Crafting the story of executive keynotes and product visions
My Role: Storyteller, creative director, writer, editor, business operations analyst, brand ambassador, marketer, graphic and motion designer, design coach, project manager... whatever was needed at the time.
To protect intellectual property, some product and client information has been obscured.
The work on this page is from Epic's annual Users Group Meeting (UGM). Like at WWDC or I/O, company leaders use this conference to discuss industry direction, announce new products, and celebrate what the community using Epic has done to advance patient care. Thousands of executives attend every year.
I got involved working on the show’s visuals and motion graphics in 2015. Each year I increasingly became a storytelling collaborator with presenters — synthesizing content, refining messages, and crafting cohesive multimedia narratives. Beginning in 2019, I was one of three core team members developing the CEO keynote. This portion tended to last 45 minutes and require hundreds of bespoke slides.
Working on these heavily-themed presentations stretched me stylistically as an artist and designer. I never thought I would be into a groovy aesthetic for the “Summer of ‘79 Rockband” themed show.
"I like working with Eric. He's thoughtful and has excellent, astute suggestions."
"Eric's artistic skill and positive energy are strengths, but I'm even more impressed by his desire to understand the product, strategic approach to creating a narrative, telling the story, and then matching the visuals accordingly. He taught me more about presentation-making in our few short weeks together than I'd learned in the past and I am already applying that to my install work. He's making an impact far beyond his responsibilities."
"Eric has done a great job helping to craft our messaging. He spends the time to understand our vision and direction, and then translates that into easy-to-understand and impactful slides and stories. He also holds himself (and others) accountable for keeping things moving forward, which is especially helpful in a fast-moving and sometimes-not-well-defined new product area."
As you can imagine, there’s a big team of designers behind these shows. I took on roles in project management and design direction by organizing teams to produce highly-polished work at lightning speed, keeping us all on track and in sync with the rest of production (lighting, sound, and stage direction).
In 2019, I wore both 'designer' and 'presenter' hats while representing Epic at the American Academy of Family Physician's annual conference, FMX. Assisted by the content I designed, I demonstrated what Epic can do and discussed the company's roadmap with physician leaders from across the country.
"Eric was a huge asset to the Executive Address team. He was organized and quick with delegation, provided valuable feedback to slide designers, and was consistently committed to creating a high-quality show. Plus his positive attitude kept me going through it all!"
"Eric was a delight to work with over the course of Executive Address... He built and leveraged strong relationships with people across the company to gather content for his sections; produced beautiful designs that supported the content well; and he frequently checked in on morale of the EA team, offering support and guidance... He was also a great example of successful delegation, and recognizing helpers; I've learned so much from working with him on this project."
"Eric is a great listener, understood my feedback on the slides and messaging. He’s very intuitive and creative. He was extremely receptive and his next pass was always considerably better. He was a pleasure to work with."
All of these works are owned by Epic. I was responsible for each of these visuals, which are a combination of scratch-made assets, stock material remixes, and contributions from co-designers.