University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies Kwame Nkrumah Chair

Case Study

Kwame Nkrumah Cultural and Intellectual Festival

Situated within the vibrant borders of one of the continent’s most inspiring universities, the Kwame Nkrumah Chair in the Institute of African Studies maintained the vision to host its biennial festival in spite of the limitations that the COVID-19 lockdown placed. For the first time in its journey, festival was to be hosted fully online.

With the aim of running over 5 days with speakers from across the continent, the festival needed to encourage as much participation from attendees in spite of the virtual set up and still offer transfer of knowledge through panels, presentations and performances.

Visual identity and brand design	Website and platform design	Speaker and moderator support	Amplification through live streaming
The narrative of the festival was told through a visual that expressed the objective in an eye-catching design and artefacts.	Designing a platform that aligned to the vision of the Festival and allowed participants to follow the programme.	Preparing moderators and speakers for the virtual format through run sheets along with guidelines on how to present to virtual audiences.	Expanding digital reach to engage a broader audience through live stream feeds broadcast on the event Facebook page.

Website Design and User Experience	Pre-Planning and Speaker Preparation
Designing an intuitive platform that aligned to the vision of the Festival.	Preparing speakers and participants for the virtual format.

Social Media Amplification	Real-Time Adaptability
Expanding digital reach to engage a broader audience.	Executing live sessions and attending to technical glitches.

The Outcome

Our services and collaboration with the university team brought the following outcomes;
• A truly pan-African and diaspora reach, which saw participation from 77 countries across the 5 days.
• A user-friendly platform which streamed sessions live and was converted in to a repository where the public can playback.
• The chair and school enjoyed the positive brand reach and an increase in overall visibility.

Our Reflections

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Feedback from the client

The Stractiv8 team’s dedication, generosity of spirit and their ability to work across multiple time zones and collaborate with different stakeholders to deliver the service eliminated all our pre-existing reservations about hosting such an audacious feat.

The festival organizers at the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies and the Kwame Nkrumah Chair applaud Stravtiv8 for their services.

Prof. Amina Mama, 4th Kwame Nkrumah Chair