A Corporate Leadership Conference Designed to Surprise and Delight
At a Glance
Since 2021, First Watch has partnered with Bishop-McCann to design and deliver its annual Leadership Conference, creating an experience rooted in culture, connection, and celebration. For this corporate leadership conference, 965 attendees gathered at the Wynn Las Vegas for a 2.5-day event built around the theme “Cultivating Culture, One Restaurant at a Time.” Departing from its long-standing home in Orlando, this program embraced a road trip-inspired narrative, reflecting both a new destination and the company’s continued expansion.
By the Numbers
- 965 attendees
- 400+ attendees participated in curated, off-site activities
- 2.5 days of immersive programming and connection
- 2 massive 40’ LED screens with 3 LED panels, transforming the mainstage environment
- 1 huge surprise for attendees to see the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere!
Opportunity
Following a highly successful year, the challenge was clear: How do we top it? Bishop-McCann was tasked with designing ways to elevate this year’s corporate leadership conference even further than the previous event.
The First Watch Leadership Conference plays a critical role in reinforcing culture, celebrating achievements, introducing innovation, and empowering leadership. This year’s event needed to build on that momentum while introducing fresh, elevated experiences that would surprise and delight attendees.
Key objectives of both the client and our team included:
- Celebrate milestones and recognize leaders
- Foster learning, growth, and connection
- Reimagine the agenda to further enhance the event
- Elevate hospitality and the overall attendee experience
- Optimize programming for greater impact, including entertainment, speakers, and gifting
At the same time, the program needed to stay true to the brand’s ethos, delivering a large-scale experience that still felt personal and people-first.
Outcome
Bishop-McCann partnered with First Watch to completely reimagine the attendee journey, introducing bold agenda changes, immersive storytelling, and elevated production to create a more dynamic and engaging experience.
A pivotal shift came in restructuring the agenda. Traditionally, the awards celebration took place on the first evening. Instead, we replaced it with a high-energy welcome reception and transformed the expected awards night into a fully orchestrated surprise.
Attendees were led to believe they were heading to an awards event. But they were instead surprised with a private experience at the Sphere Las Vegas to see The Wizard of Oz. The “detour” reveal was brought to life through beautiful custom animations, themed storytelling, and full executive participation with the C-suite even dressed as Oz characters, complete with full costumes and makeup to truly bring the story to life. Coordinating transportation, we ensured all attendees were able to experience this unforgettable moment seamlessly.
Production value was also significantly elevated through the introduction of large-scale LED screens, enhanced scenic design, and rigged audio and lighting that elevated the entire show. These changes helped create a more immersive general session environment. Additionally, a redesigned mobile app supported the experience with personalized agendas, real-time updates, and a social wall to encourage engagement and connection.
To further personalize the experience, attendees were given the option to curate their own free afternoon, with excursions to various destinations, including Red Rock Canyon, the Hoover Dam, the Mob Museum, the Neon Museum, and a Las Vegas City Tour.
Final Experience
From arrival to departure, the entire corporate leadership conference was intentionally designed to create a sense of excitement, personalization, and connection. Attendees were welcomed with a gifting experience featuring curated items like custom apparel and interactive elements like DIY trucker hats and keychains. Registration continued that momentum with thoughtfully assembled welcome totes stuffed with items like coffee mugs, stickers, emergency kits, sunglasses, and travel journals.
The welcome reception set the tone with interactive entertainment, including Carpool Karaoke and live performances, encouraging attendees to immediately connect and engage.
The reimagined awards brunch on the final day brought a fresh, high-energy approach to recognition. Elevated food and beverage, live entertainment, and dynamic programming created a celebratory atmosphere that felt both authentic to the brand and energizing for attendees.
Throughout the program, the road-trip-inspired theme was woven into every detail, creating a cohesive and immersive narrative. The registration website, badges, signage, main stage scenic, decor, entertainment, gifting, swag, registration desk, food and beverage breaks, photo opps, mobile app – every element incorporated the theming for a cohesive look and feel.
JOY Moments
The most impactful moments were rooted in surprise, personalization, and shared experience.
- The Sphere Surprise: A show-stopping surprise that transformed expectations and created a collective moment of awe and excitement
- Executive Engagement: C-suite leaders fully embracing the experience by dressing as Wizard of Oz characters, reinforcing culture in a memorable way
- Welcome Reception Energy: Carpool Karaoke and interactive entertainment from roller skating performers created a high-energy atmosphere from the moment guests arrived
- Awards Brunch Reinvention: A fresh take on recognition that energized the final day and aligned with the brand’s identity. We surprised guests with legendary football player, Emmitt Smith, allowing for meet-and-greets. Plus, attendees loved the incredible, violin-playing DJ who kept the energy high on the last day!
Together, these moments delivered what matters most: an experience that didn’t just meet expectations, but created lasting JOY.
Quotes
Here’s what the client had to say about the experience:
I wanted to take a moment to personally thank you for your incredible partnership and for executing such a spectacular conference. Simply put – it was the best one yet. From the AV and production to the food, the countless details, the concierge service and executive handling, the costumes, the Oz experience, and so much more – everything was executed with precision, creativity, and care. Your attention to detail, thoughtfulness, and willingness to go above and beyond truly showed in every moment. It felt seamless, thoughtful, and intentional from start to finish. Most importantly, the impact on our General Managers has been extraordinary. They are flooding LinkedIn with posts sharing how meaningful the experience was and saying it was the best conference ever…. Thank you for raising the bar on excellence. We appreciate your partnership and each of you.”
“Every year you raise the bar to create a bigger and better conference. This year OMG, it was incredible – splendid – a longtime memory that 1,000 of our best friends will never forget. Thank you for all you do ~ the suppliers can’t stop talking about the event, and I know the GM’s were over the rainbow 🌈 (see how I did that)! Way to lead.”
Here’s what attendees had to say about the experience:
“Outdid yourselves with an amazing event! Great hotel venue, good food, nice merch, fun activities, fantastic surprise to the Sphere, great speakers and guests, amazing leadership and discussion, nice atmosphere for networking.”
“Best leadership conference ever.”
“Getting to go to the Sphere for a show was an incredible surprise. Totally unexpected and a moment that I’ll never forget.”
“The bar has been raised.”
“It was an amazing experience. Thank you to all who helped plan and pull off such a great experience.”
