How Juneau’s Arts & Humanities Council Creatively Merged In-person and Virtual Elements For a Futuristic Hybrid Event

The Juneau Arts & Humanities Council (JAHC) is the formal arts agency for the capital city of Juneau, Alaska county. They are a leader in building a strong, prosperous community where creativity and innovation thrive. They also offer community programming in performance, visual, literary, arts education, and several other helpful resources for local artists.

In its 21st year, Wearable Art: Intergalactic flew into new galaxies as a 10-day festival, going hybrid for the first time. The Wearable Art Extravaganza is the primary fundraising event for the Arts Council’s Youth Fine Arts Scholarships and Individual Artist Grants each year which relies on the generosity, creativity, and enthusiasm of our community for its success.

CHALLENGE

When we started to look at this event as more of a festival, we wanted a platform that could direct our attendees to the right places in one centralized hub. Cadence’s features allowed us to do just that!

Kathleen Harper

Centennial Hall House Manager, Juneau Arts & Humanities Council

They were looking for an event platform that would allow them to:

• ✅ Seamlessly direct their attendees to where they needed to go
• ✅ Clearly communicate the mission of the organization and strategy for the fundraiser
• ✅ Host all important information and links on one hub
• ✅ Execute all the creative ideas and activities that combined virtual and in-person elements

Here are 5 ways The JAHC made the most out of Cadence:

1. Taking Advantage of the All-in-One Hub

With a multi-day festival that was as jam packed with activities and important resources as The Wearable Art Extravaganza, it was crucial for the JAHC to be able to disseminate this information in an efficient and convenient way for their guests. By customizing the Menu, they were able to directly link out to their online auction, the Alaskan Airlines raffle and more. The themed schedule page also linked out to all the different shows with their respective links for attendees to easily purchase tickets.

2. Creating a Virtual Scavenger Hunt

The JAHC used the Compete feature to host a series of hybrid scavenger hunts which stayed on theme with the title, Ground Control Scavenger Hunts – Mission Communication! They provided a list of missions to be completed with QR codes scattered around the city, combined with different challenges on the Cadence App such as visiting the Sponsors page and connecting with other attendees.

Cadence allowed for us to still have the connection and social interaction that people normally get in an in-person event. The platform also let us try out all these new ideas that we wouldn’t have thought of prior.

Rachelle Bonnett

PR & Marketing Coordinator, Juneau Arts & Humanities Council

3. Hosting Trivia Nights!

With a little help from Symphony, a well-prepared pre-uploaded slide deck and live polling on the platform, the JAHC hosted a series of trivia nights to gamify the sessions and keep audiences engaged. Attendees were also able to see a real-time leaderboard during the session to see who was in the lead.

4. Connecting with the Artists & Models

Oftentimes at in-person events, attendees are so overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle around them that they are unable to partake in key parts of the event. Allowing their audience to get to know the backgrounds of the artists and models was something that the JAHC typically weren’t able to do prior to using Cadence. Each model and artist were able to share their story and provide more context to their pieces in a way that was easily digestible and accessible for the attendees.

Because we were able to brand the event as ours, we were able to achieve our goal of reiterating the JAHC’s mission to the community.

Kathleen Harper

Centennial Hall House Manager, Juneau Arts & Humanities Council

5. Building a Fully Branded Event

One of the best pieces of this event was how thoughtful and imaginative the JAHC was about every single element on the platform. From the titles to the images, everything stayed true to their futuristic, intergalactic theme. It is this level of attention to detail that keeps the audience curious and adds layers of fun to the entire event!

• ✅ Reached an audience beyond the local Juneau community
• ✅ 3 hybrid scavenger hunts around Juneau and via Cadence
• ✅ Over 800 messages exchanged throughout the festival
• ✅ Community building on the live chat during the shows
• ✅ 10 sets of trivia games

What attendees said:

1. “It was new and refreshing to watch the show from home. Although I miss the in-person event, this was a nice change.”
2. “What a fantastic way to showcase the Wearable Arts Show in a very weird pandemic year. We just wish the show was longer. It would be great to have the streaming option in future years as well for those that can’t secure a ticket, or the date/time doesn’t work for them to attend in person.”
3. “Really enjoyed the show and the amazing talent behind those outfits. Nothing is quite as grand as in person, but it was kind of fun sitting at home in our comfort zone! It was cool to see the host interacting even though they were socially distancing. They did a good job.”
4. “Loved Cadence, and it seemed like their help team was really good.”

Interested to see how Cadence could work for your upcoming events? Schedule a free personalized demo. We’ll recommend the best solution based on your goals-even it’s not Cadence.