The first fully digital party conference in Germany

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The 33rd Party Congress 2020/21 of the CDU of Germany was the first in its history that could not take place live with the assembled party members due to the lockdown. The debates, personal exchanges and handshakes that are usually important for the members’ sense of togetherness had to be omitted this time, and the show of hands for voting was replaced by the push of a button. For the first time, the party conference was held completely online – projecting the successful message of togetherness without meeting in person. The Union circle developed for this purpose became a 360-degree brand experience and provided a stage for topics and people as a consistent symbol of togetherness. The associated concentric studio design acted as a multifunctional nucleus for all areas of application and formed the platform for stage, motion and sound design, for virtual interaction elements of the delegates, the party conference website, the multimedia branding as well as the concept of augmented reality elements integrated into the live image in real time. Ultimately, the circular studio as an agora for speeches and debates of the delegates as well as the candidates enabled the first digital voting of the party in real time.

Statement by the Jury

The achievement of carrying out such a complex event format as a party congress, in this case that of the German CDU, completely online is absolutely outstanding. Central to the success was the design reduction to the Union circle featuring in the colours of the German flag as a recurring frame theme in all media, branding and merchandising articles. The message of togetherness thus was conveyed intuitively and the entire identity uniformly and concisely.

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