I got a room of strangers to commit to something out loud, then put it on film.
Honesty in a room full of strangers is a design challenge as much as it is a hosting one. Small groups before the big one, one commitment written by hand, a portrait set that made it visible, and a set of rules about what happened next.
ROLE:
Co-Founder · Concept · Creative Direction · Event and Experience Design · Portrait Direction · Film Direction
ORGANIZATION:
The Broad Exchange
SCOPE:
Live event · Portrait installation · Film · Social
About The Broad Exchange I co-founded The Broad Exchange in 2009, a 501(c)(3) for women and gender-diverse people in creative and communications industries. It started as small dinner circles and grew to 3,000 members, early career to C-suite. #IRESOLVE is one of its programs.
The problem
2017 left a lot of people exhausted, sharply divided, and hungry for a better way to communicate. Resolve was the word we kept coming back to: an earnest commitment, the settling of conflict, and the embracing of both fierce strength and softer reasoning as a complete toolkit for leading and connecting with others.
What I did
Designed the room around the ask. An event-based activation where attendees explored how each of them could use their influence, connections and skills to understand one another and mend the schisms in front of them. The goal was narrow on purpose: identify one immediate action each person would resolve to take, and commit it to paper.
Built the portrait set as the amplifier. We captured every attendee's portrait on a set designed around clear quartz crystals, so the images carried the idea of resolve visually and worked beyond the walls of the room.
Made them say it out loud. Before the night was over everyone shared their commitment with each other, building a network of support in the room, and on camera, so the story travelled.
Ran it on donated everything. No budget and no client. I rallied and managed volunteers, sponsors, and a team who donated their services to run production and produce the films, with an original score. Then I went after the press myself, pursuing interviews and publishing opportunities, which is how it ended up in LBB, Shots, Working Not Working and Milk.xyz.
Impact:
WORKING NOT WORKING: HOW NOT WORKING CAN LEAD TO RESOLVE
Milk.xyz: GET EMPOWERED WITH "I RESOLVE" FROM THE BROAD EXCHANGE
Shots Women’s Network The Broad Exchange Sparks ‘I Resolve’ Movement For International Women’s Day
LBB Women Come Together to Address Social Issues at The Broad Exchange’s 'I RESOLVE'
Every attendee was photographed on a set built around clear quartz, so the idea of resolve was visible in the image itself. Each portrait ran with the commitment its subject had just written down.
The full room opened together with a visualization exercise that set the intention and the energy for the night. The small groups came after, so nobody had to be vulnerable in front of a hundred people.
The set, built in the room and run through the night, so committing something to paper and being filmed and photographed saying it happened in the same place, minutes apart.
Every participant, on camera, saying what they had resolved to do. The commitments left the room the moment they were made. Fun fact, The original music used in the film was composed by the same person behind the Wonder Woman feature score.