For the better part of 15 years, Supima has hosted an  in-person Harvest Symposium at their headquarters in Arizona. When the country went down in 2020, Supima saw a challenge for how to continue to have this yearly event.

Essay Video brought Supima in for a site visit, and the conversation went from “What do we do?” to “This could work.”

Supima’s Harvest Symposium brings clients in from all over the world to educate people on their sustainable cotton. There they meet the farmers, see how the cotton gin works, and learn about the cleaning process. From the farm to the retail, Supima’s annual symposium would happen at their facility.

This year they decided to do it virtually. This meant virtually bringing their team in Tempe Arizona, Fresno California, their Marketing host on the East Coast, and their partners in London, Italy.

Essay had crews in each of these cities set up a matching green screens. Each set had a two camera shoot. TV monitors for each setup showed the other speakers in their respective locations. This meant that their eyelines would match who they were speaking to, so the entire thing felt natural. The keynote panelists interacted live with the other speakers.

Back in Norwalk,  Essay Video set up an actual stage in the studio that no one would ever step foot on. The guests were superimposed onto this stage to give the live presentation a feeling of authenticity.

The goal was to put all of these minds together on the same stage so they could speak naturally. These live conversations, were then edited and color-corrected to match one another. This created a seamless cohesive look.

Everybody who participated found it to be really fun. They thought it was really engaging, it really worked — it really worked. And audience members were asking if it was done live, was this pre-recorded? The guests were amazed — which is exactly what the Supima event has always done.

The 3-Day Event, brought together four and even five panelists at a time on stage at the same time. Watch the full videos at Supima.