Never Is Now
CLIENT
Situation Interactive
TECHNOLOGIES
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, Cvent API, Google Tag Manager
YEAR
2023
EXTERNAL URL
Built the digital platform for the ADL‘s flagship annual summit on antisemitism and hate — a custom WordPress theme with a complex multi-track agenda system, Cvent-integrated registration, 100+ speaker profiles, and hybrid event infrastructure supporting thousands of in-person and virtual attendees. This engagement later led to a second ADL project on their Drupal-based main site.
Spearheaded development at Situation Interactive.
Background
The world’s largest summit on antisemitism needed a digital platform to match its scale.
Never Is Now is the Anti-Defamation League’s annual summit — the largest gathering in the world dedicated to confronting antisemitism and hate. The event draws thousands of in-person attendees to New York City alongside a global virtual audience, featuring keynotes from heads of state, CEOs, educators, and civil rights leaders. The 2023 edition carried particular urgency: antisemitic incidents in the U.S. had surged to record levels, and the summit’s programming expanded to include dedicated tracks for college and high school students for the first time. The ADL needed a digital platform that could serve as both the operational backbone of a multi-day, multi-track conference and a year-round content hub for the organization’s advocacy work.
The site had to handle complex event logistics — registration tiers, agenda filtering, speaker discovery, accessibility compliance, and livestream integration — while maintaining the visual authority of the ADL’s brand.
Implementation
Multi-track agenda infrastructure with integrated registration and hybrid delivery.
I led development on a custom WordPress theme built to manage the full complexity of a conference operating at this scale. The agenda system was the centerpiece — a structured content architecture supporting 25+ sessions across six named tracks (Advocacy, Arts/Media/Technology, Education, Litigation, Safety/Security, and Student Leadership), with day-based filtering, session-type categorization, livestream availability indicators, and CEU credit designations for educators. Each session linked to its speakers, and each speaker profile resolved back to its sessions, creating a navigable two-way relationship across 100+ participants. Registration flowed through a Cvent integration supporting multiple ticket tiers — general admission, platinum passes with preferred seating, senior pricing, and free virtual access — with the WordPress frontend handling presentation while Cvent managed transaction processing and attendee data.
The frontend delivered a design system anchored by CSS custom properties — a bold green-and-blue palette with fluid responsive typography and generous spacing scaled across breakpoints. Google Tag Manager provided event tracking across registration funnels and session engagement. ASL interpretation support, wheelchair accessibility information, and kosher meal logistics were surfaced through the site’s FAQ and registration flows, reflecting the ADL’s commitment to inclusive access at every level of the experience.
Results
A platform built to scale year over year.
The site launched ahead of the summit and served as the primary digital touchpoint for over 4,000 in-person attendees plus a global virtual audience. The agenda infrastructure handled the full complexity of multi-track, multi-day programming without requiring developer intervention for session additions or schedule changes — the ADL’s content team managed all updates independently through the WordPress admin. The Cvent registration integration processed multiple ticket tiers cleanly, and the hybrid delivery model extended the summit’s reach well beyond the physical venue. Archival playlists from previous years were surfaced on-site, turning the platform into a persistent content library rather than a disposable event page.
The architecture has continued to serve the ADL across subsequent editions of Never Is Now — the same platform powers the 2026 summit with expanded programming, proving the content model and technical foundation were built for longevity, not just a single event cycle.
Related Projects
No projects match your current filters.