company kick off

Company Kick Off

Axon Fest – CKO24

Axon’s company kick off (CKO) takes place in January in Arizona every year. It has always been a place for our remote-first workplace to dip its toes in the culture that keeps us motivated and doing great work. In winter 2024, I got to take on the conference in totality for the first time by myself. We get a theme from our executives to execute and I got to make it come to life.

1,802 employees attended | 549 virtual attendees | $1,704,403.71 total cost 890 employees surveyed, branding: 5/5 stars | 68 “theme”/“brand” survey mentions

First we were tasked with the theme of "ROCK ON". A little on the nose, but I can work with that. As we got into the weeds of a rock-themed kick off I felt like it was isolating and it wouldn't make every employee feel welcome and engerized. We decided to pivot to a music festival theme, Axon Fest, where everyone on our diverse team could feel celebrated, excited, and ready to vibe!

This Axon Fest we’re going on a group journey to a stark, wild and warm landscape in January while the rest of the country is frozen over. This Desert Dweller concept plays on classic visuals of a dusty festival, the colors of an Arizona sunset, and the glorious contrast between a Daft Punk set and flower crowns. Desert Dweller is the perfect setting for a wide variety of music genres between Country, Pop, Indie, Rock, Latin, Hip Hop, House and Electronic. It is Coachella with an edge. We love how these reference festivals focus on art, landscape, and the feeling of being surrounded by community. Add a dash of Axon, and we’ve got an internal corporate conference that brings us together through collective effervescence.

CKO Asset Library

After getting concept approval I created a system for execution for myself, our designers in Vietnam and the UK for our International kick offs, and the motion team we hired for video production. This included lockups, hero imagery, grain psd files, color palette, live type, type samples, and photo treatments.