Amid a riptide of companies vying for brand recognition in the crowded financial-technology (fintech) industry, San Francisco-based Ripple Labs Inc. stands out for its efforts to modernize and democratize the exchange of money. The company generated a groundswell of support following its launch in 2012 and its introduction of a digital payment network to seamlessly transfer money worldwide. Ripple again made waves in 2018 by announcing On-Demand Liquidity, which makes cross-border payments faster, less costly, and more scalable. Riding that momentum, the company determined that the 2019 iteration of Swell by Ripple, its annual forum for clients, industry peers, and media, should signal Ripple's position as a global fintech change-maker.

Launched in 2017, Swell aims to generate brand recognition, establish authority, build a strong sense of community, and share client stories to illustrate the real-world impact of the company's services. The World Bank reports that almost one-third of adults cannot get access to the financial services they need to deposit and save money, make payments, and get credit. By providing a reliable, low-cost, and quick method for financial transactions, Ripple invites more people around the world to participate in the global economy. To drive home these benefits, Swell features a bevy of client vignettes and first-person storytelling that inspire attendees and illustrate Ripple's contributions to transforming fintech.

Following Their North Stars
Within two short years, Swell grew to become Ripple's most effective and high-profile brand-recognition event of the year. At the same time, vigorous growth doubled the size of Ripple's internal team and customer base. As the company continued to move closer to the center of the global fintech stage, its events team asked experiential-event agency Manifold Inc. to help them elevate Swell and burnish the event's reputation as a forum for fintech innovation and influencers.

Committed to maintaining
Swell's underlying spirit and focus on community, Ripple and Manifold homed in on the four "North Stars" that have been consistent objectives for the event from the start. Together, they carefully laid out expansion strategies within these objectives to enhance Swell 2019 with greater sophistication and deeper impact.

The first two objectives – build brand recognition and drive thought leadership – grew to a global scale. Ripple marketers wanted the event's roster of influential speakers and geographically diverse audience of 650 attendees to generate 10 million social and media impressions, as well as 500,000 page views of the company's blog, Ripple Insights. Ripple also challenged Manifold to infuse the 2019 iteration of Swell with a sense of luxury and savoir faire befitting a global brand while maintaining the personal feel the event was known for.

The two remaining North Stars – cultivating real connections and highlighting client stories – assumed greater relevance for Swell 2019. While strong attendance and conference visibility would help fuel the creative environment, the core design of the Swell experience needed to support the underlying importance of connection with more opportunities for networking and participation. Prior to the event, all registered attendees would receive a link to engage with the Swell community through the Brella Matchmaking app. Via the app, users would be able to indicate the types of community connections they hoped to make, access the event agenda, communicate directly with other attendees, and initiate matchmaker meetings. Swell organizers hoped that 200 attendees would use the app to set up 200 encounters.

Additionally, Ripple considers its clients the heroes of its story, and client anecdotes would again pepper the content on the event's main stage. But for Swell 2019, Ripple made its clients the stars of the show by adding vignettes to the networking space.

"Ripple allows its clients to do things they've never done before," says Manifold founding partner Kelly Long. "That's a very powerful message, and the company wanted that to come across." Ultimately, "A New Reality Unfolds" became the driving theme behind everything from speaker selection to event design.

Foreign Exchange
In celebration of Ripple's vibrant customer base and expansion into Southeast Asia, Ripple moved Swell outside North America for the first time and relocated it to Singapore, an epicenter for fintech. The grand opening of Ripple's Singapore office, then, would serve as a prologue to the Swell kickoff, creating a two-part public statement about Ripple's growth and industry leadership in front of the best of the best in fintech from all over the world. The natural beauty of Singapore, and the luxe vibe of Sentosa Island in particular, infused Swell 2019 with a sense of opulence and optimism.

Once on the island, guests were immersed in the garden-filled heritage of Singapore. A lush living wall of native foliage featuring the Swell logo welcomed attendees as they approached the Capella Hotel. A lobby installation of seemingly floating red letters, each a foot tall, greeted guests with a message of "Hello" from one side and "Swell" from another. The Swell logo also appeared throughout the venue to elegantly brand and define the conference areas.

As attendees descended the four levels of sweeping staircases encircling the main event space, Swell 2019's aesthetic theme began to take shape. A custom wood registration desk stood in front of a tessellated design incorporating the Swell logo. The glow of embedded LEDs amplified each geometric point, merging technology-inspired glamour with a warm welcome. Personal connections also shined, as registration was carefully planned to ensure each arriving guest was greeted by a Swell staffer, promptly checked in, and invited to descend a final flight of stairs to begin their Swell experience. At the base of the stairs, an anamorphic sculpture of a deconstructed Swell logo appeared to be a collection of disparate floating shapes until the icon popped into focus when viewed from the right angle.

Serving as an entry point to the primary event space, a walk-through kaleidoscope surprised and delighted guests while challenging them to explore unique perspectives. Many attendees stood inside and snapped photos of themselves, often interacting with other guests. Comprising mirrors reflecting yet another tessellated pattern of the Swell logo, the tunnel conveyed a subtle message: Ripple and its clients are transforming the fintech industry right before our very eyes.

"I love this activation," gushed one Corporate Event Awards judge. "It is such a cool touch and something I haven't seen at an event before." Personal Accounts Emerging from the tunnel, attendees encountered a massive world map of the entire Ripple network, illustrating how rapidly the company has grown into a global player. Impressive as the display was, the real-life impact of users benefitting from Ripple's technology was far more captivating.

The company aspired to humanize this impact by putting a face and a feeling to what is often viewed from a purely bottom-line perspective, and Swell offered a perfect medium for sharing the stories of its clients' customers, e.g., people sending money to family and friends in other countries and small-business owners paying their employees and suppliers.

Instead of planning an expo hall, Manifold constructed five video walls, each standing prominently at 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, along the connecting hallway and circular path to the general session area. Each wall featured a 55-inch screen and headphones that immersed guests in video vignettes of their fellow Ripple community members. Screens showcased clients' stories about how Ripple directly affected their organizations and the people they serve, many of whom are from lower-income communities and developing countries. The videos not only illustrated Ripple's contribution to holistic fintech but also inspired attendees to maximize the impact of the company's capabilities for economic and social benefits.

Sprinkled among the story walls were demo spaces where Ripple's product-marketing team presented client solutions customized to the type of user and relevant currency, and reps at a "meeting concierge" desk met with customers on behalf of the company's sales, account management, and executive teams. Yet Ripple measured success not by the number of sales meetings or leads generated, but by enabling business connections within its community.

Ripple broadened community engagement surrounding Swell 2019 by inviting a contingent of influencers respected for generating insightful conversations about fintech solutions and the industry's power players. Having written about Swell from afar, the influencers welcomed access to executives and front-row seats for the main stage. In turn, the influencers could initiate more comprehensive conversations about Ripple itself and engage the broader fintech community in the Swell dialogue.

Smart Money
A welcome reception the evening before the event facilitated a laid-back night of networking over passed appetizers, cocktails, and live jazz, and Ripple execs hosted a series of welcome dinners for groups of clients, advisory boards, and partners. Ripple's annual Blockchain Innovation Awards lent an air of festivity to cap off the first day of Swell with local cuisine and a Singapore-based drum line. Illustrating the importance of interpersonal connections, the first three hours of each conference day were set aside for private meetings, breakfast, demos, and workshops.

Few discussions about digital banking are framed by an ancient art form, but Manifold created just such a jaw-dropping juxtaposition to set Swell's main stage and allude to the geographic and economic diversity of the Ripple community. More than 6,000 pieces of white paper were folded into origami in the shape of the Swell logo and suspended from strings at both sides of the stage. The resulting "curtains" swayed lightly in the room's air currents and flanked a massive LED screen. Uplights reflected off the paper in hues of ruby, jade, sapphire, and amethyst to accent on-stage panels and performances.

Insightful programming has always been a Swell priority, and the 2019 event leaned in with a battery of A-list keynote speakers. Just a few high-lights include Dr. Raghuram Rajan, chief economist for the International Monetary Fund (who had some attendees clamoring for handshakes and autographs, according to Ripple senior vice president of marketing Monica Long); Piyush Gupta, CEO and director of the largest bank in Singapore; and Michael Brooks, founder and CEO of GoLance Inc., an online company that matches businesses with freelancers In an especially touching speech, BeeTech Global cofounder and CSO Alexandre C.R. Liuzzi recalled how costly and time consuming it was for his Brazilian parents to send him money for tuition, books, and housing when he attended university in the United States. "When you really get to the heart of the people whose lives are changed because of fintech," says Kelly Long, "it hits you how powerful an industry this is and all the things it's doing to transform the world."

Delivering Dividends
Clearly Swell's third iteration was enhanced by a level of sophistication appropriate for Ripple's new global stature. And the event's taste level wasn't the only thing going up. Swell 2019 attendance rose 40 percent from the previous year and maxed out the venue with 656 attendees from 37 countries. Industry seniority was well represented, with 54 CEOs and 32 other C-level executives participating in 68 leadership briefings. The spirit of connection and interaction was also in the air, as the Brella app was used by 320 attendees to schedule more than 400 meetings, double the company's pre-event goal.

News and conversations about Swell quickly spread to the broader fintech and business communities through press mentions, coverage from invited influencers, and social-media posts. Attendee-generated tweets alone met 82 percent of the total impressions goal, with 32,700 mentions of the event hashtag #SwellbyRipple and 8.2 million corresponding impressions. What's more, business and industry media, including Forbes, Bloomberg News, and CryptoNewsZ, reported on Swell, further enhancing Ripple's industry authority. Collectively, this press and social-media coverage led to a 50-percent jump in traffic to Ripple's website. Ripple Insights, the company's blog, also saw significant engagement, e.g., a 225-percent spike in page views and 996,000 video views – nearly double the team's goal. In addition, six blog posts shared shortly after the event delivered coverage of Swell discussions to 122,360 recipients.

Beyond the metrics, Ripple was pleased with the deep community connections formed at Swell 2019. As the company proceeds with no in-person events past the second quarter of 2020 due to COVID-19 safety considerations, the team is especially grateful for the strong relationships forged in Singapore. "Each experience, year after year, has been elevated," says Monica Long. "It's become this big centerpiece to the year that the whole company – and, dare I say, the whole industry – looks forward to." E