Akamai August All Hands & 20th Anniversary Celebration

Stagedge was first engaged to support Akamai’s all-hands meeting: three events across 18 hours, including a live event for 700 attendees with a webcast, late-night and early-morning APJ and EMEA studio broadcasts, and multiple two-way location interactions. Weeks before the event, management decided to make it a celebration of Akamai’s 20th anniversary and the launch of a new company tagline — with little time to spare.

The challenge

The internal team needed to turn an already-complex multi-broadcast all-hands into a milestone brand celebration on a compressed timeline. The event had to serve a global workforce across multiple time zones while delivering the emotional weight of a 20-year anniversary and a brand relaunch.

The Stagedge solution

Our team launched into a collaborative brainstorming session, and ideas quickly took shape. On event day, attendees approaching the auditorium were greeted by the funk-jazz sounds of local band The Boston Horns. The Kresge Oval was transformed into a fully branded barbecue with oversized balloon arches and pillars, and the foyer featured a series of four-foot branded helium balloons and a four-foot three-dimensional 20th-anniversary logo for everyone to sign.

The outcome

Inside the auditorium, a 24-foot-wide LED screen carried content and IMAG while imagery and kinetic lighting painted the walls and ceiling. For the crescendo, moving lights brought the room to life with patterns and color as the line-array speakers thumped and the audience celebrated — a milestone moment that doubled as a working all-hands for a global company.