Unite 10,000+ attendees to end sexual violence

The Survivors’ Agenda is a collective of various organisations, anchored by the me too. movement, Justice for Migrant Women, National Women’s Law Centre and National Domestic Workers Alliance. The Survivor's Summit was their inaugural event, spread over 3 days, and it was to be completely virtual. The aim was to shape the national conversation on sexual violence, with the belief that the survivors should be the ones to lead it.

The Survivors’ Agenda bring together survivors of sexual violence, movement-makers, healers, and activists to imagine what a world free of gender-based violence looks like, and how to use collective voices, strength, and power to make it possible.

As an event, the main goals of the Survivor's Summit included drive a culture change, building power among survivors, preparing survivors to elevate their voices in public, assisting personal healing, addressing the systemic roots of sexual violence, as well as connecting survivors to each other through community.

At the core of the summit was the launch the Survivors’ Agenda, a community-driven guide co-created with survivors around USA. It details the needs and solutions for survivors of sexual violence to feel safe, addressing narrative shifts, the criminal legal system, education, healing, healthcare, housing and transportation, and workplace safety and rights. Happily was proud to be approached to produce this momentous moment, and to support this crucial national conversation.

Happily joined forces with the Survivors’ Agenda team in the months leading up to the event to kick off the planning and strategising, to provide advice on the overall program structure, to bring the expertise of technology and virtual events and, of course, a production team of Happily specialists.

On the tech side, we advised Survivors’ Agenda’s web team on the UX design for the microsite that would function as the main hub for the event. We integrated the YouTube chat into the microsite during the broadcast, allowing for chat and discussion during the event and all the various sessions.

This was a multi-racial, all-inclusive event, and so accessibility to all communities was a priority. Happily brought on board Worldwide Tech Connections to provide live captioning and live translations of the whole event, with 50 languages that attendees could chose from using an integrated widget.

When it came to programming, there was much work to do with a full schedual consisting of a main broadcast and 4 stages across 3 days. Happily worked closely with the Survivors’ Agenda team to advise them on how to best structure and build a program for a virtual event of this size and scope. We assembled detailed run-of-show documents to create a professionalized and centralize system for the production to ensure that every second and detail of the program was accounted for.

We guided the Survivors’ Agenda team on best practices for event registration, to create a streamlined and smooth process for attendees and all those behind the scenes. Happily introduced longtime collaborator, Jensen McRae, to the Survivors’ Agenda team, adding her to the program to perform in the opening moments of the event. We also worked alongside HBO in the pre-recording for the launch of the Netflix documentary, ATHLETE A, which was featured in a virtual Q&A session during the summit.

This production championed the collective identity and agenda for cultural progress that protects and respects the lives of sexual survivors. It was 3 days filled with deep discussions, trainings, presentations, resources, workshops and conversations with 9 breakout sessions, and over 40 guest speakers.

Notable speakers included:

• Anita Hill, Professor of Social Policy, Law and Women’s Studies at Brandeis University and Chair of the Hollywood Commission
• Rep. Ayanna Pressley, U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 7th Congressional District
• Tarana Burke, Founder of ‘me too.’ International
• Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance
• Tina Tchen, Co-Founder, TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund
• Yolo Akili Robinson, Executive Director and Founder, BEAM (Black Emotional And Mental Health)
• Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO, National Women’s Law Center
• Mónica Ramírez, Founder and President, Justice for Migrant Women
• Breana Brave Heart, youth Indigenous activist
• Prentis Hempill, Founder, Black Embodiment Initiative