Guerlain's "In the Name of Beauty" - a virtual seminar that felt like a social network

Most "virtual events" are a video call with a nicer landing page. Guerlain wanted the opposite. Its "In the Name of Beauty" seminar had to be a place its travel-retail beauty advisors across Asia Pacific would actually want to spend time, over weeks, not sit through for one afternoon and forget.

So we built a social network. Advisors logged in securely, with multi-factor, then posted stories to a live feed and reacted and commented on each other's. They came together for a livestreamed plenary, keynote, training, long-service awards and a lucky draw, all with live chat and a replay. Regional breakout rooms grouped the 280 guests by their own markets, and the whole interface ran in five languages, so nobody had to read a second one to take part.

Underneath it ran a points economy we called Bee Coins. Daily logins, posts, reactions, the photobooth, weekly challenges: the small, social actions all paid out coins, which advisors redeemed against a real Guerlain prize catalogue. A "Top Buzzing Bees" leaderboard ran the whole time. That turned a training seminar into something closer to a game you play with colleagues. Which is the point. When engagement is the structure and not a feature, people show up, and they keep showing up.