Global Sales Conference
PubMatic's most important internal event of the year — the moment the entire go-to-market organization comes together before the year begins. Since 2018, Creative has owned the full creative production of GSC: theme concept and visual identity, environmental branding, print collateral, presentation design, motion graphics, and an ever-growing photo and video studio program. What started as a single creative owner pulling together a conference theme and some signage has scaled into one of the most complex multi-discipline productions the team runs all year. This is that story.
The Foundation — 2018
My first GSC as creative lead was also the first time the conference had a dedicated brand and creative owner driving the full program from concept through execution. A custom visual identity ran across presentations, environmental signage, print collateral, badges, T-shirts, and event photography — everything under one creative vision for the first time.
That foundation year established the creative brief process, the production cadence, and the standard that every GSC since has been built on.
The Photo Program — Born in New Orleans, 2019
GSC 2019 was the year the conference grew into something worth staging, not just hosting — extending beyond the hotel walls with a Bourbon Street takeover for the first time.
It was also the year the formal headshot program was born. Rather than casual event photography, 2019 introduced a structured, dedicated shoot: a backdrop, a professional photographer, and intentional creative direction. What started as a single setup in New Orleans would eventually grow into a fully produced studio operation running 80–90 slots annually, with demand routinely exceeding capacity.
2020 — "Level Up Your Game"
Right before the world changed, GSC 2020 in Austin was one of the most energetic and fully produced in-person conferences to date. The theme — "Level Up Your Game" — leaned into gaming and competition as a metaphor for PubMatic's momentum entering the new decade. The spirit behind it: "We are in control of our future and are playing to win. Game on."
The creative ran deep. A bold, gaming-inspired visual identity across the full branding suite, from logo and presentations, to conference space, hotels, badges, T-shirts, and attendee materials. Professional portrait photography across all four days with more than 120+ employees participating.
The Covid Years — 2021 & 2022
When the pandemic hit later that year, rather than scale back, we pivoted the entire conference to a virtual format — and delivered it twice.
Without a physical stage, the presentation deck became the stage. Slide motion, animation, and visual pacing carried the energy and brand cohesion that a live environment normally provides. Conference opener videos and animated intros and outros replaced environmental graphics as the primary experiential layer.
Zero square footage of print. No signage, no headshots, no studio.
But the virtual years sharpened the team's motion and digital production capabilities significantly — skills that would layer on top of the physical production muscle when in-person returned. Every constraint taught the team something worth keeping.
The Return — and the Scale That Came With It
GSC came back in-person in Miami in 2023 — and it came back bigger. The creative scope that returned wasn't the same one that had paused in 2020. The nautical theme with vibrant art deco colors — rooted in Miami's South Beach identity — ran consistently across every format and surface. And we did set sail!
By San Diego in 2024, GSC had grown into a full production apparatus. The "Ready for Takeoff" aviation theme came with 12 mandatory pre-conference videos distributed globally via MindTickle, a conference opener video, the full environmental suite, and a post-event recap video published across social. That last addition was a signal: GSC had become an external brand moment, not just an internal one.
Did we have a Top Gun moment atop the USS Midway? Oh, definitely.
2025 — Adding Video to the Machine
By 2025, the production scope had expanded to cover two properties simultaneously — the JW Marriott Camelback Inn and the overflow venue at Mountain Shadows — with a full venue wrap across both. The "Ready to Rock" theme framed PubMatic's GTM team as the headliners, and the creative ran across the full suite: environmental branding, conference guide, badges, signage, opener video, logo animation, hold slides, full photography program, and a post-event recap video now a standard social deliverable across all platforms.
What made 2025 genuinely new was the addition of a dedicated video filming operation running alongside everything else — interview captures and structured video content produced on-site, on top of an already full production program. Not instead of anything. On top of it.
We turned a drab beige room with a low ceiling into a set worthy of capturing executive-level content in half a day using borrowed furniture and decor, including plants. A total of 16 talking head sessions and 2 Executive Dialogues (with IPG Mediabrands and DIGITS) were produced, and it was worth it! The talking head sessions turned into the PubMatic Moment SME series for social content.
Peak Scale — 2026 & The 20th Anniversary
The largest and most complex GSC production to date — and PubMatic's 20th Anniversary year. Everything about 2026 was bigger, and the creative reflected that.
A multi-color gradient system across three palette zones ran across a full hotel venue wrap: window graphics, mezzanine-level registration signage, and directional wayfinding across multiple floors. What made 2025 genuinely new was the addition of a dedicated video filming operation running alongside everything else — interview captures and structured video content produced on-site, on top of an already full production program. Not instead of anything. On top of it.
Not only that: over 2.5 days, 100+ headshots and location group shots, a stylist on-site for hair, makeup, and wardrobe guidance, and a Pinterest lookbook created in advance so every participant showed up ready. A special 20th Anniversary set was created for the Leadership Team portraits to mark the milestone.
A video studio ran in parallel throughout, capturing 20th Anniversary messages in a single walk-by setup. All headshots were post-produced as LinkedIn profile photos swathed in the signature PubMatic blue — extending the employer brand organically. And we made sure we had fun.
These were always the highlights of my GSC!
Impact
A production that scaled with the company: From a single creative owner and a conference theme in 2018 to a full hotel venue wrap, a two-discipline studio, and a global social rollout in 2026 — the GSC creative program grew in direct proportion to PubMatic's own growth, year after year without missing a beat.
The photo program became an employer brand asset: What began as a structured headshot setup in New Orleans in 2019 evolved into a fully booked studio operation producing 80–90 slots annually — with new hires across EMEA and APAC actively requesting inclusion. Every headshot post-produced in PubMatic blue and deployed as a LinkedIn profile photo turned each participant into a walking employer brand moment, extending the conference's reach far beyond the event itself.
Resilience through Covid — and a stronger team on the other side: Delivering GSC virtually in 2021 and 2022, without a physical stage, set, or studio, proved the team could execute under any conditions. Austin 2020 went out at full strength — and the motion and digital production capabilities built during the two virtual years that followed added a layer of craft that showed up in every in-person production afterward.
The return to in-person doubled the scope: Miami in 2023 didn't just restore what had paused — it raised the bar. The fully developed ideation brief, custom logo system, and multi-format print production introduced in Miami became the new standard, with each subsequent year adding disciplines on top of the last rather than replacing them.
GSC became an external brand moment: The addition of a post-event recap video in San Diego in 2024 — and its publication across LinkedIn and X — marked the shift from internal event to external brand statement. The conference that once lived entirely behind closed doors now reached partners, prospects, and the broader industry every January.
2026 — the 20th Anniversary, at full scale: 419.49 square feet of environmental graphics at a single vendor. A fully booked dual-discipline studio over 2.5 days. A Vanity Fair-style Leadership Team portrait. On-demand recordings for global employees who couldn't be in the room. And a highlights reel that traveled across every social platform. The biggest GSC creative operation in the program's history — delivered on time, on brand, and on the company's most significant milestone year.
