2022 - 2026
Robin Hood Big Benefit + Investors Conference
Robin Hood Foundation
Role
Screen content design and animation, onsite delivery and file management
Collaborators
Long Story Short Media: Video and screens production
David Stark Design & Production: Creative, decor and design
Nimblist: Event, show and technical production
Roundangle: Screen content partner
Shift7: Print and screen graphic design ('25 - '26)
Loren Barton: Screens programmer
Overview
I've made screen content for Robin Hood Foundation for five years, for its two biggest annual events: the Investors Conference and the Big Benefit. I work on the Big Benefit in partnership with roundangle.tv, another screen content designer and animator. The gala fills the Javits Center with roughly 3,500 guests each May. Annual totals have grown from $61.4 million in 2023 to $73 million in 2026, the year the event expanded from 300,000 to 400,000 square feet. The Investors Conference, presented with J.P. Morgan, sold out in 2024 with over 700 attendees.
Long Story Short Media produced the video and screen content. David Stark Design & Production provided the creative, decor and design, and Nimblist produced the event, show and technical.
My Contribution
Each year I built and delivered the screen content for both events. I worked onsite alongside the screens producer and show caller to make sure every cue played back cleanly through the run of show.
At the gala, the cocktail area changed every year, with a new theme and a different number of projectors and LED surfaces to fill. The dinner program played across a 360 degree array of screens, split into four ~10k x 1080 pixel quadrants.
At the Investors Conference, I took David Stark's creative concept and direction and turned them into a complementary experience for the stage screen. I provided all of the show's screen content: speaker backgrounds, speaker titles, interstitial animations, the show loop, the sponsor loop, presentation frames, VOD and program assets, and then 16:9 versions of everything for the venue's program monitors.
Highlight
From 2023 to 2026, I was responsible for the transition that moved guests from the cocktail area to the dining area: an animated sequence between 10 to 15 minutes that took over every projection and LED screen in the venue. From 2023 to 2025, I built it from preliminary direction provided by David Stark Design & Production. In 2026 the process changed, and I developed it in collaboration with David Stark Design & Production, Nimblist, and Natalie Galazka, the sequence's choreographer.
Challenge
Each year brought a new theme and a different mix of projectors and LED surfaces to fill. I delivered as many files as I could before arriving onsite so the screens programmer had time to prepare, and I set up technical documents with cue and file notes.
From there the job became a series of deadlines, one for every tech rehearsal, from the moment the screens went up to the last rehearsal before the show. Each one had to hit, and each brought new feedback. To keep up, I made extra utility elements that could be previewed and used where needed. I often built a few test versions of assets so decisions could be made faster and I had more time to work through the feedback.
Approach
Onsite, the work was mostly reacting and file management: getting every update onto the servers in time for the next rehearsal, so each tech rehearsal ran with minimal stops. I kept my project organized and set up every composition cleanly and flexibly, ready for any level of feedback. A smooth rehearsal let the client focus on everything else they had to think about, so I measured a job well done by whether I had taken one more thing off the plates of the client and the vendors.
Results
I worked on these events as an employee of Long Story Short Media, the company Robin Hood trusted with its screen content for five years. Every rehearsal, cue, and transition reflected my company's reputation as much as my own, and I held the work to that standard. What I was proudest of was being brought back year after year and trusted to handle these events.
Stats
~3,500 Big Benefit guests each May at the Javits Center
$61.4M raised in 2023 > $73M in 2026
700+ Investors Conference attendees in 2024 (sold out, presented with J.P. Morgan)
Robin Hood name and logo are trademarks of the Robin Hood Foundation. Photos by mbmotion unless noted.