Where Silicon Valley Met the Mission of God

Convening Leaders at the Intersection of Faith, Technology, and Human Flourishing

Client: Missional AI

Event: Missional AI Conference

Location: Santa Clara Marriott, Santa Clara, CA

Executive Producer / Show Caller: Mike Work, Velocity Productions

600+ Leaders Gathered   •   30+ Global Speakers   •   3 Days of Learning & Collaboration

 The Challenge

Artificial intelligence is no longer a niche conversation. It’s reshaping every sector of society — including the church, the mission field, and the broader work of human flourishing.

Missional AI set out to build a room where that conversation could happen at the highest level.

The vision was ambitious: convene technologists, ministry leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and innovators around a single question — how can artificial intelligence be stewarded in ways that advance human flourishing and the mission of God?

But the room itself was the challenge.

Silicon Valley leaders expect production environments that reflect the credibility of the ideas being explored. Ministry practitioners and faith-based innovators need spaces that feel accessible, relational, and grounded. Serving both audiences — without compromising either — required more than a stage and some LED panels. It required a production philosophy built around the conversation, not the other way around.

Velocity’s Role

Velocity partnered with Missional AI as the full-service production partner for the conference, designing and delivering the complete event environment across general sessions and breakout spaces.

Our scope included:

•       General session environment design and execution

•       Large-format LED display environments and stage integration

•       Audio, lighting, and video systems across main room and breakouts

•       Multi-camera capture and live switching

•       Scenic and staging execution

•       Breakout room AV deployment at scale

•       Labor and labor management coordinated across the venue

•       Venue management including staffing, rigging, and power

•       Mike Work serving as Executive Producer and Show Caller, leading a 10-person Velocity crew from load-in through final cue

The Approach

The production environment had one job: get out of the way of the conversation.

That sounds simple. It isn’t.

When Pat Gelsinger, John Lennox, Bobby Gruenewald, David Kinnaman, and Samuel Chiang are on stage together, the room needs to feel worthy of the moment — technically polished, visually credible, and acoustically precise. But it also needs to feel human. Warm. Like a gathering, not a production.

Velocity built the Santa Clara Marriott environment around that tension.

The general session design centered on a large-format LED environment integrated with the stage — creating a visual identity that reflected the innovative nature of the conversation without overwhelming it. Dynamic content integration allowed the environment to shift across keynotes, panel discussions, and collaborative sessions, giving each format its own feel while maintaining a cohesive visual through-line across three days.

Breakout rooms were deployed at the same standard as the main room — because the conversations happening in those spaces mattered just as much as the ones on the main stage. Consistency of experience across every environment was non-negotiable.

A 10-person Velocity crew, led by Mike Work as both Executive Producer and Show Caller, managed every technical and operational element across the venue — coordinating with venue staff on staffing, rigging, and power while keeping the production invisible to the people in the room.

When the technology disappears, the ideas take over. That’s the goal.

Every decision — from LED spec to audio tuning to room flow — was made in service of the conversation Missional AI was trying to create. That’s Experience Storytelling™ in a context where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

The Room

600+ leaders gathered over three days, representing some of the most significant institutions and organizations at the intersection of faith, technology, and human flourishing — including Google, Gloo, YouVersion, Biblica, Barna Group, FaithTech, Bloomberg Beta, Norwest Venture Partners, the International Mission Board, the World Evangelical Alliance, and Oxford University.

Featured voices included:

•       Pat Gelsinger — Former CEO, Intel

•       John Lennox — Mathematician and Philosopher, Oxford University

•       Bobby Gruenewald — Founder, YouVersion / Life.Church

•       David Kinnaman — President, Barna Group

•       James Kelly — President, International Mission Board

•       Samuel Chiang — Secretary General, World Evangelical Alliance

30+ global speakers. 3 days of learning and collaboration. One room built to hold all of it.

Results

600+ leaders. One room. Three days.

Technologists, ministry leaders, investors, researchers, and innovators gathered in a single environment — credible enough for Silicon Valley, accessible enough for the mission field.

A production environment that served the conversation.

From general sessions to breakouts, every space was designed and executed to the same standard — ensuring that no technical failure, acoustic compromise, or visual distraction interrupted the work happening in the room.

Complex multi-room execution. 10-person crew.

A 10-person Velocity team managed audio, lighting, video, scenic, multi-camera switching, and full venue coordination across three days — delivering a unified event environment under a single point of leadership.

Key Takeaway

The most important conversations of our time deserve production environments worthy of the ideas being explored.

Velocity built that room in Santa Clara. And for three days, some of the world’s leading voices on faith, technology, and human flourishing thought together — challenged each other, and left with a clearer sense of what it means to steward artificial intelligence for the good of humanity.

From Strategy to Final Cue — that’s what Experience Storytelling™ looks like in practice.