When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade...or so the saying goes. And that’s exactly what we did for this year’s Widen Summit. While we all would have loved to meet in person, we needed a different game plan during a global pandemic. So we moved the event to a virtual platform, and are thrilled that it allowed us to share the Summit experience with more people than ever. Over 500 registrants to be exact! And here’s everything you need to know about this year’s event. 

This year’s Best DAM Contest brought together admins who overcame big challenges in how they worked and accessed their content. The teams at Autodesk, Life Time, and NVIDIA took different approaches to accomplish the DAM goals they set for themselves and had some fascinating ideas to share with the Widen Summit audience.

Read on to learn more about these inspiring transitions and watch the full Best DAM Contest here. 

The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) implemented their first digital asset management (DAM) platform, the Widen Collective^®, to store and organize all of their marketing assets — from creative files to employee photos. 

When they were ready to start, they created a metadata structure and assembled a team of interns to upload assets. However, many of these uploaders lacked the institutional knowledge needed to create meaningful metadata, and as a result the values entered were incomplete or inconsistent. Further, SFO didn’t have a governance policy, archival strategy, or a designated site administrator. Their DAM system became so ineffective it was barely used. 

Six years later, SFO decided to overhaul the entire DAM site; and Robin Brown, their Brand Manager, was asked to lead the effort. At the 2019 Widen Summit she shared how she turned this underutilized platform into an essential tool across their organization, and beyond. 

Building trust is tricky. And as the saying goes, trust is hard to earn but easy to lose. So what does that have to do with digital asset management (DAM)? A lot!

Each year, the Widen Summit focuses on concepts that are key to DAM success. 

In 2017, we honed in on what it takes to set better goals. Expanding on that in 2018, we learned how to tackle those goals using a strong strategy framework. This year though, we took a step back to realize that in order for people to believe in your goals and strategy, you need to first earn their trust. And this theme carried throughout our three days together — taking center stage in workshops, sessions, and keynotes. 

In the final installment of our four-part 2018 Best DAM Contest series, we meet Melinda Lee from Kerry.

Her approach to digital asset management (DAM) and the Best DAM Contest is global adoption and growth, with continual improvements to meet the needs of users across continents. Learn more about Melinda and her DAM story.

In the third installment of our four-part 2018 Best DAM Contest series, we meet Barb Mitrovic, from the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

Her approach to digital asset management (DAM) and the Best DAM Contest is really all about her users, and making their work-life better. Learn more about Barb and her DAM story.

In the second installment of our four-part 2018 Best DAM Contest series, we meet Caroline Gardner, formerly of New Balance.

Her approach to digital asset management (DAM) and the Best DAM Contest is hard work and continued optimization, not striving for perfection. Learn more about Caroline and her DAM story.

In this four-part series we’ll get to know the admins who took center stage at the Best DAM Contest during the 2018 Widen Summit. This contest gives contestants eight minutes to highlight the best parts of their Widen Collective^® site and share their biggest accomplishments with all Summit attendees. The Summit audience then votes for the most inspirational, engaging, and aspirational DAM story.

No two stories are alike as each contestant faces different challenges in their role as an admin and each offers a unique perspective about what they gained through their participation in the contest.

Read more about the admins, their accomplishments, and their DAM stories starting with our 2018 winner, Leah Hammes from McCormick & Company.