About the Fast Company Innovation Festival

The Fast Company Innovation Festival is the premiere innovation event of the year, hosted by Fast Company, is the premiere tech and culture event of the year, hosted by the world’s leading progressive business media brand. Each year, the festival attracts the biggest names in business, design, leadership, creativity, and beyond. Leaders and innovators from all over the world gather in New York City for several days to engage in inspired conversation, panels, workshops, and networking. It’s a place where exceptional visions are shared and ideas for the future are born.

Setting the Stage

In September, 2022, the 8th Annual Fast Company Innovation Festival was set to return in-person for the first time in three years. The goal was to emerge post-pandemic bigger and better than ever. This was on top of Fast Company’s long-standing goal of continuously improving the event year over year. Working with the theme “Innovation Unbound,” organizers needed more than a great venue: they needed an all-in-one event partner who could match Fast Company’s leading reputation in the industry and enhance the vision of their extraordinary brand.

Goals for Fast Company

When searching for the ideal partner, Fast Company needed one who could not only support a large and complex event, but who could elevate the Innovation Festival to a whole new level.

A large, versatile space. Any partner would need to be able to host hundreds of people comfortably. At the same time, the space needed to facilitate incredible presentations and create one-of-a-kind experiences that would meet the high standards of their attendees, most of whom were in C-level or other top management positions. Additionally, over 20 top media outlets would be in attendance, including The New York Times, Business Insider, CNBC, AdWeek, and The Wall Street Journal. Given that level of visibility, and with expectations so high, the space couldn’t be anything less than exceptional.

Stellar production. The Festival would include in-depth panel discussions and interviews with high-profile talent across three separate stages. Speakers included celebrities like Judd Apatow, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Also set to take the stage were founders of major industry disruptors, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and directors of important, life-saving foundations. Sponsors like Meta, Capital One, and IBM sought innovative branding opportunities and experiential activations. The production value of the event needed to match the high caliber of the talent and brands. Every moment had to be spectacular.

A dedicated team of experts. Organizers needed the right group of thoughtful, detail-oriented people who could work alongside them from beginning to end. The team couldn’t just show up day-of. They needed to take ownership of the planning process and provide consistent support before, during, and after the event. Nothing could be left to chance.

Seamless technology. Suffice to say, technical glitches were out of the question. Organizers rightly expected everything to run smoothly – from the audio/visual experience onsite to the content streaming for those watching at home. The tech needed to be flawless.

Hospitality. One major attraction for festival attendees is the opportunity for serendipitous and purposeful networking. For that to happen, organizers needed there to be an atmosphere of warmth and conviviality. They also needed every high-profile speaker to feel at home and well taken care of. From the back of house to the front door, support staff had to be top-notch. Fast Company needed a team who were experts in the business of hospitality.

The Solution: Convene 225 Liberty Street.

The ideal space. Large in scale yet sophisticated by design, Convene 225 Liberty Street was the choice for Fast Company. At 73,000 square feet, this multi-level, full-service venue can accommodate up to 10,000 attendees across six unique meeting spaces, making it the perfect destination for large-scale events. Over the course of the festival, three different stages hosted an impressive programming lineup of founders, creators, artists, and innovators. In addition, attendees were invited to participate in hands-on workshops, purposeful networking, and a brand-new dinner series called Taste of Innovation, where they dined on exquisite meals curated by some of the most renowned chefs working today.

The right team. The Convene team worked tirelessly and in lock-step with Fast Company during the planning phase to ensure that even the smallest details were accounted for and nothing was left to chance. During the event, staff members provided the welcoming and attentive support that is a hallmark of every Convene location.

A flawless production. From panel discussions to workshops to sponsor activations, every moment came alive with high production value. Sponsors were happy, speakers felt supported, and audiences became engaged.

Cutting-edge technology. Convene seamlessly integrated the virtual and physical worlds in a way befitting of the Fast Company brand. At every Convene location, an invisible layer of technology ensures that each day runs as smoothly as possible, and Convene 225 Liberty Street is no exception.

A welcoming experience. Above all else, Convene means hospitality. For every event, the Convene team brings with them the warmth, creativity, and attentiveness of a high-end boutique hotel.

The Convene Team

Bringing people together to do extraordinary things is what we do.

Experiential hospitality is how we do it.

Experiential hospitality is the unique alchemy of destination, design, people, and technology that drives everything we do. It’s all the behind-the-scenes effort we put in to make events like the Innovation Festival seamless and surprising. It’s the genuine warmth that greets you every time you walk through the door. It’s how we turn ordinary spaces into extraordinary places, and everyday moments into memorable experiences.

“Part of the magic of being at Convene starts when you walk in the door. The greeting, the welcome, the decor, the sophistication. It’s professional. It’s inviting. That works for the Fast Company Innovation Festival so well.”

   -Damian Slattery, SVP Marketing, Inc. & Fast Company

“Partners have really loved everything we have brought together for them… I’ve never heard so many compliments.”

    -Melissa Rocco, Vice President of Sales, Fast Company

The Results

“This was our first big splashing moment back to live programming as a brand… and it wound up being a really, really great success.”

• Melissa Rocco, Vice President of Sales, Fast Company

The partnership between Fast Company and Convene ensured that the 8th Annual Fast Company Innovation Festival was the best it’s ever been.

An Inspired Audience

Over the course of four days, Convene hosted close to 600 attendees. Based on an audience survey:

• 98% were satisfied with overall experience at the festival
• 86% believed the festival brought the Fast Company brand to life
• 85% agreed their experience generated ideas useful to their business

Here’s what some of the attendees had to say:

“Great experience, stellar panels, and fantastic networking opportunities.”

“This was one of the best managed, and best programmed, conferences I’ve been to in 25 years.”

“Fast Company Festival is a wonderful way to gauge the temperature in what companies are doing to stay in the conversation of relevance, customer engagement, and social impact.”

An Engaged Media

The Festival recorded 21.7 billion potential media impressions, including 114 million potential hashtag impressions and 295 million potential Fast Company handle impressions.

A Winning Team

- Key Convene team members and the role they played

- Time/money saved by Fast Company thanks to Convene support

- Number of Convene staff on the ground during the event

Convene can take your event to extraordinary places.

Convene designs and operates a network of hospitality-driven meeting and event spaces that are ideal for innovative, high-profile experiences. We are your single-solution destination to create extraordinary moments. When you choose Convene, we don’t just work for you – we partner with you, going above and beyond to make sure you have everything you need and more.

It’s our goal to help you be your best, and as such, we only operate in Class A buildings. Each space is thoughtfully curated with award-winning design, in-house culinary services, and seamless technical capabilities. Our spaces are incredibly versatile, so let your imagination run free. And the Convene team of experts will be with you every step of the way – before, during, and after your event.

Be more extraordinary with Convene.

Interested in working together for your next event?