Executive Summary

Transformation Realised 2022 was an evolution of a multi-award winning 2021 event that used a unique mix of live human storytelling and real-time VFX to bring EY’s transformation strategy to life – more than doubling results of the previous year.

The challenge

We built upon the previous year’s challenge of explaining the strategy, this we had to “make it real” AND even more engaging.

The insight

To teach transformation to your people, you need to provide a transformative experience; to make a strategy tangible, you need to truly bring it to life.

The idea

Turn the core components of EY’s transformation strategy into living, interactive guides.

Bringing the idea to life

EY’s transformation champions transformed into digital Avatars of the strategy through motion capture and Unreal Engine, guiding the audience through application of the strategy through a virtual journey to Mars.

The results

We more than doubled the results of the previous year’s event, from a 12% to a now 25% increase in audience understanding.

Challenge, Context & Objectives

·       We set a high bar for ourselves to top after an extremely successful (and multi-award winning) prototype event the year before.

·       This year, EY wanted to go bigger, bolder, and more innovative.

·       The goal was to increase the 3,000+ audience member’s understanding of EY’s transformation strategy even more effectively than the previous event.

Strategy – Target Audience, Insights & Approach

The audience was the EY’s entire APAC workforce of over 3,000 people.

As a leading consultancy, Ernst and Young help their clients with business transformation at every level – from the operational back-end all the way down to employee experience. If they’re going to instil the strategy within their own employees, they needed to make sure they’re not just talking the talk by providing boundary pushing, transformative experiences for their people. That’s where we come in.

Creative Idea

Nobody knows EY’s strategy better than their own internal champions and experts. What if we could transform them to make this strategy tangible for the audience?

Working with Unreal Engine, game designers and full body motion capture we took three strategy champions from within EY and turned them into living digital characters – each one a representation of one of the three core strategy components. We called them the “Avatars”.

But we needed one more thing… a way to apply EY’s strategy in a meaningful way and get our audience to work together, like they would for a client. We needed an inspiring mission that could touch every part of the business.

Execution – Bringing the Idea to Life

It was time to go to Mars.

A collaborative and decision-based virtual game based experience was designed to provide the perfect backdrop for applying EY’s transformation strategy… and it gave us a surprising theme, that allowed us to have fun with the audience.

The 5-day learning experience included:

• A mission to Mars simulation
• A slam poetry opening moment (now widely requested for use across EY)
• Personal transformation stories from leadership (loved by the audience for their vulnerability)
• Light-hearted “space elevator pitches” between juniors and CEO David LaRocca
• Futurist talks, illustrating why transformation is necessary

Our futuristic digital “Avatars” initially broadcast from their bases on the red planet, before “beaming in” to join our live hosts (EY’s own people, coached by us) on stage via XR (Xtended Reality).

The “Avatars” existed in many forms across the learning week, as interactive guides to the strategy who…

• Were integrated via XR into the live show
• Contributed commentary and perspective on the broadcast and a daily podcast
• Answered audience questions via live Teams chat (and the podcast)
• Were available for anyone to message at any time, to gain insight about that strategy component

Ultimately this culminated in a big “Masked Singer” style reveal that put real faces to the wisdom under the digital future robot masks.

Results

So how did we go? Did we raise the bar on our global multi-award winning previous year?

Our reviews, testimonials and results give a resounding yes.

• We more than doubled an increase in understanding of the strategy
  Previous year results: 12%
  This year results: 25%
• “How would you rate your learning experience?” survey post-event: 4.3/5

Across:

• 3,227 participants
• 197 learning sessions
• 70,000 learning hours completed

Quotes from the audience:

-        “Breathtaking!”

-        “As usual, you killed it”

-        “I am blown away”

-        “The passion and creativity is incredible”

-        “Excellent and very inspirational”

-        “Brought tears to my eyes”

-        “Hold more of these events!”

Testimonials
“The Transformation Realised Learning Summit was a way for us to build culture and connection. In a time of disruption and true to the spirit of transformation, it was an opportunity for our team to innovate, push boundaries and imagine what learning could be. Never did we dream that it would be so inspirational for our people and the industry!”

-        Bernard Cronan, Oceania Consulting Learning Leader