NEXT is Chick-fil-A's annual corporate conference. Every operator in the chain, plus spouses, gathered in one place for 3 to 4 days — typically 10 to 15 thousand attendees in arenas, stadiums, and one year, on two cruise ships running in parallel. Cities rotate: San Diego, Orlando, Nashville, Anaheim.
The show is produced by Brand Apart. Garret Rutherford and team handle it top to bottom — stage design, keynote programming, creative direction across every moment of every session. Fort Studios comes in for the LED wall: pixel maps, in-the-round canopies, ribbon screens, and the storytelling moments that anchor the keynotes.
Across ten years, the work has touched everything that lives on a screen: Common Ground keynote backdrops, opener films, transition packs, way-finding inside the HUB (the experiential floor where operators preview new products), in-arena games, crowd moments, musical artist support, award show packages, and full storytelling sequences with custom stage architecture. Different stage every year — in-the-round one cycle, ceiling-and-floor LED the next, wide-angle wall the next.
What keeps the engagement alive a decade in is the partnership. Brand Apart creates inside the show. Fort Studios builds inside that creative. The handoff is short, the trust is long.
Brand Apart produces NEXT and runs the creative end-to-end. Fort Studios joins as the LED wall + storytelling partner. Many people across many years; selected leads below.
+ many more contributors across a 10-year engagement.