OVERVIEW
EDGE is BCG's flagship technology and innovation expo, bringing together more than 2,000 Managing Directors, senior clients, alumni, analysts and press for three days of keynotes, exhibitions and immersive experiences.
BCG's M&E team needed an identity that could work across far more than a traditional event campaign. It had to live across the full experience: environmental graphics, digital platforms, booths, motion, wayfinding, presentations, merchandise and post-event content.
The goal was to create a brand system that could make EDGE feel distinctive, energetic and premium, while remaining flexible enough to evolve across different venues and host cities year after year.
CHALLENGE
EDGE was structured around five content worlds: Technology, Consumer Experience, Operations, Climate & Sustainability, and People & Talent. Each world had its own subject matter, audience and tone, but all of them needed to belong to one larger event experience.
The easy solution would have been to apply one look everywhere for consistency. But that would have flattened the experience and made the event feel repetitive. The opposite approach - giving each world a completely separate identity - would have created fragmentation.
The challenge was to build a system with enough range to make every area feel distinct, while still making the whole event feel unmistakably connected.
APPROACH
I led the identity as a modular brand system rather than a single event look.
Each content world was given its own combination of color, shape, motion and graphic behavior, creating a specific personality for each area. At the same time, every world shared the same underlying design logic, so the system stayed coherent across the full experience.
The identity extended across every major touchpoint, including showfloor graphics, pillars, floor vinyls, custom booths, the registration platform, event app, interactive map, presentation templates, badges, lanyards, brochures, teaser videos, in-room motion graphics and post-event content.
My role also went beyond creative direction. I worked closely with the production team to improve the delivery model, including a bulk-pricing approach that created better economics for the client and more flexibility for the team.
For an event of this scale, the identity had to work creatively, operationally and commercially.
IMPACT
The identity successfully scaled across three very different venues in Boston, Vienna and San Francisco, giving each edition its own energy while maintaining a consistent EDGE experience.
The system made it easier to manage hundreds of assets across teams, vendors and formats without starting from scratch every year. It also helped strengthen the relationship between Design Studios and BCG Meeting & Events, growing the partnership from one edition into a multi-year creative collaboration.
The project showed that event branding is strongest when it is treated as a system, not a surface. A well-built identity can shape the experience, improve production and make complexity feel coherent for everyone involved.
