Brand Experience · SF Tech Week
Deel After Dark
San Francisco · October 8, 2026
A former church, transformed.
An immersive brand experience during SF Tech Week, bringing founders, investors, customers and partners together inside a former church - and marking Deel's new Golden State partnership.
Founders · Investors · Customers · Partners
Audience
SF Tech Week
Context
San Francisco
Location
October 8, 2026
Date
The Brief
Create an experience during SF Tech Week that gave founders, investors, customers and partners a genuine reason to gather - and that made Deel feel present in San Francisco in a way a standard industry event could not.
The evening also had to carry the announcement of a major Golden State partnership without letting the announcement swallow the night.
The moment
The Golden State announcement.
The evening marked the announcement of Deel becoming the Official HR and Payroll Partner of the Golden State Warriors, Golden State Valkyries and Santa Cruz Warriors.
It gave the night a reason to gather and connected the brand to the city it was hosted in - a partnership moment staged as part of the experience, not a press release attached to it.
A Romanesque-style former church
The venue set the tone for everything that followed. A former church gave the evening architecture, weight and atmosphere that no marquee or warehouse could have replicated, and the brand was layered into that space rather than placed on top of it.
The nave was dressed as a lounge - layered rugs, curved velvet sofas and life-sized bear sculptures along the mezzanine - so the room read as somewhere worth staying, not somewhere worth passing through.
Music, detail and participation.
Rather than a conventional brand party, the experience was designed around giving guests reasons to engage. Music and live performance made the room feel like an occasion. Unexpected details gave people something to notice, photograph and talk about.
Participatory activations did the harder job: lowering the barrier to starting a conversation between people who had only just met.
The brand ran through the environment and the details, so engagement with the experience and engagement with the brand were the same thing.
The result was an evening that asked very little of guests and gave them a great deal to do.
The Experience
Atmosphere
Jonas Blue headlined the evening, with a live a cappella choir performing from the mezzanine. Music moved the room from a launch event to an occasion, and the choir gave the architecture a reason to be heard.
Detail
A giant branded tiramisu, a margarita ice luge, tarot readings and cigar rolling. Each one was small on its own, and together they made the evening feel considered, generous and worth photographing.
Participation
The Deel Duck Made Me Do It
Purple Deel ducks turned the stone fountain into a playful, hands-on brand moment. Guests could hook a duck and take a little of the evening home.
A simple invitation to participate, with the brand built into the experience rather than added as a logo.
Delivered together
Deel After Dark was a collaborative team effort, delivered with Sydney Cottle and Bailey Anderson across concept, production and the detail that made the room feel finished.
Event Strategy · Experience Design · Production Leadership · Partner & Stakeholder Management
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