Udemy+Coursera Event: FWD 2026
The flagship event uniting Coursera and Udemy for the first time,
reaching over 15K attendees and driving $20.7M in touched pipeline.
The brief
FWD had been Udemy's flagship event for the past four years, but FWD 2026 marked the first edition after the Coursera acquisition. It needed an entirely new creative identity, one that represented both brands together for the first time, built on a compressed post-acquisition timeline, and aligned across leadership from both organizations before a single asset could go live. The creative direction also had to carry a clear point of view: that AI's speed only matters when it's paired with what people do best, creativity, communication, and critical thinking, a message meant to steady an audience anxious about AI as much as inspire them.
The work
I owned the creative vision for this program from the ground up. I set the strategy and project milestones, worked with the copy lead to develop the tagline and theme, and designed the full event identity, then presented the creative direction directly to leadership across both companies to align on the new shared look. The system had to hold up across one global virtual event and 13 regional in-person activations, spanning environmental design, social, video, web, swag, and experiential moments, while adapting cleanly for regional translation. I also built a complete event toolkit, brand guidance, digital assets, Canva templates, and print materials, so regional teams and agency partners could execute on-brand without me in the room.
The numbers
12K+ attendees at the global virtual event, plus 13 regional in-person events drawing 100-400 attendees each. $20.7M in touched pipeline. $5.1M in closed-won revenue over the last two years.
