Introduction to the Project.
Intro
The Asian American mental health conference is an annual conference hosted by the Center for Asian American Christianity (CAAC) at Princeton Theological Seminary since 2022. Since their 2023 conference, I have led the branding, marketing, and streaming of the conference.
For the 2026 conference, David Chao, the director of the CAAC, collaborated with Carissa Dwiwardani, a psychology professor at the Rosemead School of Psychology, for an unprecedented co-hosted mental health conference held on the Biola University campus.
As a new initiative, this collaborative conference required new elements such as a standalone custom website, a new registration system, and more intentional coordination between East Coast and West Coast team members.
Services
Consulting on logistics and hospitality needs, branding management, website design, website hosting, marketing and communications, registration management, streaming management, videography.
Clients
Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary
Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University
What I Delivered.
Audience-Centered Programming.
For 8+ months, I worked closely with David and Carissa to shape a conference that was both rigorous and accessible to a public audience. My responsibility was to help them make logistical decisions so that attendees have the smoothest experience possible.
My input on the following decisions created a conference that was marketable, was easy to access for both in person and virtual attendees, allowed for an expansive and communal processing of the emotionally and academically heavy plenary and workshop material, and was well-resourced enough to handle unexpected situations.
- Named the conference series “Our Flourishing, Our Faith” to express the focus on mental well-being in faith communities.
- Selected the domain “ourflourishing.org,” a shortened version of the conference series but contains enough content to give an idea of what the conferences are about.
- Free virtual attendance and reduced cost in-person registration for increased accessibility.
- Every session streamed so that virtual attendees don’t miss any content.
- More breaks built into the schedule, allowing for decompression and conversations among attendees, as well as time to deal with any possible technical issues.
- Catering lunches so that attendees can connect over meals.
- Engaging two new team members, one to handle hospitality, on-site logistics, speaker communication, and volunteer coordination, and the other to support the execution of the virtual components of the conference.
Art Direction and Branding Design.
The Process
Concept.
I gave the designer our conceptual framework, along with some must-haves and dealbreakers.
Development.
The designer drafted a few visual ideas, and we settled on a colorful theme representing flourishing and rupturing relationships.
Iteration.
We refined the design through 3 rounds of iterations to create the final assets.
Application.
I used the theme design, colors, and typography to create marketing materials including social media graphics, video thumbnails, etc.
Color Scheme
I drew out the colors from the theme design to accent the website and to create additional promotional materials.
Coral Orange
#f15d48
Black
#000000
Yellow
#fcde29
Muted Green
#59a157
Project Management.
I used Monday.com to create a conference project management system and took point on tracking our progress. My work as project manager enabled us to coordinate as a team and move planning and preparation forward effectively.
Conference Project Includes:
- Program Development
- Branding and Marketing
- Logistics and Hospitality
- Local Tasks
- Stakeholders and Sponsorships
- Day-Of Execution
- Post-Event
Team Leadership.
Cue Sheet
For every conference I support, I create a comprehensive cue sheet for the team to follow on the days of the event. This cue sheet includes:
- Contact, travel, and availability information for everyone with a role in the conference, including the organizers, staff, on-site collaborators, volunteers, VIPs, and speakers and panelists
- A detailed schedule with each team member’s movements and responsibilities
- Notes on sessions with special programming like music or breakout rooms
- Scripted messages for the virtual platform
- Links to presentation slides, the attendee guide page, the virtual platform, and any other important sites
Team Training
When we began planning this conference, we were a 3-person team: David Chao, director of the Center for Asian American Christianity (CAAC) at Princeton Theological Seminary; Carissa Dwiwardani, a psychology professor at the Rosemead School of Psychology; and me.
Because the conference would be held in a new venue and were expecting a higher number of in-person and virtual participants than in our past events, we needed more support. Our core team expanded to include Roberto, who supported the streaming of the event in coordination with the venue’s AV team, and Claudia, who took on hospitality, on-site logistics, front line customer service, and management of student volunteers.
Training the new team members in the details of streaming/AV and conference logistics was an important element of my work for this project. I provided training for the following:
AV & Streaming
- Airmeet platform setup
- Audience communication
- Coordination with venue AV team
- Virtual session management
Hospitality, Logistics
- Cue sheet overview
Custom Website.
I developed a functional and user-friendly website to present conference details, connect audiences with sponsors, introduce speakers, collect registrations, and provide information to attendees. I was the sole developer and content manager for this site.
Website Features:
- Landing page with colorful banner
- Sponsor logos and hyperlinks
- Photos and bios for all speakers
- Conference schedule
- Registration portal
- Venue information
- Donation links
- Attendee guide page
- Email functions
- Links to YouTube playlists for past conferences
- Links to client organizational pages
- Custom privacy policy
- Optimization for mobile phone