Last Saturday, November 22, the awards of the world’s largest and most renowned event marketing competition – the BEA World Festival – were announced. Milestone Events and Veriff took first place in the “B2I Event” category. Here’s what the recognition means to the agency and how this year’s “Grand Hey, Veriff!” project was born.

The win means a great deal to the Milestone team. “It’s an amazing feeling to see the Estonian flag represented so strongly and consistently in this field. This project was special because we intentionally didn’t create something ‘from the outside in,’ but from the inside out,” says Maris Altsoo, Partner and Creative Director at Milestone Events.

This time, Veriff’s people – and their own product – became the most important wow-factor of the entire event. “I believe our win also came from our long-term collaboration with Veriff. Most ideas were born quite literally around the same table – thinking together, trusting each other, and daring to experiment,” Altsoo adds.

A concept that seamlessly tied everything together

According to the jury, the project stood out for the way it unified knowledge-sharing, team spirit, brand presence, vibe, and fun into one coherent experience. “What resonated with them was how Veriff’s product was genuinely integrated into the event experience – not just presented on stage. They also valued the long-term impact, like the fact that the hackathon’s winning idea is now used daily,” Altsoo explains.

The idea was rooted in Veriff’s own culture, technological curiosity, and the digital mindset of e-Estonia.

Altsoo says the concept for this year’s “Grand Hey, Veriff!” grew out of a simple but powerful thought: Veriff is a company whose product is trust – and whose people are incredibly talented.

“We asked ourselves: why look outward for inspiration when the potential is already in the room? Our goal was that people wouldn’t just hear about the product from the stage, but experience it hands-on – playfully, creatively, and authentically.”

“Grand Hey, Veriff!” is simultaneously a conference, a hackathon, and a team-building event. The key to making such a combination work is ensuring all parts tell the same story and support each other. “When these three aspects complement each other, you get that flow where people are not just completing tasks – they feel like they’re part of something bigger. And I absolutely love that Veriff invites their clients on stage every year to give honest, direct feedback. It’s bold, transparent, and genuinely helps the company grow,” says the Milestone Creative Director.

Innovation unlike anything seen before

Several details highlighted the uniqueness of the project. No internal Veriff event has ever received such high satisfaction ratings. And as a standout feature, participants experienced a fully unique biometric check-in system upon arrival. According to Milestone, nothing like this has been done anywhere else in the world in this form – and they believe solutions like this have the potential to reshape the event marketing landscape in the coming years.

In addition, the hackathon’s winning project, “CompassBot”, is now fully implemented as a real tool used daily at Veriff.

Altsoo notes that the competition included events with far larger scales, in terms of both budget and audience size. “One of the presentations right after ours, for example, was Coca-Cola’s team event in a private Disneyland. In that context, the win felt even sweeter!” Altsoo concludes.

Author: Kärt Tomp, TULI

Kõik uudised