Role

Web Designer, Digital Designer

Year

2018 – 2019

Tools

Adobe Photoshop, WordPress, Zoom, Google Workspace

Skills

Visual Design, HTML, CSS, Project Management, Digital Marketing

Background

Bakery Fair 2019 is the 11th international exhibition on bakery, confectionery and foodservice equipment and supplies. The event showcased approximately 200 booths featuring everything baking related – from equipments, supplies, trainings, and services.

Overview

I was the web and digital designer tasked to design their website, digital assets and social media content for the event preparation, registration and event proper. The team composed of myself, social media manager, and a team from the organization behind the event.

Problem

The project objective was to build and establish the event’s digital platform for pre-registration and communication purposes.

Problem statement

How might we help attendees learn about Bakery Fair 2019 and sign up for their entrance pass so that they can participate in the event?

Target Audience

There are three user groups identified for this project:

  • Attendees are persons who show up at the event, including spectators, baking professionals, baking enthusiasts, students and others present for the purpose of the event.
  • Exhibitors are companies that showcase its products or services at the exhibition event. The event organizers provide exhibition spaces for each company to set up their booths and stands.
  • Organizers plan and manage all aspects of an event while directing other event employees and vendors. During the event proper, they oversee the smooth running of the event schedule and deal with any issues that arise in a professional way.

Approach and strategy

The following approach and product strategies were accomplished:

  1. Requirements Gathering – Requirements gathering helped align the team during the entire process.
  2. Persona – Created personas to empathize with the end user’s goals, tasks and pain points.
  3. Wireframes, mockups and prototypes – Created wireframes, mockups and prototypes as solutions to solve user needs and goals.
  4. Information session – The organization conducted a session with exhibitors to share objectives and goals of the event, as well as an overview of development and marketing plans. As the designer in the team, I moderated a Q&A session to gather feedback and address questions.
  5. Digital marketing – We utilized social media to reach a broader audience and targeted advertising helped us reach the correct market. Email marketing helped us create tailor fit content as we reached existing participants. Overall, digital marketing increased engagement with potential attendees, create buzz, engage in discussions and create anticipation for the event.
  6. Promotional events – The organization held promotional efforts and press conferences to promote the event. I supported them in some of the sessions to create presentations explaining our website and digital marketing efforts.
  7. Usability testing – I conducted a face to face usability testing to identify usability problems and determine satisfaction with the product.

Planning and preparation

Some of the research processes done for this project were: (a) gathering and collating the demographics of attendees and exhibitors (b) gathering data from previous Bakery Fair events. Requirements gathering was done in a hybrid setup, where face-to-face meetings and Zoom meetings contributed to team alignment and gather requirements from stakeholders.

Persona

There are three user types for this project: event attendees, event exhibitors and event organizers.

Attendee

The event attendee is a baker specializing in cake decoration. She has her own small business and uses social media to promote her work and receive orders.

Exhibitor

The exhibitor is a food company that manufactures and distributes spices, seasoning, condiments and flavoring products to retail outlets, and foodservice business.

Organizer

The organizer is a non-profit association that promotes the baking and foodservice industry in the Philippines.

Low fidelity wireframes and prototype

Low fidelity wireframes and initial prototype helped stakeholders visualize the concept and idea. It also let the team resolve basic questions about the content, layout and product requirements before committing to a higher fidelity prototype.

Concept and solutions

The overall solution for this project was to utilize digital platforms in the promotions, the preparation and execution of the event. Cascading information was key in the initial phase of getting the word out. Some of the efforts made to share information about the event were:

Bakery Fair website

”As an organizer, I want to set up our website so that we can share information about the event online.”

A landing page with event imagery and links to supporting articles and pages. These snippets lets users have a high level view of the event.

A page sharing information about Bakery Fair so that users can view more details about the event.

A page dedicated for exhibitors and sponsors to let users have an idea of which exhibitors and suppliers they can meet during the event.

A page dedicated to explaining the rationale, goals and mechanics of Bakers Cup, a cake decorating contest open to the public to join.

A page sharing information about FCBAI, the organization behind the event. This sets the preset of how the organization is working to promote the industry in the country.

A news page sharing event information that updates users about recent news and announcements.

Online promotions

”As an organizer, I want to set up our social media platforms so that we can share and promote the event online.”

Building a community of followers at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Utilized ads and promotions, targeting audience by demographics, behavior and interest.

Sharing information about the event such as updates, announcements and list of exhibitors.

Exhibitors and media partners

“As an exhibitor or media partner, we want to receive status updates so that it will be easier to corroborate work completion and task management.”

An information session to meet with exhibitors was held by the organization with the objective of (a) speaking about the objectives and goals of the event (b) share an overview of development and marketing plans (c) conduct a moderated Q&A (d) gather feedback and address questions early on.

Press conference with the media partners to discuss: (a) how the organization is working to promote the foodservice industry in the country (b) Bakery Fair promotions

Pre-registration

“As an attendee, I want to sign up for an entrance pass so that I can participate in Bakery Fair 2019.”

Online registration form that lets users input their information.

Users receives their entrance pass via email.

Output

Mockups in different platforms:

Outcome

Bakery Fair 2019 concluded with the following results:

Pre-registants

Over 12,000 individuals pre-registered to join the event.

Attendees

Approximately 20,000 event attendees in the three day event.

Exhibitors

Over 150 booths and exhibitors.

Baker’s Cup

There were over 60 participants in the Bakers Cup competition.

Follower Count

Over 30,000 followers on Facebook.

Reflections and learnings

  1. Mobile responsiveness – In today’s digital landscape, ensuring the website’s compatibility with various devices positively impacted user engagement and accessibility. Participants signed up for their pre-registration entrance passes from their laptops, desktops, tablets and mobile devices.
  2. Content strategy – There was a lot of information to share during the project timeline. With proper content strategy and a solid project management plan, our efforts created anticipation and provided value to potential attendees. Information architecture and strategic content played a role in driving interest and engagement.
  3. Flexibility – There will always be adventures and misadventures in events. No matter how prepared you are, unexpected challenges will arise from the least expected areas. We learned that being present, flexible and adaptable to the situation was important in addressing last minute adjustments and concerns.