Community Futures Middlesex

Background

Community Futures Middlesex is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and fostering entrepreneurship and economic development in Middlesex County, Ontario. Their annual International Women’s Day Symposium and Luncheon is a signature event that celebrates and empowers women in business, leadership, and innovation.

After a successful International Women’s Day Event in 2020, Community Futures Middlesex was gearing up for their 2021 program. However, the pandemic happened, and scuttled those in-person plans.

In the midst of their planning, Community Futures Middlesex partnered up with Tractus Events to pivot their 2021 International Women’s Day Event online.

The Challenge

For 2024, Community Futures Middlesex wanted to make their International Women’s Day event memorable and impactful. Building on the success of their online-only platform, they wanted to craft an experience for both the in-person and virtual audiences.

This presented several logistical and technical challenges:

• Creating an engaging experience for both in-person and online audiences
• Live streaming the entire event to multiple platforms
• Accommodating diverse presentations, panels, performances, and vendor experiences
• Ensuring proper lighting, sound, staging, and camera setups
• Promoting the event to drive attendance and viewership

The Tractus Events Solution

Tractus Events partnered with Community Futures Middlesex to plan, organize, and execute their memorable hybrid International Women’s Day luncheon and symposium.

Pre-Event Planning

We came up with a plan to involve and spotlight as many local Middlesex businesses as possible. From the lunch to coffee breaks, all of the meals were provided by independent businesses in Middlesex county.

Tractus took care of the site visits with the client’s chosen venue, mapping out a complete floor plan, stage layout, and audio/visual setup.

As a full-stack event production company, Tractus helped with event strategy, planning, and technical execution.

Our team created a Social Media Promotion Guide customized to Community Future Middlesex’s event for their sponsors and partners. The document contained example social media content, including complete posts for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to help promote their presence at the event and increase viewership.

Along with our usual event planning services, Tractus was the audio/visual provider of choice for the International Women’s Day Symposium. We coordinated all equipment rentals and deliveries, staging design, equipment setup, and teardown.

Speaker Briefings and Content Planning

Tractus worked with each group of panelists and all speakers involved to ensure their technical requirements for each session were met. We worked with Community Futures to develop an agenda and platform that would bring out the best in our dynamic panelists.

The key reason why the event was such a success in the region was a relentless focus on positivity. All of the speakers, despite the challenges and setbacks they’ve all experienced in their lives at some point, were all positive.

Every speaker, panelist, and partner understood the mission of the event.

Event Production and Live Streaming

Designing a great event agenda is only part of the task. The other part is executing on that vision and producing a memorable event. That’s what we do best at Tractus.

Our team arrived the day before the event to set up all elements of the show, including speakers, microphones, televisions, projection, and special music equipment for our musical guest, Emm Gryner. We conducted our streaming tests at that time.

For both in-person and online participants, we built an event site, complete with speaker biographies, lists of our partners and sponsors, and how to watch the event live. The site was used in place of a traditional paper program in order to help meet Community Futures Middlesex’ sustainabilities practices.

Our audio/visual setup enriched the hybrid experience for all attendees. We used a multi-camera system to allow for high quality, television-like production. For our speakers, we positioned a confidence monitor on stage to make sure all sessions kept to time.

We added accent lighting to the stage in the client’s preferred colours to help set the mood and tone of the entire event. Premium sound reinforcement included mixed audio routed through speakers, monitors and extensive use of wireless microphones to free up our dynamic speakers.

To elevate the entire experience for online viewers, we produced branded graphics, animated wipes, and eye-catching lower thirds for the live stream. In addition, Tractus crafted a custom soundtrack specific to the event, which provided an upbeat, energetic atmosphere during breaks and speaker introductions.

The event was broadcast to Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn Live simultaneously, reaching a global virtual audience while delighting those in attendance.

After the event, Community Futures Middlesex was able to make a cash and product donation of $1,500 in support of Women’s Rural Resource Centre, PARO Centre, and Nokee Kwe.

What Todd Copeland, General Manager, Community Futures Middlesex had to Say:

Tractus once again did not disappoint. CF Middlesex had a vision of what we wanted to accomplish based on our prior success in hosting similar in-person events and a 100% virtual event with their support in 2021. Together we were able to create an impactful experience for not only those who chose to register and attend in-person but also for those who chose to view the livestream of our event on our dedicated event website or our social media channels. Having Tractus as our partner allowed us to focus on the less technical aspects of ensuring the successful return of our community-focused event in 2024. CF Middlesex is looking forward to identifying new ways for us to partner again with Tractus in 2025.

Todd Copeland, General Manager, Community Futures Middlesex

A Memorable Experience for All Involved

“I wanted to congratulate all of you on an amazing event. I know how much work goes into these events that most people are not aware of. I can’t wait until next year’s event and look forward to being part of it.” – Heather Lalonde

“Congratulations on a great event. I heard nothing but compliments on the day. Your team should be thrilled. Thank you for asking me to participate!” – Cathy Burghardt-Jesson

“Thanks for a terrific IWD experience on Friday! I really enjoyed myself and was pleased to see so many rural women-led businesses celebrated! I look forward to us doing more together in the future.” – Christina Fox

“Your team did a FABULOUS job with the Women’s day event! It was a great experience to be there and I received great feedback from the women that I connected with! I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for the opportunity to be there and be a part of the event! “ – Gitanjali Aggarwal

“All your hard work & planning for today really made it an awesome event! So many inspirational & amazing women! Thank you all so much for all you do!” – Pat VanGeleuken

“Such an incredible day of inspiration, connection and celebration!! Appreciate all the women who participated, and all the amazing speakers!” – Michele Sands

“Loved this event! Community Futures Middlesex - The Business Help Centre did an absolutely fabulous job this year (as always!). I left on a high, feeling happy and inspired.” – Therese VanEs

“What an amazing day, shared with inspiring colleagues, women at all levels of leadership and our partner Community Futures Middlesex. Thank you for sharing space with me.” – Leanne Wiseman

“Community Futures Middlesex outdid themselves yet again with insightful panel discussions, presenters and a soul touching keynote address by the inspiring Emm Gryner.” – Melissa Kamp

“We were inspired by the inclusive female entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders who shared their stories of resilience and success.” – Siskinds LLP

Highlight Reel

Watch the Replay