Moon Event, the success story of an event agency
While still a young business student, his taste for gatherings and nightlife led him to imagine unusual evening concepts in the capital. Hired for the first time as a road at a reception (with the theme of Prohibition - sensational scenography and acting are at the rendezvous -), Romain is simply dazzled. This incredible staging has a name: corporate events.
He then decided in 2007 to set up his first company - specializing in evening entertainment - alongside his sister's very fashionable wedding planner agency.
The experience is formative and during a few years he gains an indisputable know-how in the field of the organization of events.
But Romain is already seeing further.
So much so that in 2013, the self-made man launched Moon Event and offered companies the opportunity to ensure the preparation and management of quality corporate events.
Moon Event, faces the Covid-19 crisis.
Soon, success smiled on him: Renault, PSG, LVMH, BMW, Sephora, Universal, Facebook and even Amazon were won over by the agency's tailor-made recipes. Avant-garde, Moon Event uses a wide spectrum of ultra-modern tools. Immersive scenography, mapping, connected events, virtual reality ... Romain is extending his activity to the whole of France with projects that are constantly growing in scale. Nothing seems to be able to stop the rise of Moon Event.
Until March 2020 with the appearance of the coronavirus.
Overnight, the world is confined, prohibiting all gatherings and all projections of physical gatherings.
The stampede then seems inevitable.
Faced with this situation, some event agencies are however showing remarkable resilience and saving responsiveness.
This is the case of Moon Event which very quickly developed an event model adapted to health rules: the Digital Experience Event.
Moon Event presents the Digital Experience Moon Event
Interview with Romain Richard, CEO of the Moon Event agency
Question • Like many sectors of the economy, the corporate events sector experienced an unprecedented earthquake with the arrival of the global pandemic. How was your agency in March 2020? How did an agency like yours, entirely dedicated to bringing people together, to reuniting people, receive the news of strict confinement and - then - of indefinite duration?
Romain Richard
: “At the end of winter 2020, Moon Event is in full emulation. The development prospects for the agency are numerous and engaging, the signed projects promise great agreements and pave the way for new recruitments. Then the announcement of confinement has the effect of a hammer blow! All planned events are postponed for three months, then another three months, when they are not simply canceled. The evidence strikes us full force: no demonstration will be possible for a long time.
It then becomes vital to find solutions on the one hand to be able to continue our activity, on the other hand to allow our customers to continue their communication and promotion efforts. How to develop an event formula adapted to health rules? Moon Event is already familiar with digital - one of the building blocks of its DNA - it is quite naturally that we are moving towards this type of format. Even though the virtual event does not yet have a name, we are developing a new meeting model: the Digital Experience Event. "
This solution brings together employees around a virtual platform, the participants installed behind their computer screen, while the director (s) and speakers are brought together on a television set with personalized scenography. The environment of the plenary room, with its interactivity and immediacy, is thus recreated. However, most of our customers are hesitant about this innovative formula and very few of them are willing to take the plunge. We nevertheless decided to continue our work to raise awareness of this emerging mode of communication, to explain to our customers the mechanics of the digital format. "
Question • As implausible as it may seem, this blow that led many of your competitors to the debacle had a favorable effect on the activities of Moon Event. How did you manage to do well? By what resilience mechanism, by what strategic path did Moon Event have to go to accomplish this feat?
Romain Richard
: “At the start of September 2020, the health situation changes. The obligation to wear a mask in public spaces leaves few alternatives for companies. The click was almost immediate: on September 15, we recorded a boom in requests without common measures - close to one per day! - for the organization of events of all kinds (convention, end of year party, team-building) in digital format. Sensing that the physical event will not take place anytime soon and confident in our connected event model, we send a strong message to our employees: no matter the situation, no matter the restrictions, the event will take place for sure. ! The initial hesitations of our clients gradually dissipate and meetings multiply.
If the Digital Experience Event constitutes the essence of our event strategy, our main concern remains to humanize digital. And what better for a successful event than a cocktail? This observation leads us to develop the Moon Box. The principle is simple: participants in a virtual meeting receive at home, one day before the event, a box containing a glass of champagne, a cocktail and some corporate goodies. Then, when the meeting actually begins the following day, each of the guests opens their box and shares a moment, certainly at a distance, but friendly with their colleagues and collaborators. Note also that our collaboration with the host Denis Brogniart for theanimation of these digital conventions gave a certain sparkle to the events organized by Moon Event, giving the participants the feeling of being involved in an authentic television program. "
Moon Event presents the Digital Experience Moon Event
Question • A true pioneer of the digital event in France, your agency has to adapt to the health situation almost everything relied on the connected event during these 18 months. According to you, is this meeting method sustainable? Is this the new normal? In a nutshell, how do you see the future of corporate events?
Romain Richard:
“If the health constraints tend to soften, it is undeniable that the resumption of the physical event is not yet imminent. So much so that a solution at the crossroads of real and virtual encounter seems particularly appropriate to the current situation: when humans meet digital, the hybrid event is born! While retaining the conviviality of a physical meeting, the hybrid format offers the advantage of being able to tremendously extend the audience of an event but also to immortalize it, allowing everyone to come back to it as they wish.
Although we have managed with Moon Event, thanks to this pioneering digital shift, to position ourselves as a leader in the field - by offering a very large battery of event solutions (around fifteen Parisian television studios, renowned collaborators, a logistics) -, the human gathering, in the flesh, remains our raison d'être and our horizon. There are a few surprises in store for us in the future, but I am convinced that the digital format will continue. In fact, it turns out - in certain event configurations - better suited and very effective. The excellent satisfaction rate of our customers with regard to digital events is even, in some cases, higher than that recorded during physical events. "
Question • The events sector is the one that has been the most affected by this health crisis. What about Moon Event?
Romain Richard
: "Despite the cascading project cancellations in the first half of 2020 and colossal losses in turnover, our responsiveness and our ability to anticipate, to place ourselves at the forefront of digital technology have enabled us to establish solid credibility. in the corporate events sector. In addition to a resumption on the hats of the wheel last September, Moon Event has made in recent months the unexpected acquisition of fifteen new customers! We were even able to recover framework contracts for important companies until then held by some of the largest Parisian event agencies. "