Context

For more than 100 years, Nordstrom has worked to deliver the best possible shopping experience, helping its customers express their style—not just buy fashion.

Nordstrom, Inc. is a leading fashion retailer offering compelling clothing, shoes and accessories for men, women and kids. Since 1901, the company has been committed to providing our customers with the best possible service—and to improving it every day. This commitment has taken Nordstrom from a small Seattle shoe shop to the fashion icon it is today.

With more than 350 Nordstrom, Nordstrom Local, and Nordstrom Rack locations (on top of the online offerings of  Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack apps and websites) it's clear this retailer has to keep its teams on-target and well-connected.

As the Nordstrom executive leadership sought a cost-saving yet engaging way of bringing its key executives and directors together, Imaginate emerged as an event solution that broke beyond the typical confines of a conference call. The Nordstrom team wanted a virtual space that represented the brand well while remaining elegant and easy-to-use.

In collaboration with Imaginate, the following customized photorealistic Nordstrom event space was designed to accommodate up to 1,000 employees all in the same building with the capacity to autonomously network and mingle. The furniture on the fictional roof and entire design concept evolved directly from aerial photography and architectural renderings. 

Part of the photorealistic event design required to-scale recreation of the custom, glass flagship New York City facade and surrounding buildings, as depicted below.

Setup

Beyond the photorealistic 3D environment for virtual event itself,  Imaginate spent much of its time collaborating and planning the content flow and Run of Show with the Nordstrom team. During the pre-planning, Imaginate worked side-by-side with Nordstrom to ensure guest registration and pre-event communication was taken care of and proper pre-event communication was delivered.

In Table Mode, the Nordstrom team felt like they were actually there, able to move freely throughout the event space and connect with whomever they chose. Once it came time to recognize employees, hold a Q&A panel, share slides, or give opening/closing remarks, Presentation Mode brought the audience focus back to the speaker(s) on stage.

The Nordstrom team was free to enjoy the event without having to worry near as much about running the platform or managing the technology. They were able to focus on content and delivery, all while seeing virtual attendees interacting (in real-time) with the speakers onstage.

• "This platform is the best, that I've experienced, at getting pretty close to that feeling of being together... It is really the most effective way of feeling connected as a team without us physically being together."
  - Erik Nordstrom, CEO

Results

Imaginate delivered way more than just a “virtual event” for Nordstrom…

• Custom Photorealistic Event Space & White-Label Branding
• Pre-Event  Tutorials & Demo Environments
• Technical & Presenter Rehearsals
• Live In-Event Help Desk with Phone Support
• Synchronization between events: Q&A, Virtual Speakers, Realtime Chat 
• Pre-Event Graphic Design & Brand Asset Creation
• Presentation Video Editing Services
• Post-Event Data Reports & Detailed Attendance Summary

Imaginate is proud to have partnered with Nordstrom for their bi-annual leadership meeting and continues to find ways to serve its smaller teams with the assets already created. Nordstrom is proving that innovative companies are seeing well-designed virtual events as the solution to bringing everyone together in an engaging, inclusive, and innovative way.

• "This is great! I love this platform. It's like a wedding reception. You can just bounce from table to table and see folks."
   ​​​​​- Ken Worzel, CCO, Nordstrom

Continuing the Partnership

As Nordstrom leadership became familiar with the Imaginate technology and collaborative approach of its event production team, more opportunities arose to bring events to a departmental level. 

For instance, in the fall of 2022, the Digital Operations team held a leadership offsite to do a deep dive into the relevant topic of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The Imaginate platform worked perfectly because it took teams out of rows (listening) and placed them in circles (participating). 

The conversations, shared stories, empathy, and support offered in a table-based environment was the only way to adequately broach the topic and provide a good balance between teaching content and small group dialogue.