Communications + PR + Marketing + Design
HBCU Empower Summit
Community Partners
+15
Social Media Engagement
+150k views
Event Attendance
Sold out early
Client Review
“This agency did a tremendous job leading communications and creative design for our national conference event. The team was outstanding in providing sound insight, creative ideas, intentional impact and professionalism that was crucial to our event success. The company was also able to exponentially increase our social media and email marketing engagement through their strategic thinking and execution.”
Johnny Graham, Ph.D.,
National Associate & Regional Director of the PNC Center for Entrepreneurship
Empowering entrepreneurs nationwide
Driving Impact for the HBCU Empower Summit
The Howard University & PNC National Center for Entrepreneurship is a national consortium and resource hub funded by the PNC Bank Foundation, dedicated to advancing entrepreneurship education and empowering business owners across the country. When preparing for the 2025 HBCU Empower Summit, the Center partnered with Elxel Creative to co-lead creative execution and support delivery across four teams—under an accelerated six-week timeline. Our role spanned communications strategy, creative direction, digital marketing, partnerships, and on-site execution to successfully promote a multi-session national conference while amplifying the Center’s year-round mission and programming.
Building the message from the ground up
Communications Strategy, Partnerships & Promotion
We developed the summit’s communications strategy from the ground up, defining core messaging, audience segments, and weekly content themes for the April–June campaign. In close collaboration with Howard University and the PNC Foundation, we finalized institutional messaging, secured approval for a Juneteenth press releases, and executed multi-platform digital campaigns tailored to different audiences. To extend reach, we also activated a diverse network of community partners across startups, advocacy, media, culture, and more, and created comprehensive promotional toolkits for speakers, ambassadors, and partners—complete with customizable templates and ready-to-use language—making it easy to share the event widely while maintaining a cohesive message.
Executing across teams and spaces
Creative Direction & Marketing Operations
Elxel led creative and marketing operations across four teams during both pre-event and on-site phases. Our work included directing website development, managing speaker intake, producing video content for the main stage and digital platforms, and providing design direction for on-site signage, elevator wraps, hallway graphics, and session visuals with sponsor acknowledgements. We also coordinated videography efforts to capture sponsor materials for PNC, FICO, VentureWell, and the International Franchise Association, and co-produced interview questions to ensure each story aligned with the client’s vision and mission.
