Bringing AI cinema to the conference stage

A blockbuster opening for a National Sales Meeting. Discover how an AI-powered cinematic opening blurred the line between film and live experience to captivate 240 attendees from the very first moment.

Find out how we brought AI filmmaking to life.

The Challenge

AstraZeneca’s 2026 National Sales Meeting brought together 240 sales representatives and matrix partners in Scottsdale, Arizona for three days focused on strategic alignment, engagement and confidence.

With the event built around the theme ReMission Possible, the ambition was clear: transform a traditional sales meeting into a cinematic experience that people would remember long after they returned home.

That meant the opening couldn’t simply introduce the agenda – it had to immerse delegates in the story from the very first frame, establish the narrative for the days ahead and demonstrate the power of AI through the experience itself.

The Solution

We created an AI-powered cinematic experience that blurred the line between film and live production, immersing delegates in the event’s mission from the very first moment.

The experience combined:

• AI-generated cinematic film
• Immersive stage integration
• Synchronised lighting, lasers and sound
• Executive appearances woven into the story
• AI-generated mission handler (DORIS) guiding the audience journey
• Interstitial narrative films extending the story across the three-day event

A blockbuster opening

Inspired by the ReMission Possible event theme, we created a 2-minute, AI-generated spy adventure that transformed senior leaders into action heroes on a mission to deliver vital intelligence before time ran out.

The story unfolded across a three-screen stage, taking the audience through biometric security scans, laser-filled security chambers, drone attacks and cinematic chase sequences before arriving at the event itself.

Throughout the story, DORIS – our custom AI-generated mission handler – guided the operatives while continually reinforcing the real purpose behind the adventure: helping more patients achieve remission.

Rather than disappearing after the opening film, DORIS continued to appear throughout the meeting, connecting interstitial content and maintaining a consistent narrative across the three-day programme.

From screen to stage

From the outset, the experience was designed as far more than a film.

Working alongside our live production team before scripting began, we built the narrative around the venue’s three-screen environment, intelligent lighting, haze, lasers and immersive sound system.

As the on-screen action unfolded, the physical environment became part of the story.

The climax delivered the biggest surprise.

An on-screen explosion triggered a burst of smoke at the rear of the room before the two executives emerged through the haze, ran to the stage and seamlessly transitioned into the live presentations.

AI-powered production

Using Runway, VEO 3, Flow, HeyGen and ElevenLabs, AI became central to both the creative vision and the production process.

Rather than coordinating a traditional executive film shoot, we created AI-generated performances from 360-degree headshots, dramatically reducing demands on senior leaders’ time while allowing more budget and creative freedom for experimentation, iteration and refinement.

The result was a hybrid form of storytelling that sat somewhere between film, live show opening and immersive audience activation – demonstrating how AI-generated content can create premium cinematic experiences within a live event environment.

The Impact

The opening achieved exactly what it set out to do.

From laughter and cheers throughout the film to sustained applause as the executives took to the stage, the audience immediately bought into the story and the mission behind it.

That energy carried through the wider general session, which received an outstanding 98% rating for overall content quality – the highest score across the entire event feedback survey – with zero negative responses.

Delegates repeatedly highlighted the opening as one of the standout moments of the meeting:

“This was an incredible meeting! The best NSM I’ve ever been to… the opening video was EPIC!”

“Outstanding meeting venue! The Mission of Remission theme throughout the meeting was very effective!”

More importantly, the experience demonstrated how AI can do much more than accelerate production.

By replacing a traditional film shoot, enabling rapid creative iteration and unlocking cinematic storytelling that would have been difficult to achieve through conventional methods, it transformed a conference opening into an immersive live experience that people are still talking about.