The FIL Events - Lisbon, Paris, Bangkok

Overview

Every event ran the same set of pieces, in order of lead time. The brand first, then swag and merch at ten weeks out, then the environmental graphics, then print, which had the shortest physical turnaround, then the digital graphics for the screens. The website ran through the whole of it, updated as things firmed up. Media production ran through the event itself and past it: filming the content, then editing and publishing afterwards.

I ran it myself. Print-ready files came from me and went to partners to print and assemble, and partners produced the swag, but the rest sat with me: receiving and coordinating the swag, building the marketing assets, making the site and getting registration working so the events team were happy with it, designing the screens and often changing them on site as things shifted, then filming, cutting and publishing the content afterwards.

Approach

The approach was working hard, and running everything in parallel. There was no waiting for one thing to be finished and approved before the next started. One designer would be researching the next city’s brand while the other was on site sticking things to walls.

FIL Lisbon, 2022

FIL Lisbon was the first one, and the first test of whether we could run an event in another country, in another language, and to a local aesthetic. It ran alongside Web Summit and Lab Week in 2022, so our own ecosystem was already in town along with a lot of other people interested in new technology. What it gave us was our own space, to put on our own content, talk about our own thing, and show who we were as an ecosystem. Dozens of people from across it met, collaborated and networked there.

FIL Paris, 2023

FIL Paris was a nice moment. It ran during ETH CC, when the venues near it were either booked or expensive, so we found an alternative and put the event on a boat in the middle of the Seine, right under the Pont Neuf. Content ran on the bottom floor, a bar at the top, and a large patio outside where we live streamed the talks and put them up on screens, so people could follow along in the sun while they networked.

FIL Bangkok, 2024

FIL Bangkok ran alongside DevCon 2024 and was a big production. We had a lot of content to get out, so we worked with CoinDesk to live stream it, which suited the timing for a large Asian audience, a Chinese one in particular. The main space was a conference room inside a mall, with booths outside run by ecosystem members, closer to a trade show. There was a late-night event too, with food stalls and a tuk-tuk to take photos in.