Adult Learner Event Exhibit | Work

Opportunity

Adult learners—many juggling full-time work, caregiving responsibilities or returning to education after time away—face postsecondary systems that weren’t designed for their realities. College Futures Foundation was launching its Unlocking Economic Mobility for Adult Learners Initiative with a special forum to engage institutional leaders, researchers, policymakers and funders in this challenge. Rather than host a traditional education conference, College Futures wanted to center learners’ voices in ways that honored their truths and sparked authentic engagement. The vision: a multisensory storytelling experience that would help attendees see, hear and feel what adult learners live—paired with comprehensive event communications to spark new thinking and action. All stories were collected as part of College Futures' work with Gallup on the 2025 State of California Learners report.

Approach

Williams Group developed and designed “California’s Future Depends On…,” an immersive interactive exhibit that became the forum’s centerpiece. We brainstormed exhibit concepts and themes, developed mood boards, and synthesized quantitative and qualitative research into layered, dimensional signage. Our installations explored who adult learners are through striking data displays, what they need through text and audio stations featuring their voices, and how systems can better support them through crowdsourcing prompts. We created adult learner persona cards that helped attendees empathize with specific circumstances and informed interactive exercises exploring learners’ rights and expectations. We also designed all event collateral—agenda, presentation slides and invitation graphics—and managed exhibit production, ensuring every element reflected our client's commitment to centering learners authentically.

Results

The exhibit evoked powerful emotions and even some tears, invited event participants to reimagine how their work could drive action, and captured reflections and ideas in real time. The response was so strong that some attendees asked whether exhibit components were available to rent. Most meaningfully, as our client shared, we honored the lived experiences of California’s adult learners—to inspire ways to better serve this population vital to California’s present and future.

Following the event, Williams Group was invited to reimagine the exhibit as a digital experience, retaining as much of the interactivity as possible. The resulting microsite showcases quantitative and qualitative data alongside opportunities for live engagement—and a comprehensive social media campaign and dissemination strategy helped launch the online exhibit with fanfare.