum.
The brief:
OrangeDoor delivered the EMEA leg of ServiceNow’s World Forum, a flagship global conference. OragneDoor was tasked to oversee activations in London, Munich, Paris and Rotterdam.
The topline brief was to create a high-impact event that inspired, was inclusive, sustainable, and aligned to ServiceNow’s core values.
The primary goal was to reinforce ServiceNow’s leadership in digital workflow transformation through a consistent, engaging event experience across Europe:
- Deliver ESG and DE&I objectives with measurable results.
- Deliver a flawless delegate journey across four major cities.
- Achieve a 30% year-on-year growth in sponsor revenue.
- Improve audience engagement across all content formats.
- Enhance global brand consistency while retaining regional relevance.
The Execution:
To deliver this event, OrangeDoor designed and delivered four large-scale events with the ServiceNow Global team, each hosting 1,200-3,000 delegates.
Each city followed this shared blueprint:
- High profile plenary keynotes
- Five breakout streams tailored to industries and customer journeys
- Immersive, branded experiences in the Expo
- Sub-events for executives, analysts and marquee accounts
Elizabeth Heron, CEO and founder of OrangeDoor said: “Storytelling remained central to the agenda, humanising complex technology themes. DJ-led entrances, choreographed lighting, and gamification elevated energy and reinforced brand values.”
OrangeDoor designed content for attention, relevance, and interactivity with keynotes under 25 minutes, rotating panel formats with open Q&A, live polls and gamified elements and industry aligned breakout design.
Speakers such as physicist Brian Cox bought emotive storytelling to technology narratives. Heron added: “The plenary environment felt more like a live show than a corporate conference, using dynamic staging, music and multimedia design. This was, however not at the expense of human engagement – bringing personality into presentations, dedicated space for connection, and energy and vibrancy from our event team – making transitions between programme moments feel exciting in their own right.”
Each event required complex technology coordination designed to make the experience seamless and connected across plenariess, breakout spaces and beyond the physical event. Key features included:
- A custom registration and capacity management platfrom
- Live streaming across all cities
- Real time translation for multilingual audiences
- On-site demo stations and gamified learning tools
- 360-degree photo booths and interactive content walls
- Post-event, sessions were made available online for global teams unable to attend.
OrangeDoor also were tasked with managing end-to-end partner engagement across all four cities, developing a sponsor playbook that was used globally – ensuring sponsors felt supported, activated and set up for success from contracting through to show floor delivery.
The OrangeDoor team acted as the central liaison for all partners, coordinating onboarding, logistics, booth build and live troubleshooting while maintaining a seamless and consistent sponsor journey across Eurpo/
This included:
- Full sponsor contracting and package management.
- Upsell and cross-sell of enhanced activations and premium placements.
- Expo planning, stand build coordination and technical readiness.
- On-site partner support desks and rapid issue reolution.
- Smooth delivery of sponsor led sessions, demos and hosted experiences.
Speaking on partner engagement the Heron said: “Immersive activations such as branded lounges, barista bars, interactive demo pods, and gamified engagement zones increased dwell time and partner ROI. Sponsors reported stronger lead quality, higher footfall, and greater visibility across the event ecosystem.”
Heron added: “This hands-on approach resulted in a 36% uplift in sponsor revenue, exceeding the original 30% growth target, while strengthening long-term partner relationships and raising the overall commercial performance of the Expo.”
The Results:
The event surpassed all KPI’s:
- Attendance: 7,868 total attendees, with 60% YOY growth in London and 43% in Munich.
- Engagement: Expo dwell times reached record levels, live polling exceeded 75% and charity raised thousands.
- Operations: All budgest reconciled within 12 weeks, meeting internal KPIs and industry gold standards
Heron said: “Further achieving upfront objectives, budget governance was managed scrupulously across the events, with precision, control and confident reporting. Our team operated with initiative and pace, removing blockers proactively and acting as a true extension of the ServiceNow organisation throughout planning and delivery.”
Heron added: “Underpinned by measurable ESG and DE&I outcomes World Forum set a new global benchmark for what a modern flagship conference can deliver. London’s launch at ExCeL established a scalable template now used internationally, demonstrating OrangeDoor’s ability to deliver complex, content-rich, commercially successful events with creativity, consistency, and impact at their core.”
The client said: “I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for the outstanding work your team put into making World Forum such a success. From the very beginning OrangeDoor’s attention to detail and professionalism shone through. Your seamless coordination and dedication ensured everything went off without a hitch.”
The client added: “The feedback we’ve received from sponsors has been positive and so much of that is thanks to the hard work your team brought to this project. You truly went above and beyond and it didn’t go unnoticed. It was an absolute pleasure collaborating with you”
The event also had a large sustainability and DE&I Impact.
In terms of sustainability, venues with strong environmental credentials were selected, train travel was prioritised to reduce emissions and AV and staging was reused across all four cities.
Furthermore, materials and merchandise were recycled or donated, catering used local suppliers nad minimised food waste, badge and lanyard recycling was implemented at every event. As well, 8,000 plus charity bags were packed on site.
DE&I measures included multilingual signage, culturally aligned menus, accessible venues and priority seating. As well as this, speakers such as Sir Lenny Henry addressed themes of diversity, belonging, and equity.