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Photo Credit: Bea World Festival

The best event in the world of 2021 is from Germany. The 16th edition of Bea World was won by Digital X 2021 for the project by Do It! for Telekom Deutschland. Two First Prizes were also awarded to the event (in the B2B Event, and Organizational Complexity Management categories). Furthermore, the agency took 2nd place on the Best Bea World Event Agency podium.

DIGITAL X is an event designed to reach more than 20,000 live participants, not in an isolated exhibition hall with artificial worlds, but in the heart of Cologne. An event through which the agency wanted to revolutionize the congress and events market, bringing people together in their everyday life environments (restaurants, cafes, bars, theatres, etc.) to take part in the largest live business festival in Europe. The participants gathered in an area of 2 million sqm, with 5 stages featuring almost 300 Top speakers, 100 locations, entertainment shows, food markets, etc., generating a huge press return across all European media.

“We awarded the Grand Prix to this project because the agency and the client created an experience that fully does justice to the subjects of creativity, innovation, sustainability, and diversity. What impressed us the most was the holistic approach of this activation to revive the entire city right in the middle of the pandemic.” These were the words of the jury’s president, Ulrike Tondorf, Head of Live & Experience Branding at AG Bayer, during the award ceremony of Bea World 2021, which took place on Friday, 17 December, at the end of the world festival of events that brought together the international community in live streaming for four days (14-17 December) entirely dedicated to live communication.

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Photo Credit: Bea World Festival

“We can certainly speak of a new renaissance of the event industry, in which agencies become 360-degree communicators with a new strategic and holistic approach.”

“This 16th edition has a special meaning for me, for many different reasons. Firstly, we returned to pre-Covid levels in terms of entries, with 268 projects submitted by 79 agencies from 27 countries. This is clearly in recognition of the value of the BEA brand, which has firmly established itself as an international benchmark for the entire sector. Integrity and transparency have been key features of our contest since its very first edition. These results also confirm that live communication is alive and well, in light of the current situation. It introduces us to a new dimension, onto a ‘new stage’. The pandemic, in fact, has accelerated some processes that already existed before its spread. By this I mean digital transformation, the need to merge the physical environment with the digital one, and sustainability,” commented Salvatore Sagone, president of ADC Group, at the opening of the award ceremony, which went live from STS Communication and STS Studio.

What are the characteristics of such ‘new stage’ of events? For Salvatore Sagone: “We can certainly speak of a new renaissance of the event industry, in which agencies become 360-degree communicators with a new strategic and holistic approach. We must have access to new tools, which include television production, games, technological skills, social media skills, etc. What we have seen in recent days, and from the winning project itself, is characterized by elements of great innovation and has shown that they know how to interpret the transformation we are experiencing.”

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Photo Credit: Bea World Experience Festival

Ferrari 296 GTB Global Launch event won silver GP

At the ADC Group world award, the silver Grand Prix went to Italy for the Ferrari 296 GTB Global Launch event created by Balich Wonder Studio for Ferrari. The bronze Grand Prix was awarded to the All4climate Italy 2021 event by Piano B with MITE for World Bank Group, which also wins the Special Mention in the Sustainable Event category. Auditoire was voted Best Bea World Agency.

The People’s Choice Award was given to #ScoutOn by D&B Eventmarketing, while the Press Award was awarded to Digital X 2021 by Do It! for Telekom Deutschland.

The idea was to transfer the feeling of Fun To Drive without actually driving, using codes and languages of both the real and the “hyperreal” world. In the Teaser Phase, two real-world and Esports champions challenged each other, revealing the date and name of the event. The Global Première, in live streaming on 4 platforms (and a fifth dedicated to 500 journalists), was built with an extremely demanding technique: a live mix of the language of ‘real’ filming with the language of ‘Unreal’ filming, recreated in Extended Reality (XR) under the supervision of Epic Games. The goal was to convey the feeling of driving the new Ferrari even from afar, conveying the emotions of the “drivers” (the Ferrari management). The launch of the car was also the start of Ferrari’s Rules of driving fun, delivered with a 5-episode video series shot in 5 different countries (Europe, United Arab Emirates, USA, Asia).

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Photo Credit: Bea World Festival

The bronze GP went to the Italian event All4climate Italy 2021, organized by Piano B with MITE (the Italian Ministry of ecological transition) for World Bank Group, which also wins the 2nd prize as Cultural, Musical & Sporting event and a Special Mention in the Sustainable Event category.

A world-renowned expert jury

The best practices elected by the corporate jury, made up of 28 marketing and communication managers from around the world, took to the stage of the ADC Group award and evaluated the 111 finalist events in a long 3-day session. These were coordinated by President Ulrike Tondorf, Head of Live & Experience Branding at Bayer, together with vice-presidents Michiel Pool, global event manager at Ericsson, and Stephanie Dubois, SAP global event director.

To see the full list of winners, click here.

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