Representation Matters
Representation Matters was Salesforce’s annual racial equality summit built to elevate underrepresented communities in tech, with programming spanning conversations on equality, career growth, and the impact of AI. 2024’s edition featured a keynote from two-time Olympian Jordan Chiles alongside leaders from top accounts like Google and Abbott. The event was a meaningful fuel source for Salesforce’s diverse recruiting pipeline and its REJ and gender representation goals. As a creative team, we support Representation Matters end-to-end – from developing the event’s creative direction and visual identity to producing everything from stage design and wayfinding to demand gen assets that carry the event’s message across both the in-person Chicago audience and the much larger virtual one.
Senior Art Director
Employer Brand Creative
Salesforce
Representation Matters 2024
Salesforce Tower Chicago
This creative concept was built on the idea that nothing truly transformative ever comes from doing something familiar. To ignite lasting change, you have to embrace a new first. It pointed back to Salesforce’s own history as one of the first tech companies to champion diversity and equality, inviting attendees to step outside their comfort zone and help bring more diversity to tech.
The theme line ultimately evolved into “The future is yours to build.” With this came a shift that kept the same spirit of agency and possibility, but reframed it as a forward-looking call to action rather than a reflection on history. The key visual translated that idea into a stacked portrait collage of employees, applying different color filters across the images so full-color and color-tinted portraits sit side by side — a treatment that visually reinforces the idea of many individual “firsts” coming together to build one collective future.
Paving the Way, Together
Representation Matters 2023 | Salesforce Tower NYC
The 2023 theme, “Paving the Way,” was rooted in the idea that in moments when representation in tech is being challenged, we lean on leaders in our communities for guidance. They are our trailblazers, our north stars, who show us how to move collectively toward a more equitable future. For the sixth annual summit, the concept brought together visionaries from the Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ communities to amplify their voices, celebrate the progress made so far, and spotlight the concrete actions taken in service of representation. It framed the event as a chance to build a stronger foundation for future generations and truly pave the way for others to follow.
