CEO Council

Wall Street Journal

My role

How do you engage top business leaders when you can’t host them in person?

Typically the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) hosts business leaders in Davos for the WSJ CEO Council, an exclusive forum in which key issues of the day are discussed. The coronavirus had made this impossible, so Cheerful Twentyfirst were challenged with building a virtual experience to replace the in-person forum.

Animation showing how a question would be asked during a Q&A session at the event on the virtual auditorium live-stream page — Wide live-stream block, “Ask a question” strip and session labels; motion shows the ask flow.
Wireframe of the Auditorium page showing key page elements in relation to the page fold on desktop — Top nav, large live-stream block, “Ask a question” tile on the right; orange dashed page-fold line; “Current session” and “Upcoming session” blocks below.
Wireframe of the Auditorium page showing key page elements in relation to the page fold on desktop — Top nav, large live-stream block, “Ask a question” tile on the right; orange dashed page-fold line; “Current session” and “Upcoming session” blocks below.

My role was to design and lead the development of the platform on which the event was hosted. We partnered with Eventfinity, a virtual platform provider. They deserve a huge amount of credit in working in tandem with me so we could have the platform ready in time for the client’s incredibly tight deadline.

Being the sole UX and UI designer, my role was client facing. I used co-design techniques to involve stakeholders in the design process so all had ownership of the final product.

Animation of the Welcome page (landing page) being scrolled — Hero with primary CTA and two side-by-side “Highlighted page” blocks; orange page-fold line crosses the lower blocks.
Wireframe of the Welcome page showing key page elements in relation to the page fold on desktop — Nav bar, centered “Primary call to action”, twin “Highlighted page” tiles; orange dashed page-fold across their lower third.
Wireframe of the Welcome page showing key page elements in relation to the page fold on desktop — Nav bar, centered “Primary call to action”, twin “Highlighted page” tiles; orange dashed page-fold across their lower third.

For this event the user group was truly unique and therefore a lot of time was spent in understanding their needs and how to appeal to them. ‘Less but better’ was my North Star during the design process. These attendees did not have the time or patience to find what they wanted. I crafted simple user journeys that streamlined the process of gaining critical information and engaging in activities core to the experience.

Animation of the Lobby page (social area) showcasing on-page UI motion — Large “Networking” hero, row of three sponsor tiles, counters and CTAs in motion.
Wireframe of the Lobby page showing key page elements in relation to the page fold on desktop — Nav, wide “Networking” block, three sponsor squares; orange page-fold; below-fold “Event product page” and “Selected wsj.com articles”.
Wireframe of the Lobby page showing key page elements in relation to the page fold on desktop — Nav, wide “Networking” block, three sponsor squares; orange page-fold; below-fold “Event product page” and “Selected wsj.com articles”.

The client emphasised how important networking was to their guests. To drive engagement I created a unique animation that featured the attendees’ headshots, a live counter of users online, coupled with an assertive call to action.

“A huge thank you for the delivery of yesterday — we are getting endless thanks, high-fives and praise from all parties — internal and external.”

Angus Peckham-Cooper, Vice President, Global Events at the Wall Street Journal