The Premise
Manhattan Associates needed an opening video for Momentum 2026…its premier gathering for supply chain and commerce professionals. The opener needed to create momentum in the room.

The event centered on the future of supply chain, commerce, and AI-powered transformation, so the opener had to feel elevated, modern, and built for scale. This was not a standard brand video living on a website or social feed. It was a live-event moment designed for a custom screen environment, a high-energy audience, and a conference built around what comes next.

The PROBLEM
The challenge was scale…creatively, technically, and physically.

The opener had to work on a custom, ultra-wide, 180º live-event screen format, carry the weight of a flagship conference, and translate Manhattan’s future-facing message into a piece that felt cinematic in the room. We later learned, this opener would also serve as Manhattan's refreshed brand release, adding additional importance to the show.

OUR SOLUTION
Inspired by Fantasia (sorry Disney!), Southend partnered with Manhattan to creatively develop and write the opener as a high-impact live-event asset, tailored to the scale of the screen, and the forward-looking story of Manhattan Associates as a brand.

Working through creative direction, motion/design collaboration, sequence review, animation review, and final mastering, the team built a custom opener that could hold up on a large-format event display. The process accounted for both the creative arc of the piece and the technical realities of live-event playback, including custom aspect ratio delivery and multi-channel audio mastering. After the event, the opener had enough life beyond the original room that Manhattan began exploring adaptations for additional screen sizes and future events, including a 16:9 version and an Asia/Pacific event adaptation.