Every year, Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD), a coalition of more than 50 national and regional Christian social-justice organizations and congregations, draws 1,000-plus people to its National Gathering and Lobby Day in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. This most recent event marked 15 years of the gathering and was held the weekend of April 21-24, 2017. EAD selected the theme of “Confronting Chaos, Forging Community” to address the volatility of the current political moment and support building strong collaborative relationships around issues of racism, environmental justice, gender inequality, and global peace building. The National Gathering weekend consisted of keynote plenaries, issues and advocacy skills workshops, worship, networking, and preparation for a lobby day on Capitol Hill around specific federal budget policies.

Perisphere once again served as EAD’s strategic partner throughout the course of the entire yearly event cycle, providing integrated support on all components from initial theme conception, brand development and collateral design, to website content updates – including speakers and activities announcements – to event collateral preparation, and high-level event direction & on-site preparation.

Much of the support for this year’s event was facilitated and enhanced by the creation and usage of a new EAD Event App, which provided participants with schedule updates, speaker information, and up-to-the minute event notifications. The app enjoyed tremendous success and received positive feedback from a broad spectrum of users. Also new this year was the mobile-friendly interface of the EAD website which allowed for greater participant engagement with content. Additionally, those who were not able to attend the gathering were able to follow plenary sessions online via Facebook live stream, which significantly increased the reach of the event. 

As in years past, supplementary content for EAD 2017 included a promotional kit for sponsors, which featured Perisphere-curated theme imagery, as well as a sample social media guide intended to increase engagement around key aspects of the National Gathering promotional roll out. The theme images were integrated with photography and brand materials we had previously produced in order to create new print materials, such as this 2017 flyer. 

Perisphere also designed and produced the 2017 National Gathering folder, a critical resource for participants, as well as a comprehensive social media reference kit. The latter included sample Facebook posts and Tweets for use and adaptation by advocates at the gathering and during the lobby day, as well as speaker social media handles. We also worked closely with EAD to produce a branded PowerPoint template for use in visual projection at the event.

Finally, over the course of the weekend event, Perisphere provided comprehensive media and communications including live Tweeting, facilitation and direction of audio/video activities with on-site staff, photography, and in-event website content updates. A co-branded event-focused microsite featured Twitter and Instagram streams as well as information about downloading the app.

View a sample gallery of our photos from EAD 2017 below.

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