State of Awe | Digest #1
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
March 22, 2020
State of Awe is a regular trend briefing from experience designer, Jordan Kallman and event brand curator, Tyson Villeneuve at The Social Concierge. This monthly missive covers the latest wonders, most influential psychological movements and hottest patterns keeping attendees, producers, designers, operators, sponsors, organizers and leaders engaged in the experience economy.
Arena of Safety and Security 🦠 COVID Edition
😷 It can’t be stated how much has changed in such a short timeframe. Across the world, we are grappling with a once-in-one-hundred year pandemic that is causing untold disruption and tragedy. The virus known as SARS-CoV-2 that leads to COVID-19 after infection has brought the world to a standstill, and with it, gatherings of more than a handful of people. The human experience has been forced into self-quarantine, with many parts of the world forcing people right down to solitary levels.
What does this mean for events, festivals, venues, sporting leagues, tourism and those in the experience economy? Well, frankly, everything. It is a bold new world.
But first, we need to collectively understand, where are we today?
📉Social distancing and a legal ban on large gatherings is in place in most large urban regions. Most developed regions of the world are taking a suppression approach to containing the virus, which includes large-scale self-quarantine orders requiring everyone to “shelter in place” (many governments are using the Imperial College model to justify this action). Long-term, without a breakthrough on a vaccine or with a pharmaceutical intervention that reduces critical ICU cases, we predict that over time, “adaptive pulsing” of social distancing rules, event size regulations and self-quarantine orders will continue to come and go (full explanation here). The insight and inquiry: how can your experience prepare to be flexible, nimble and ultimately adjust to changing quarantine orders?
💥 The social rebound is coming. After 45+ days in self-quarantine, will a big part of the population be desperate to reconnect physically? We think so, and we think the rebound is going to be significant. Experience goers will be looking to stay local, avoid travel and support their trusted institutions of social connection. The insight and inquiry we are asking: are you prepared to announce a return within 24-hours if a cure or vaccine was to be found and restrictions are lifted? How can you support the rebound effect when the time comes?
🤳 But until then, of course, adaptation is one of our strongest abilities.
Fads and Crazes 📱Virtual Everything
📡 For those across society adjusting to the new norm of being isolated with only their closest partner or family members, rapid social change is underway. Our need to connect and belong drives not to be outdone, the past weeks have seen a radical upswing in the “virtual everything”. We’ve seen both famous and local celebrity DJs launch virtual sets, virtual happy hour, virtual meditation sessions, virtual sweat classes, virtual church, virtual art museums and virtual communal dance parties. Hell, the hottest new Japanese trend is “on-nomi”, the new word that describes the activity of drinking online with friends. My wife and I even got into the groove, and here’s a video of last night’s living room dance party to prove it. The insight and inquiry: does this craze stick and is this a new norm for our desire to connect with others? How can your experience promote a virtual connection now or in the near-term?
❤️ The impact conferences. Immediately following the global news spread of the pandemic, various groups began bringing together virtual gatherings intended to build consensus, dialogue and shared understanding around COVID-19. Singularity University hosted a 3-day online summit on the virus, this Monday BOMA Global will host a 60-speaker, 20-country around the world virtual video conference as well. And the TED Conference is hosting daily talks with world experts. These examples are free and open to all, and attendance is high (Singularity recorded over 20,000 registrations over their 3-day event). The insight and inquiry: in the future, what content can your experience provide complimentary access to that would normally cost viewers in exchange for increased profile, brand goodwill, and customer data?
Designer Data Drop 🧮 Chart of the Month
(source: Event Manager Blog)
Arena of Altered States 🤩
🍄 It is almost nine months to the day where the City of Denver relaxed their criminal focus on psilocybin and magic mushroom consumption continues to gain popularity in both social and scientific culture. Oakland and Santa Cruz have followed Denver’s lead, The State of Hawaii is not far behind, and Oregon’s petition to legalize has grown into the six figures. You only need to take one glance at MAPS’ list of scientific studies in progress to know that something positive is bubbling to the surface in regards to this unique psychedelic. With early results showing that a single dose can reduce anxiety, microdosing exploding with massive interest, and businesses preparing for the eventuality (email signup required), how will this change the social gathering domain? We think quite tremendously! This is a topic we will continue to follow with great interest. The insight and inquiry: project forward and ask yourself how legal psychedelics are going to change your experiences? What will this do to your traditional consumption numbers? How will this new altered state change attendee expectations? What experiences will these mind shifters be looking for?
🍸 While we are on the topic of altered states, a quick tangent to the sober, present and non-consuming group. Which up until recently, was probably an afterthought for most event and experience designers. But new evidence shows quite the contrary, with 1-in-5 Americans participating in Dry January in 2019. And it isn’t just contained to the US, with the World Health Organization noting a 5% drop in the number of alcohol consumers across the planet in 2018 alone. With so many brand-forward alcohol-free spirits launching (drool worthy labels in this trend report, and damn, what about this one!), are we all going to be preparing “NOgroni’s” at our next gathering? The insight and inquiry: how might your next experience promote a non-alcoholic angle that is refreshing and new, aside from the plain ol’ soda water offer?
Beautiful event instas to inspire your next project
🖍️ David Stark’s Robin Hood NYC Big Benefit Gala.
💎 Robert Storey’s infinity forest for a John Lobb activation.
🥃 Miami’s Prism Creative Group’s National Rum Day backdrop
🌸 Artechouse Cherry Blossom projections
🌈 Tinsel Design NYC’s technicolour rainbow cloud bar.
🔵 David Monn’s bold, beautiful blues.
Hot morsels to ace your next event
🌎 Yes, we still have a climate emergency happening around us even though COVID-19 might be dominating our amygdala brain responses. And the tide with organizers and designers looks like it is shifting. Polling almost seven thousand creators, Eventbrite showed that 59% are taking steps to improve their event’s environmental impact (email signup required to view).
🥗 After the 77th Annual Golden Globes announced their guest menu would be completely vegan (for the sake of the climate emergency), it become the first major award show to make this stance. Even if this diet is plain difficult for some, does the vegan ingredient event trend continue to explode in 2020? If you are hosting experiences for younger attendees, looks like it couldn’t hurt.
✔️ In a global survey of more than 700 business executives by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, 93% of the respondents say their organizations place a priority on hosting events, including 57% who give it a high priority. Nearly as many (85%) say their organizations also prioritize sponsoring events. Only one incredible piece of data from this Harvard Business Review study, chalked full of insights and inquiries (albeit maybe slightly aging).
📸 On average, Americans take 21 pictures during live events and share them on social media (source).
👀 List of events affected by the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic
End note
This is a new endeavour for us. But with events of all shapes and sizes on the rise, we feel there is a particular need to teach the most effective core principles, and share the best strategic design thinking from across the global spectrum of experiences.
We will endeavour to pick a range of forward thinking ideas, targeted trends and their underlying psychological motivations, solid and credible data points and beautiful visual examples that can inspire your next design, your ongoing operation or next year’s festival! Both of us feel like designing for the human mind, maximizing emotional outcome is the best formula. And we hope to share the best of that craft with you.
If you liked this edition, and think others would too, we are trying to grow an audience. Please forward to a friend so this can build into a community of like-minded gathering experts!
Hit FORWARD Now!
As Ever,
Jordan + Tyson