Quest (formerly known as Quest Software) gave its internal sales kickoff an artistic facelift, decking out the event with neo-contemporary twists on classical art. To celebrate the beginning of the next fiscal year—and the successes of the previous one—the California-based cloud management platform welcomed roughly 1,000 of its staffers across its teams at Quest and its sister business, One Identity, to the Hilton Boston Park Plaza Hotel Feb. 24-27.
This year, the three-day internal event was rebranded as NXT, after previously “literally just calling it ‘SKO (sales kickoff) for FY (insert year),’” explained Brian Cole, the president and CEO of experiential firm edgefactory, which Quest has tapped for the past three iterations of the annual event. The new name was inspired by “what’s next,” Cole said, noting that Quest’s team “loved the idea of verbally saying ‘N-X-T’ as three letters”—a bit of a play on SXSW.
“It was to be perceived that this Quest event was more a festival than a commercial meeting, inspired by SXSW in Austin where it’s a combination of tech, education, art, and party,”
Cole told Vendelux. “This bled over to the actual designs where it’s a mish-mash of designs, elements, colors and styles,” Cole added, noting that edgefactory sought to fuse festival-style pop-art and modern tech features like projection mapping, digital signage and immersive lighting designs with the historical charm of the venue (the Hilton Boston Park Plaza Hotel originally opened under a different name in 1927, rebranding as a Hilton property in the ‘50s). The fusion of new and old was fitting considering the event’s primary focus to generate buzz for FY2026—which started on Feb. 1, 2025—while celebrating past wins.
Other elements of NXT’s design were “accommodated to the city,” Cole said, noting that edgefactory waited to plan out many of the design elements until Boston was chosen as the event’s location. From there, “this was a full venue takeover, Cole said, noting that the “hotel had never done branding like this.”
The event firm went on to reimagine statues iconic to Boston Common park—America’s oldest public park located across the street from the venue—as digital art in breakout rooms. Elsewhere throughout the hotel, virtually every surface, including the hotel’s entrance, its own art collection, elevator doors and room key cards were wrapped in NXT-branded artwork that put “a spin on traditional colonial art with a funky edge layer,” Cole said. Even the hotel’s usual furnishings were swapped out for custom seating and branded pillows. “With more than 50% of attendees coming from outside the United States, it was a fun way to salute the history of not only Boston, but America,” per Cole.
NTX’s programming kicked off with a live, classical violinist that “went electric” alongside an electric guitar player while “backdropped by animated, NXT-branded pop art,” Cole said. The duo played an “electronic remix of the instantly-recognizable Bach’s Toccata, all to a voiceover narrative detailing the way a traditional software sales meeting and industry would be refreshed that week.”
Later that evening, a “Welcome pARTy” took place in the Hilton Boston Park Plaza Hotel’s 13,140-square-foot Grand Ballroom. The atmosphere was full of projection-mapped artwork featuring fun twists on historical portraits, where subjects held lollipops and “George Washington reached out of frame to interact with another portrait,” Cole explained. “Even the ceiling came alive with the Sistine Chapel image featuring Adam reaching out for a hamburger.”
Also throughout the sales kickoff, as NXT attendees floated through common spaces, DJs were on site playing “classical music remixes,” Cole said, noting that the audibly incorporating the fusion of modernity and history “added a lively and unexpected flair to the atmosphere.”
And in a fun use of tech, Quest tapped edgefactory to produce an NXT+ TV channel made just for attendees. The host, Nick Xavier Tanner—whose initials played on the event’s name—was a comedian “who interacted with guests throughout the conference for hilarious footage to not only wake people up in the morning but also keep them informed of the week’s events,” Cole said.
