Organizing an EPIC Event
Testimonial - By Alex Caves: Boise Design Week Founder
In 2025, I had the amazing privilege of working with JUMP to throw an inaugural event for Boise Design Week.
Boise Design Week is a big project I started with the mission of connecting local creatives and together elevate the creative potential of Boise.
As the name suggests our goal for this project is to organize an immersive, week-long event full of activities, lectures, workshops, live demos, and exhibits, turning Boise into a festival of Design, Innovation, and Creativity that we can enjoy year after year.
Boise Design Week was founded in late 2024 and we were determined to get this project off the ground in 2025.
With JUMP's help in providing a venue to showcase our proof of concept during their August First Thursday gatherings, we successfully held our very first event, LAUNCH 2025. A Lecture Series focused on showcasing the amazing talents of Boise's industry leaders.
In this blog, I wanted to share my process, experience and lessons learned from starting Boise Design Week and putting together this show.
No. 1: IDEA + PEOPLE = SUCCESS
When the idea of Boise Design Week first came to my mind I was kind of shocked that something like this had never existed in Boise before, which is a great thing.
But at the time I wasn’t ready to dive head first into this so although I bought the url, I decided to shelved it.
I selfishly didn’t tell anyone for a good year or so so that no one would steal it, but then I came to the realization that this idea is bigger than myself and there is no way I can do this on my own…
So I took the leap and started sharing the concept to see if this idea even had legs.
I started with my closest network of creatives, and they loved the idea.
I started sharing it with strangers at networking events and people were genuinely interested.
This idea had a really good chance of succeeding.
I started organizing meetups to discuss concepts and strategies to make this happen. We discussed the greater vision, our values, our visual identity, potential income streams, etc.
Naturally some people had to pull back but being the founder of Boise Design Week, I knew it was up to me to keep things rolling, and slowly but surely we got a buzz going around town of what we were working on and more people started joining our efforts. And now, we're riding the momentum from last years event and have big plans in the works for this year's event - PROCESS 2026.
If I hadn't started talking about it in Octover 2024 it may still be sitting on my shelf collecting dust…
And who knows, someone else might have started something similar and I would have missed my opportunity to pursue this idea...
As the saying goes, "You'll miss 100% of the shots you never take."
LESSONS LEARNED:
1) Don’t let ego prevent your idea from flourishing,
2) Tell the world, build a team and focus on execution.
3) If your idea is an event, your success relies on people attending it. If they don’t know about it, they won’t come.
So don't be afraid to share your idea! It is a prerequisite to success
No. 2: THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE
When I first started visualizing what Boise Design Week could be, we aimed to go BIG.
We wanted world class speakers, demos, workshops, free activities, trade show booths, 5000+ attendees, incredible branding throughout with jaw dropping physical elements, activate local creative studios and architecture firms in the Downtown area to bring their flare into the mix, and create an experience people will fly from all around the world to be a part of. Our name suggests a week and that is what we are going to do from day one.
The idea was huge and very very exciting, but trying to achieve it the first year was extremely naive.\
We quickly realized that determination alone couldn't overcome certain hurdles. Especially with no capital.
We attempted to sprint straight up the mountain only to slip back to the starting point. We were abruptly forced to be realistic in our approach and strategy.
We had to go with the flow, climbing slowly, zig zagging up the mountain one step at a time, following the path of least resistance, and eventually we started making progress.
Our first task was to find a venue. JUMP has one of the most unique architectures in the Treasure Valley and JUMP was always our first choice for a venue.
As a design conference, this venue was perfect.
Luckily, I had already established a relationship with the Play Studio crew participating in their short film productions so I secured a warm introduction to Maggie and Karen who were the decision makers.
Like many others, saying yes to reserving 5 days in August—with no event planning experience, no metrics to gauge success, and not even a visual identity for Boise Design Week (we didn't even have a logo at that time)—was something they weren't comfortable with, and they ultimately turned me down.
However, Maggie believed in my passion and gave me a unique opportunity. An opportunity to utilize JUMP’s entire 6th floor - the penthouse ballroom - to host a Proof-Of-Concept event as part of their First Thursday gatherings at no expense.
The Level 6 Pioneer Room is one of Boise's largest event spaces; it features 20’ ceilings, floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Boise foothills, a capacity of 500 people, in house bartenders and catering, and an AV team.
This was our chance to show the community what Boise Design Week is all about.
Of course I said yes, and we got to work designing the event.
LESSONS LEARNED:
1) Dream big but scale back to meet reality.
2) Don’t waste your time forcing a square block into a round hole.
3) Collect research and then make an educated move.
4) Take a step back and reevaluate your situation.
5) When an opportunity is given, take it.
No. 3: DESIGNING THE EXPERIENCE
With our venue secured and the date set. It's now time to design our experience.
One of our ideas for Boise Design Week was to choose a new event theme and build a brand new visual Identity each year with a foundational branding for BDW similar to how the Olympics do their identity based on location.
FOUNDATIONAL BRAND:
This took us a few months in early 2025 to perfect. A very simple form using squares and circles to create the letters 'BDW'.
EVENT THEME and IDENTITY:
Since this was our first ever event and our launch, the theme was LAUNCH 2025
And as the name suggests, the identity of LAUNCH 2025 centered around aviation, rockets, and clouds. And with that, one of our team members Nathan Warner a local Brand Strategist / Graphic Designer, created this.
With a clear brand identity we were able to create everything from the landing page to social media posts in the 'Launch' style, ensuring cohesion across all our marketing assets.
WOW FACTOR:
Now, you don’t have to go to this extent but being the 3D designer that I am, I modeled the entire 6th floor and designed the whole experience from exiting the elevators to experiencing the presentations in an epic way.
My goal was to blow people’s minds, and we had the space and ceiling height to go all out.v
- I wanted a 10ft x 20ft step-and-repeat wall (logo wall) as a backdrop for photos in the lobby.
- A set of 4ft x 4ft x 4ft B, D, and W letters.
- A massive 12’ by 24’ LED display (the same size as the stage) as the backdrop/display for our presentations.
- 6) 10ft x10ft booths opposite the stage.
- A drink bar in the middle separates the stage and the booths.
- Thirteen tables in the lobby for exhibitors to display their companies and turn the lobby into a networking area.
- And an after party with a band, karaoke, and backyard games.
To our surprise, with help from some awesome people who agreed to a sponsorship trade, we were able to deliver the most significant elements of my experiential design.
AGENDA/RUN OF SHOW:
This may seem pretty straight forward but it’s trickier than you think.
The agenda, or program as it can also be called, is something you create for the attendees.
The 'Run of Show' is for those running the show behind the scenes.
You must include when the stage is active and when the next speaker needs to go backstage to get mic'd up. This schedule keeps the show running smoothly and on time.
Although this was our first time and the night went pretty dang good, we were far from perfect.
LESSONS LEARNED
1) Think about the attendee experience when designing.
2) Strive for your grand vision, dial back if necessary.
3) Share your vision freely, and ask for help.
4) Collect feedback so you can perfect your craft.
No. 5: MARKETING
Unfortunately, creating the visual asset and designing the experience took longer than we'd hoped, leaving only a few weeks to for marketing.
However, thanks to the commitment of our brilliant Brianna Daniels joining our marketing efforts, and with the help of our closing presenter, Jenny Telleria and her interns at her Agency, we managed a last minute push to inform the public of our inaugural event.
LESSONS LEARNED
1) Start marketing as soon as possible. It takes time to capture people's attention and build traction.
2) Take all the help you can get.
POST EVENT
LAUNCH 2025 was a huge success and everyone was blown away by the production quality we delivered.
And our 4 speakers did an amazing job with their presentations and videos. The 12ft x 24ft display was unreal! And I couldn't have asked for a better turnout and outcome. At its peak, over 100 people were in attendance with only four weeks of marketing.
Our LAUNCH was a huge success. And we've got big plans for our next event in August 6th 2026.
PROCESS 2026
Happening August 6th 2026, same collaboration with JUMP, and We're going bigger!!
