Shelby County Leadership Summit

The Shelby County Leadership Summit is a yearly conference for high school and middle school students who are student leaders in their schools. The conference was started by John Milton, a teacher in Shelby County, Alabama, who is passionate about leadership and wants to see students thrive in their communities.

The Shelby County Leadership Summit has been held every year for the past seven years in an effort to encourage and motivate student leaders. Each year, students come ready to learn and leave with a new outlook on student leadership in their schools and communities. The day included engaging activations and discussion sessions where students were encouraged to openly discuss topics brought up by guest speaker and co-founder of ADDO, Kevin Scott. 

This year and in past years, Elevate has offered organizers of the Shelby County Leadership Summit the ability to focus on the students, teachers, and content while we focus on elements like sound, visuals, hosting, run-of-show, and memorable engagement. By providing an event host, speakers don’t have to worry about organically transitioning through each segment of the event. They can put their sole focus on the students walking through the doors ready to learn and grow.

A closer look at Elevate’s role

Our Team consised of:

• 1 event host: Smoothly transitioned through each element of the run-of-show, engaged students through interactive activities, and encouraged high energy participation among attendees.
• 1 project leader: Coordinated with event organizers before the event to plan details and conducted pre-event meetings and phone calls.
• 1 event assistant: Assisted project leader and client wherever help was needed, including mic running, pre-event setup, slide transitions, and photography.

Prior to the event, the Elevate Project Leader worked alongside Shelby County Event Organizers to:

• Create a smooth event-day schedule to ensure all timing is properly spaced and the run of show is well executed 
• Plan logistics for all moments of engagement
• Prepare the keynote presentation
• Prepare playlists to play throughout the day
• Create custom crowd engagement activations, such as:
• The marshmallow challenge
• Find your match
• Heads or tails

The Elevate Team also provided event-day logistics such as:

• Following run of show to make sure the day stays on schedule
• Welcoming guests and giving out high fives 
• Providing high energy hosting to make sure guests are engaged and enjoying the event
• Running audio during games, transitions, and dance parties
• Setting up laptops for music and slides
• Putting cards on seats for the “find your match” activation
• Meeting with speakers to go over the keynote
• Taking photos throughout the event
• Introducing the following speakers:

Event wins and stats, including:

• Attendees: 400
• Number of activations: 3
• Event impact: Students left the Shelby County Leadership Summit feeling inspired and excited, ready to go back to their schools and communities and act on what they learned throughout the day. 
• Exciting moments: Student engagement during discussions was incredible. Students were standing up in front of their fellow classmates and sharing their ideas for impact projects, as well as highlighting teachers, friends, and family members for creating a positive impression in their lives and influencing them in a way that affects their desire to lead inside and outside the classroom.

“I can’t imagine running anything like this without Elevate being involved. What Elevate does is take whatever it is you’re doing and get your message across in a really engaging way.” (John Milton, Program Director)