They couldn’t go to Hawaii.
We brought it to them.
Each month, we’re celebrating 15 moments from the past 15 years that capture the magic, the challenges, and the unforgettable wins of the Proscenium journey.
This month, we’re taking a look at a virtual event for Qualcomm during COVID that was almost as impactful as being their live.
A surprisingly fond memory
Five years on, it's hard to look back at the virtual events wave of 2020–2021 with any kind of longing. And yet, one of our favorite productions from the past 15 years was a virtual show that kept Qualcomm's customers, employees, and investors connected while the pandemic kept them apart.
Qualcomm's flagship annual Tech Summit is typically held on the beaches of Maui, with attendees flying in from around the world. When the pandemic shut that down, they needed something far better than a hundred people in tiny Zoom boxes. Qualcomm is a tech company, and whatever they did in a virtual environment had to reflect their drive for innovation.
Building a beach
We flew drones over the actual Hawaiian beach where Qualcomm normally holds the event and used that footage to render a full digital recreation of the venue.
Attendees had a keynote space for the main presentations. We built a demo area where they could explore Qualcomm's latest products. And there was a tiki lounge, where you could pull up a recipe for a drink and watch the sea turtles swim by.
It was much-needed escapism and connection, but it was also far more functional than most virtual events of the era. Attendees actually wanted to stay and explore, rather than rushing to slam their laptops shut the moment the keynote wrapped.
Setting the bar for virtual events
Forbes covered the event, praising it as a benchmark for virtual meeting experiences. For a company like Qualcomm, that recognition carried serious weight. In a moment when most brands were struggling to make virtual feel tolerable, we helped them set the bar.
Qualcomm went on to use the platform we built for two consecutive years.
Ke'ala Warwick, our senior producer who led the project, put it well: "To be able to do that at a time when you couldn't be in the same room as even a friend or a family member was really special, and really just broadened the scope of what we can do here at Proscenium."
