Docker

Challenge

In 3 short years, Docker went from a simple idea, formed in the mind of founder/CTO Solomon Hykes, to becoming the IT industry standard, established as an open source platform under the Linux Foundation. As the company matured, it entered a new, and previously unexplored, space: enterprise.

Docker had to play in the enterprise space while still retaining their authenticity and credibility with their open source developer community. They asked Jack Morton to create a developer conference that showed that Docker was honoring their open source roots while establishing credibility and relevancy with the enterprise audience.

Insight

Part of the reason why enterprise companies are attracted to Docker is that the platform allows them to be innovative and creative on top of their legacy hardware and systems. What drives Docker’s open source community is doing work that is fun, creative, collaborative and that breaks the rules. This also drives more people to this space – including people from open source and enterprise. If Docker could convince people that they could make enterprise fun, creative and collaborative, they would win.

Idea

We decided to show everyone that Docker does enterprise differently, by building the world’s first 5,000-person, live multi-player video game! Attendees collaborated to build an enterprise app together while avoiding a host of enemies, mastering the challenge of manipulating a game with a glowing pool float and defeating an irradiated cyber squirrel to unlock the show.

Experience

“Docker Dash” took ‘players’ through the platform from a new user/developer perspective to a fully vetted enterprise-ready solution. This was done in a way that only Docker could, with humor, style and by engaging the community, all the while clearly communicating the Docker enterprise story and value propositions with clever sound bites and engaging, immersive in-game animations.

We meticulously crafted an 8-bit retro style video game based on learning Docker that took the player through the platform from a new user/developer perspective to the a fully vetted enterprise-ready solution. Audience/players pushed a large glowing whale around the Keynote space which in turn drove a digital avatar of the whale on the screen. The goal was to collect items on each level and avoid enemies in order to collaboratively build an application running on Docker. As players navigated each level, Docker value propositions were communicated via game graphics and game audio.