Solutions
FIRST @ Bank of America
The team supported Merrill PWM Southeast at the Art Basel Miami event to highlight the Art Services team, educating attendees about what sponsorships bring to the community and clients. This year there was a cocktail reception at Contessa Miami and guests enjoyed an evening of canapes, drinks, and a fireside chat with Caroline Orr, VP and Art Services Specialist, and Refanie Reed, a global developer of Art Basel. At PAMM, guests were led through a gallery highlighting the Art Services team's conservation efforts. The artist, Jason Seife spoke to the audience discussing his exhibit and provided select guests with a private tour of his gallery.
FIRST @ Capital Group
The team completed 2 events in December, including the Private Client Services KidzBop event in Los Angeles. The group hosted their clients and children in a suite to watch KidzBop at the YouTube Theater. It was a lively way to close out the year!
FIRST @ Carlyle
The team executed 12 events to round out nearly 150 events in 2023.
FIRST @ Goldman Sachs
The team delivered 30+ events in the AMRS and 5 events in EMEA in December.
The FIRST @ Goldman Sachs AMRS team hosted The Annual Holiday Market, featuring graduates of the 10,000 Small Businesses program. Approximately 55 vendors sold their products over two days in the lobby of the NY office. The holiday spirit was felt throughout the building, and the employees were able to do their last-minute shopping! In addition, the annual Children’s Holiday Party was back at the New York Headquarters for the second year post-COVID. Over 1,300 Goldman Sachs employees, spouses, family members, caregivers and children participated in holiday crafts and activities that highlighted science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
The EMEA team hosted the annual Children’s Holiday Party at the London Offices. Over 800 guests were welcomed into the building including employees, their partners and children. The party included a variety of entertainment including festive themed crafts, a polaroid photo area and a special visit from the North Pole! With just 1 hour to set up and get festive ready, it really was all hands on deck to flip the restaurant following the lunch service with involvement from many of the on-campus partners - catering, facilities, logistics and a team of 30+ from the events team and an external entertainment agency.
FIRST @ KKR
The team hosted 65+ events globally, including the Holiday Open House in New York. KKR procured a holiday market featuring shops employing several underserved communities, such as victims of domestic violence, with proceeds going to supporting organizations. This event was very well attended and received by all as everyone worked together to give back.
FIRST @ Meta
The team wrapped up 2023 spectacularly with the 3-day Mixed Reality Hackathon at Meta London, the first after the launch of Meta's Quest 3 headset. The results of the Hackathon - 5 winning teams were picked from the 26 participants - exceeded expectations of how Quest can be used to drive engagement outside of gaming, i.e education, utility & productivity. A total of 90 mixed reality developers and creators attended the event from across Europe.
FIRST @ McKinsey
The Sourcing team closed out 2023 contracting nearly 300 programs. The team has already contracted close to 100 events for 2024. The planning team worked on over 100 events in 2023, including COP28 in Dubai, UAE. This was the first time McKinsey was an official sponsor of this high profile, global event which welcomed world leaders, and was a huge undertaking from start to finish.
The COP exhibition saw 150,000 attendees across 14 days, with thousands visiting the main McKinsey booth which held multiple sessions and a daily live broadcast. McKinsey also hosted a special evening of networking and amazing cuisine, hosted by the Global Managing Partner, with guests including 150 CEOs and dignitaries from across the sustainability industry. The beautiful backdrop and fabulous weather created the perfect setting for the alfresco reception before guests moved into the stunning ballroom with a custom-built stage for the WTO Director General, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s keynote speech. Sustainability was a focus at the event; the registration desk, flooring and any structural plastic seen on the booth and dinner stage, was made from recycled sea plastics; all of the wood on the outside of the booth was untreated and donated to a building charity within the UAE to be reused; all leftover materials, drinks, catering suppliers and stationary from the booth was donated to the Emirates Red Crescent Charity; the logo and signage has all been saved and will be reused at future 2024 McKinsey events!
FIRST @ Morgan Stanley
The team delivered 5 global events, 25+ roadshows in AMRS, and 75+ roadshows in EMEA.
The AMRS team delivered the Annual Global Consumer & Retail Conference, which took place at the Intercontinental Barclay, New York City. The marquee conference hosted over 1,100 attendees, a 25% YOY increase and all-time record attendance. The two-day conference consisted of fireside chats with management teams in the consumer and retail sector, including Coca-Cola, Walmart, Krispy Kreme, and The Honest Company. One-on-one and small group meetings took place concurrently. Each night there were offsite dinners, hosted by the corporate companies. The team received rave reviews from the attendees and internal client feedback.
The FIRST EMEA team delivered The Morgan Stanley Business Services, Leisure & Transport Corporate Access Day at the Morgan Stanley London Conference Centre in Canary Wharf. With 27 attendees, this annual conference was devoted to one-on-one and small group meetings, allowing the opportunity for focused discussion and questions & answers. The team swiftly dealt with a travel disruption and facilitated the virtual dial in of two participating companies so that all scheduled meetings could proceed. Investor attendance was up 55% with nearly 20% more meetings scheduled in 2023 than in the year prior. Overall, feedback was very positive from both those attending and the host team. Plans are already underway for 2024.
The EMEA team also supported the Annual Client Festive Quiz. The hugely popular event had outgrown its previous venue, so the team sourced a new, larger venue which enabled a 30% increase in attendees. The team decided to embrace technology and use electronic devices for scoring. The creative round was also upgraded with client teams being challenged to decorate their own Christmas trees – with extra points awarded for homemade decorations and disqualifications for no lights / tree toppers. There were a few hiccups onsite with the technology which need to be ironed out for the 2024 event, however, feedback was overwhelmingly positive on all the changes and planning for 2024 has already started. A successful and great fun event to end of 2023!
FIRST @ PIMCO
Our EMEA team executed the Nordics Roadshow with events in Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. We had over 100 attendees, a great turnout for this roadshow series. The team also completed a Family Capital CIO Dinner at Harry’s Bar in London.
Client Kudos
What the clients have been saying:
FIRST @ BofA
Marketing Partner: "Shanée [Walker-Gray], Thank you again for all of your hard work on this event. The planning was flawless - you were proactive and responsive every step of the way. The LOB was challenging at times, but you were consistently patient and flexible – and they are very pleased with the event. Thank you for being a great partner." Line of Business: "Nicole [DeMeo], I cannot thank you enough for all you did to make our events a huge success. Everyone had the best time! Your hard work to ensure that everything went smoothly was reflected at every turn. It was truly a relevant, magical experience for all." FIRST @ KKR Senior Executive Assistant to the Chief Legal Officer: "Thank you again for all your invaluable help yesterday!" FIRST @ GS AMRS Kudos from David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs: “I want to thank you for helping to organize this year’s U.S. Financial Services Conference. I thought the programming was excellent and I appreciate all the work that went into inviting our guest speakers. It was a great event, and I want you to know your contributions did not go unnoticed. Congrats on another successful conference. I look forward to seeing you all next year.” FIRST @ GS EMEA "Would like to call out a special thank you to Nisa and Rugile for their work across the Holiday Market this year – we had super smooth logistics for all the businesses onsite and very positive feedback from all who engaged. Sharing a couple of quotes from the vendor partners below which say it all. It was our largest market to date (19 businesses), and the host team really appreciated partnering on this. PTC always comes with its own challenges, so thank you for navigating all our internal protocols to make our processes look easy! Great job!" FIRST @ McKinsey "Hi Dylan (Booth), I wanted to wish you a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!! Thank you so much for all the help this year, I really aspire to be as organized as you are and admire your dedication to this project a lot. Excited to hear how the conference turns out!" "Christina (Alexander) was wonderful to work with. We all faced challenging issues but worked so well together to support each other and be able to carry on. I am so grateful she was able to be there the full 2 weeks and she was able to keep pushing herself and did a wonderful job."
FIRST @ Morgan Stanley AMRS
For Teodora Bartalini: "Now that the dust is starting to settle post-conference I wanted to send a thank you. I am so happy that after all of our hard work the conference was such a success. I was so relieved when I learned that you were going to be working on Consumer as you are so good at what you do and so easy to work with. Thank you for helping me navigate my first conference as a specialist – know it wasn’t always easy." For Sam Corrigan and Carly Fizzano: "This event was a huge success, and it wouldn’t have been possible without you three. This was my first year running BU point on the event and so I was flooding everyone’s inbox with emails trying to cover every base possible, and you guys were incredibly understanding, responsive, and thorough with everything I threw at you. This was happening over multiple months!!" "And on top of dealing with everything that came from me, you had to deal with incoming along the way from everyone else, and a flurry of last-minute changes/requirements – which are always inherently stressful but you guys were rock solid on all accounts and helped to ease the noticeable skittishness from the group. After moving from the middle last year to the front this year in terms of planning, I have a refreshed appreciation for all that you guys have to manage to make an event (or just ours? Lol) successful, and you have my heartfelt appreciation." FIRST @ Morgan Stanley EMEA Kudos for Sarah Mooney: Re: BLT Conference: "Thank you for all your hard work and support in making yesterday’s event a success. We have received great feedback from both corporates and investors!" Kudos for Natalie Brown: Re: Holiday Cocktails: "It was an excellent event. Good venue, good food, good service, good attendance and enough space. Clients came to me saying it was a great event, and especially the food got good feedback. Thank you organising. It seemed we stayed within budget as well. From my pov, we can use this venue more often."
© 2023 FIRST | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
If you have any questions about the @FIRST newsletter or have content you would like to include in the next edition, please reach out to FIRST Communications. Please also note that the newsletter is for INTERNAL USE ONLY.