Gold for what when why – first time round

Gold for what when why – first time round

Carsten Knieriem

Ludwigsburg Agency for Live Communication wins BrandEx Award in Gold in the category Best Digital Event. And Bronze in the all-submissions category Best of Best.

The Dürr Open House 2021 project, from what when why, was awarded with the gold trophy at the BrandEx Award 2023. The most honorable prize in the category Best Digital Event, was awarded on 10th January during a celebratory ceremony in Dortmund. In Germany, the BrandEx Award is the most prestigious prize for Live Communication and is awarded by fwd, the German Federal Association of Event Management. This made it even more pleasing for the CEO and founder Carsten Knieriem, when he stood on stage and what when why was announced as the gold winner. Of course, we are absolutely over the moon. Especially, considering that we won in the category with the most submissions. And we are really proud that our customer, Dürr, joined us in setting up our very first digital Open House event. After all, the aim was to turn a professional and firmly established live format into an emotionalizing, activating, and simultaneously informative digital format within only a few months, says a very happy Knieriem after the award ceremony. In addition to the Gold Award in the category Best Digital Event, what when why obtained a further award with an event titled Paint Shop of the future, which was celebrated just as euphorically. The award for the third place in the
category Best of Best. In this category all submitted events were evaluated separately and for their overall achievements.

Joint celebration between agency and customer.

In addition to the agency s Managing Director, Dr. Sunia Lausberg, Director of Global Marketing at Dürr and Stefan Lippert, CEO of the media
agency UpDesign were also on-stage at the award ceremony in Dortmund. We are completely overwhelmed and really proud, is how the responsible
person on the customer side summed up her immense joy, shortly after have been presented with the square trophy, adding that: Open House was a very successful and sustainable staging of our turnkey paintwork and final assembly systems. With plenty of highlights, which conveyed our
products to participants worldwide in a very special way. But we still wouldn t have guessed that it would become the Best Digital Event of the year in the very first run-up and the third best event overall. It was an amazing surprise. More high-tech, more individuality and more internationality at the first digital Dürr Open House.

What was Digital Open House 2021 really about?

Dürr Open House, an event of Dürr Systems AG, based in Bietigheim-Bissingen near Stuttgart, was staged entirely digitally and climate-neutrally for the very first time by what when why. The event has been the most important global industry event for many years, a networking platform, information hub and the most essential sales event generally for the global market leader in painting facilities. Several workshops were conducted after which a completely new form of communication emerged. More high-tech, more individuality, more information, more exchange, more internationality as well as an unlimited number of participants. With a completely personalized communication journey from save-the-date to the follow-up.

Strategic mix of new and old

Dürr Open House 21 was a combination of all the successful components of previous live communication with new and sustainable options from the digital world. At the heart of the event was a personalized and 24/7, digital information hub, that all guests received personalized access to and through which they could communicate directly with their key accounts and technical experts from Dürr with only one click. This event was the very first one to welcome an unlimited number of participants. Therefore, many important target groups in North and South America as well as Asia could be reached for the first time. In the Showflow, all guests had the opportunity of experiencing every detail of the Dürr innovations up close with the help of a sophisticated 3D experience. The format was broadcast on different days to 47 countries in nine different languages. A further benefit of the digital event: Through dedicated tracking, the interests of participants could be accurately identified, documented and followed up on.


Carsten Knieriem

Written by Carsten Knieriem

Carsten Knieriem is the author of the book *Smarte Events* and has been passionate about designing modern event and communication formats for years. With a keen sense of relevant topics and a clear eye for what matters, he manages to convey complex ideas in a way that is both understandable and captivating. His blend of in-depth knowledge and passionate enthusiasm always brings fresh perspectives to discussions – authentic, practical and inspiring.


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