The Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum brings together global leaders, thinkers, and community builders to explore ideas that strengthen democracy. In 2024, the theme was pluralism—embracing diverse perspectives and finding ways for different groups to co-exist.
While the in-person event reached 600 attendees in Chicago, we wanted to extend the experience beyond the room—inviting thousands more to engage meaningfully online. The question:
How might we make this dialogue inclusive and engaging for virtual audiences?
Our Approach
My goal was the guide the core team in designing a virtual experience that was interactive, personal, and actionable—meeting people where they were and prompting engagement at key moments.
Journey Mapping
To start, I identified our key audiences and created high-level journey maps to surface pivotal moments. One takeaway was that inspiration peaks right after a talk—and that’s the moment people are most ready to take action. But the team realized we weren't offering many opportunities for people to act during that window. So I led a brainstorm around that specific part of the journey, and how we might turn that energy into real action.
The journey mapping exercise also showed just how interconnected our work truly needs to be. It brought together teams that often operate in parallel—content, design, social, fundraising—and helped us align around user goals from start to finish.
Especially important in a virtual environment, where users are often moving fluidly across channels like social and web, having a cohesive experience can determine whether our work has actual impact.
Design Exploration
One idea we brainstormed was connecting our online shop to the event—for example, highlighting something a speaker wore on stage or an inspirational quote they just said, giving users a way to take a piece of the experience home with them, and stay inspired after the livestream.
We also explored a real-time social media feed on the website, so that virtual audiences could watch the livestream and see others’ reactions at the same time.
What We Built
Interactive Forms
Given we only had a few weeks before the event, we decided to build and launch a series of lightweight, scalable forms throughout the digital experience:
RSVP Form – to gather interest and build anticipation
Pluralism Reflection Prompt – asking people how they’d apply pluralism in their own lives
Feedback Form – to collect thoughts and input after the event
These forms not only gave users a voice, but also captured contact info that allowed us to continue the conversation through follow-up emails and texts.
The RSVP form along received 20,000 submissions and 2,000+ online gifts or donations.
Looking ahead
We see this as just the beginning. While not every idea made it to launch this year, we’ve laid the groundwork for a more connected, participatory virtual experience in future Forums.
Democracy is a two-way conversation—and we’re designing every step of the way to reflect that.