CONNECTING A WORLDWIDE COLLABORATIVE NETWORK WITH SIDESHIFT

Building a fully interactive, global virtual summit addressing sustainability, success and wellbeing from the ground up, Cosaris brought international recognition to Sideshift’s brand and vision whilst also creating a multi-disciplinary, mutually beneficial network of thought leaders. Connecting senior representatives from major global corporations, businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs, universities, experts and business networks, as well as membership organisations and NGOs together for an 11-day virtual summit titled Changing Perspectives – Redefining Sustainability, we made significant headway in the small task of changing the world!

sideshift

global

50+ employees

Social Learning

A global, virtual team of entrepreneurs and dedicated people on a mission to address and help solve environmental and social challenges. Shifting perspectives and providing new opportunities across industries and borders to create the world we want to live in.

Top Challenges

  • Building a virtual summit from the ground up in pre-Covid times
  • Attracting a global audience
  • Engaging speakers without funding to speak and raise awareness of the summit
  • Deliver tech support and marketing for thousands of delegates across the globe

Why Cosaris?

  • Expertise in unique learning experiences
  • Ability to engage a diverse global network
  • Strong marketing and comms expertise
  • Our history of multi-disciplinary collaboration
  • Passion for sustainability, not-for-profit and wellbeing

 

Key project successes

  • Growing a worldwide multi-industry network to deliver the summit and continue to collaborate for future learning and innovation
  • Successful social media campaign which raised awareness of the summit and prompted pre and post event connections for all involved

THEIR CHALLENGE

To raise awareness of Sideshift’s mission and build a live virtual event involving 60 speakers over 11 days attracting a targeted global audience of people and organisations with an interest in the summit’s topics. Sideshift were keen to provide relevant, valuable insights and raise awareness of global and local challenges and showcase solutions whilst engaging everyone in their mission to build a multi-level, mutually beneficial network of thought leaders. Cosaris were engaged to coordinate the virtual team and activities, deliver project management, create awareness and provide technical support for the summit, all whilst working with volunteers and ensuring the summit was a community effort.

A BESPOKE SOLUTION

For Sideshift we provided the experiential expertise, international network and focus on meaningful change to create a leading, virtual event for the ages. Cosaris helped to power a multi-stakeholder, global virtual summit connecting 60 speakers and over 2,000 delegates to build a global network focused on a sustainable future. Across the entire experience, from pre-comms on social media through to the summit and post-event surveys and roundups, we engaged every stakeholder across 50 countries on a series of targeted subjects designed to engage and initiate debate and innovation. The summit reached senior representatives from major global corporations, start-ups and entrepreneurs, universities, business networks, membership organisations and NGOs creating a unified community which has gone on to collaborate on truly impactful change across various industries.

“It’s so important to share what we are all capable of if we want. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this inspiring event and network.”

Nina Borgström

Director of Digital Transformation and Design, White Arkitekter

A 360º CONNECTION

Learning

Somewhere in the world the answers to challenges exist we just need to discover those solutions, share those innovations and learn from them.

Sideshift’s summit has enjoyed life far beyond its three-day event delivering continued impact for universities, organisations, NGOs and governing bodies as a resource database focusing on sustainability, success and wellbeing.

We know universities who have collaborated with Sideshift to use the evergreen content as learning resource in their curriculum, providing tangible impact for Sideshift’s team and global network to gain additional opportunities as keynote speakers, research providers and as the basis for academic projects within globally renowned learning establishments.

In line with these academic projects Sideshift has also facilitated students reaching out to engage with speakers from the summit to network, research and to build upon ideas. These relationships and collaborative learning networks are still connecting years on from the summit and providing new pathways to learn from outside perspectives and enjoy cooperative communities way into the future.

Collaboration

The limits of what we can achieve together as a community is immeasurable, especially when that community is united in a shared belief.

For Sideshift that shared belief was connecting people to explore how to move forward into a sustainable future. Through dedicated community-building and a powerful Hybrid Platform, the result was a “resounding success”.

The entire summit was built on the notion of collaborating for the greater good and gaining valuable experience working for a cause everyone is engaged with and passionate about. We built the entire Sideshift team from our vast partner network, managing virtual teams to run the entire event, raise awareness, capture post-summit feedback and deliver communication across social media, direct marketing and speaker network marketing.

By engaging everyone and working as a tight unit, Cosaris and Sidesfhit were able to demonstrate the summit’s marketing power for both speakers and delegates by connecting all our networks together as a single force for good.

Uniting every stakeholder with a powerful team and engaging mission, we were able to create multiple cross-pollination opportunities in just one week, thinking globally then acting locally and globally to ensure every partner, speaker, delegate and member of the team was able to have an impact and be part of the solution.

In addition, the community powered by Cosaris built a targeted network list for Sideshift, containing thousands of people and organisations interested in what they offer, whilst also expanding the reach and connection of every speaker to a wider pool of sustainability-focused collaborators.

Finally, the community gained access to high-quality information from trusted sources, plus a huge network of potential customers and business partners. Sideshift summit speaker, Paul Musembwa, CEO of WARP Development, referred to the “massive event” as the “gift that keeps on giving.”

Engagement

If you believe in what you are working towards, you can achieve anything.

At Cosaris we help organisations to achieve their vision and it’s always a much smoother journey when every stakeholder is united in what their vision is. This was absolutely the case for Sideshfit so we wanted to augment the engagement of the Sideshift team, their speakers and of course their delegates even further.

We know that it’s not only money which motivates people, it’s an opportunity to engage with a bigger goal and as part of a team striving for change.

For Sideshift this was absolutely the case as the entire summit was not-for-profit and achieved without money as a factor. Every speaker, writer, technician, social media analyst, researcher and stakeholder behind the scenes contributed their efforts as volunteers with the shared goal of changing the world.

On social media, our expert team developed a 60-day challenge comprising a countdown of the 60 speakers to showcase their idea ahead of the summit and allow the speaker to connect with people and raise awareness through their own network in the lead up to the event.

With Sideshift, this meant a huge boost to their social media analytics and, as a not-for-profit, we provided a creative solution to paid-advertising by combining networks. This in turn motivated speakers to engage with everyone involved and connected a worldwide collaborative network even before the first day of the summit took place.

Experiences

Sometimes the journey can be just as rewarding an experience as the destination itself.

With Sideshift’s summit we were keen to deliver unique experiences to address the powerful topics, engage the stakeholders and also develop a large network of people who wouldn’t normally fall into each other’s orbit.

For each topic discussed at the summit, Cosaris ensured the team researched and recruited expert speakers who were prepared to engage and connect with the project before, during and after the summit.

Our teams set up the necessary tech, produced and curated content, all the while building engagement between speakers and a global audience in the run up to the summit itself. Through this research and engagement we were able to build a fantastic roster of experiences, hosting networking events, creating discussion forums, delivering e-learning around the topics and fostering impactful relationships between innovative thinkers across the globe.

These experiences resulted in Sideshift becoming a targeted network containing thousands of people and organisations interested in what they offer whilst also overcoming big and small challenges in global approach to sustainability.

One of the key speakers, Nina Borgström, Director of Digital Transformation and Design at White Arkitekter, explained: “It’s so important to share what we are all capable of if we want. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this inspiring event and network.”