Turning a Creator Education Program into a Fully Gamified Live Experience
Credit: Unsplash
Published: April 2025
Background
When Creator Wizard decided to take their signature program, Brand Deal Wizard, off-screen and into real life, the goal wasn’t to host another influencer summit; it was to create something entirely new: a live, gamified learning experience.
That’s how Sponsor Games 2025 was born — a three-day event in San Antonio where 50 creators came together to learn how to pitch and land brand deals through interactive gameplay. Across two days of competition, creators refined their sponsorship strategies in teams, with finalists advancing to the Pitch Tank, a live finale where eight creators pitched a panel of judges for over $25K in cash and prizes.
We led the full-scale production from the ground up; from initial research and venue scouting to vendor sourcing, sponsor management, and on-site execution. Over 75 RFPs were collected across venues, catering, and production vendors before selecting the Western Briscoe’s Jack Guenther Pavilion as the event home.
This was Creator Wizard’s first-ever in-person event, and a first-of-its-kind production for the creator space: an operations-backed format where learning met play.
The Challenge
For Creator Wizard, Sponsor Games 2025 represented a bold step; translating a proven digital education model into an in-person, gameplay-driven experience. The real challenge was timing. Each game, session, and activity had to flow seamlessly across two full days of structured play. Every transition — from team challenges to sponsor activations to the final Pitch Tank — needed to run like clockwork to maintain engagement and energy.
To ensure that, we coordinated a full dry run one month before the event, testing every beat of the agenda against real-world timing. This pre-production phase became critical to keeping gameplay and logistics perfectly in sync once doors opened in San Antonio.
The Approach
From kickoff to showtime, we led full-scale production across every layer of Sponsor Games 2025; blending logistics, creative direction, and operational systems to make a first-time concept feel effortless.
1. Research & Scouting — We began with deep research into potential host cities, comparing travel accessibility, venue capacity, and vibe. Over 75 RFPs were collected across venues, hotels, and vendors; a detailed sourcing process that led us to the Jack Guenther Pavilion at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio. Its open layout and historic setting gave the event the perfect mix of polish and play.
2. Vendor Management & Sponsorships — Once the venue was locked, we built an ecosystem of partners that brought the Creator Wizard brand to life; from Reunion Coffee’s laser-printed latte art to headline sponsors like Topo Chico, Blob Candy, Kit, Lulu, and Paperform. Each activation was designed to feel authentic and community-driven, giving attendees sensory touchpoints throughout the event.
3. Operational Precision — To keep gameplay running smoothly, we developed a minute-by-minute agenda, coordinated team roles, and conducted a full dry run one month before the event. This ensured every transition, from challenges to meals, ran seamlessly.
4. On-Site Production — During the event, we oversaw all logistics, vendor check-ins, catering coordination, and sponsor setup, ensuring that every detail, from handmade churros to branded ice cream carts, felt intentional. Our on-site workflow made it possible for the Creator Wizard team to stay fully present with attendees, confident that everything behind the scenes was handled.
The Results
By the time doors opened in March 2025, Sponsor Games ran like a well-oiled machine. It’s proof that first-time formats don’t have to feel like experiments.
Over seven months of planning culminated in a flawless three-day experience where every moving part, gameplay, sponsors, catering, and tech ran seamlessly. There were no delays, no technical issues, and no missed cues throughout the entire production.
Attendees described it as one of the most engaging creator events they’d ever been to.
Sponsors reported 100% satisfaction, citing clear communication, strong visibility, and meaningful engagement with attendees. For Creator Wizard, the success of Sponsor Games 2025 validated an entirely new event model; one that combined education, competition, and connection in equal measure.
By the Numbers
What started as a first-time experiment became a repeatable model for live creator experiences. Every detail, from the venue and sponsors to the gameplay structure, was intentionally designed, tested, and tracked.
Here’s how Sponsor Games came together:
🎯 75+ RFPs sourced across venues, vendors, and suppliers
🗓 7 months from kickoff to showtime (Aug 2024 → Mar 2025)
🏛 1 iconic venue: Jack Guenther Pavilion at the Briscoe
🎥 2 days of live gameplay + Pitch Tank finale
👥 50 creators and 12 sponsors, including Topo Chico, Kit, and LevelUp Creators
☕️ 1 laser-printed latte cart (Reunion Coffee Co.)
🍦 Zero tech issues. Zero delays. 100% sponsor satisfaction
What People Said
“I came in pretty new to UGC content creation and thought I only knew “know your worth.” I wasn’t confident asking brands for higher rates, but this experience changed that completely. Actually applying everything live, like sending emails to brands during breaks, was a game changer. This has been the best class, conference, or seminar I’ve ever attended because it gave me the confidence and skills to do it in real time.” — Doreen Wigderson, Influencer and UGC Creator
“The first thing for me was the community and meeting other creators outside my niche. It was eye-opening to troubleshoot my business and connect with people who truly understand the challenges I face. The second thing was fine-tuning my negotiation skills and immediately applying what I learned through exercises like contract reviews and creating a video ad. Those hands-on activities will stick with me forever and help me implement changes right away in my business.” — Candice Ward
Experience Ops in Action
What made Sponsor Games 2025 stand out wasn’t luck — it was intentional design. Behind every latte-printed logo, seamless sponsor activation, and perfectly timed gameplay round was a system built to make creativity feel effortless.
That’s the essence of Experience Ops: when structure amplifies experience instead of constraining it. By managing more than 75 RFPs, crafting a minute-by-minute schedule, and running a full pre-event simulation, we turned complexity into clarity, so the Creator Wizard team could stay fully focused on connection, not coordination.
The result: an event that ran flawlessly, felt spontaneous, and left sponsors and creators asking when the next one would be.
→ Planning your first in-person event? Let’s make it effortless.
Looking Ahead
Sponsor Games 2025 was a first-of-its-kind production — not for us, but for the creator space itself.
With over a decade of event production behind us, this project challenged us to merge structure and spontaneity in a completely new way. Gamifying a business education experience required precision systems, real-time coordination, and a deep understanding of how people engage under pressure, the kind of work that sits squarely at the intersection of creativity and operations.
The result was more than a one-time success. Sponsor Games is now becoming an annual event, with the next edition returning to San Antonio’s Jack Guenther Pavilion in March 2026. The same systems and frameworks built for 2025 will carry forward, proof that when operational design and experience strategy align, the model scales naturally.
For Creator Wizard, this marked the start of a repeatable blueprint for live activations that blend learning and play. And for UNMUTE™, it reaffirmed what Experience Ops does best: making complex, high-touch experiences run flawlessly, so all anyone remembers is how it felt to be there.
