CCGA Feature

Re-imagining the modern think tank online.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) is a hub of expertise and public resource for foriegn affairs professionals around the world, and the substance of their work is hugely important and impactful to those working on the front lines in all levels of government and industry. Our work led to a new website that thoughtfully served the practical needs of each of these distinct groups while simultaneously bridging those experiences by answering four core questions throughout the website: Who is CCGA? What does CCGA do? Why does this work matter? What’s happening at CCGA right now?

View the Live Site

Key Takeaways

  • Modular newsroom-style homepage
  • Homepage livestream takeover to handle virtual marquee events
  • In-line podcast player for optional audio on all pages
“The day our new website launched was far and away the smoothest transition we've ever had with any digital platform or project, and that is all thanks to Fastspot's dedication and hard work.”

- Ashley Powers, Digital Platforms and Project Manager


Balancing the Needs of Two Distinct Audiences

The homepage allowed for complete control of the structure and substance of each section, which gave CCGA the ability to tailor content for each audience and even shift priorities when major world events took center stage.
CCGA Homepage

Creating a Single System for Past, Present, and Future Events

CCGA needed to feature archived past events, live day-of events, and promotion and scheduling of future events. We built them a custom solution that allowed them to manage every stage of the event's lifecycle.
CCGA Events

Enhancing Multimedia Through Custom Details

We built out an in-line podcast player so visitors could play audio from any page. To accommodate the need to live stream marquee events, we built a homepage takeover function that turned the main feature into a live broadcast.
CCGA Media

Launching on time and within budget while in the midst of a pandemic

The pandemic hit right in the middle of our project with CCGA. In addition to the challenges we all faced as our working environments went virtual, half of what CCGA did with in-person events and networking had to be reimagined on the fly. We were able to do so thanks to our flexible planning and iterative creative philosophy, exceeding expectations at every turn.

“We loved working with Fastspot on redesigning our website. During a chaotic and frequently-changing year, I was worried about tackling such a big project. But Fastspot came up with creative solutions, remained thoughtful about our project goals and objectives, and put in the hard work (above and beyond) in order to allow us to launch before the end of the year.”

- Ashley Powers, Digital Platforms and Project Manager


Optimizing Internal and External Site Search

CCGA needed a way to provide users easy access to an ever expanding pool of content. We re-architected their information taxonomy using a relational model, ensuring that every type of article, media, and expert resource was connected to everything else.
CCGA Videos
CCGA Events Filters
“Our content has changed a lot over the past few years (more videos, more podcasts, and live streaming of our events), so in order to build our new website we needed to rethink our information architecture and overall content organization. The team at Fastspot helped us consider our options and came up with creative solutions in the strategy and design phases, which made the rest of the project go smoothly.”

- Ashley Powers, Digital Platforms and Project Manager


Celebrating CCGA’s Century of Global Leadership

Beyond the main website relaunch we worked on continuing improvements, including designing and developing a detailed interactive timeline that showcased CCGA’s history and celebrated their centennial year in 2022.
CCGA Timeline

Project Scope

  • Discovery
  • Strategy
  • Content Audit
  • Content Migration
  • Design Concepts
  • Design System
  • Front-end Dev
  • Back-end Dev (Drupal)
  • Information Architecture, Taxonomy & Relational Data Modeling
  • Ongoing Strategic Support