State of Awe Digest #12 | Napster moments, the elite urban exodus, event feedback, a taxi experience designer and much more
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
August 30, 2020
Our aphorism to help with the times: A gathering’s vibe is the experience designer’s dark matter. What might seem like empty space is actually filled with a wonder of undetectable emotions, electrical connections and unseen forces of feeling. What can’t be seen or measured, makes up a majority of an event’s mass.
State of Awe is a regular trend briefing from experience designer, Jordan Kallman and event brand curator, Tyson Villeneuve at The Social Concierge. This periodic letter covers the latest wonders, most influential psychological movements, emerging ideas, tactile designs and hottest patterns keeping attendees, producers, designers, operators, sponsors, organizers and leaders engaged in the experience economy.
OUR BELIEF: Depth of experience ignites culture, culture values beauty, beauty triggers emotion, emotion deepens understanding, and understanding gives us words for things we had felt but had not previously grasped. Belong and repeat. This loop creates a more beautiful life, well-lived, deeply remembered. We must popularize the way to people’s hearts, charging bonds and linking character, lighting up this circle of experience. Encourage others to join the club. Long live the spectacular.
OUR INTENTION: A long-form digest, this letter is meant as a “Sunday read”, skimming between topics, links and references you find interesting. We summarize insights and lines of inquiry to highlight possible outcomes. Our intention is to serve you trend-driven idea candy that inspires divergent, lateral or combinational creative thinking for your own gatherings.
For new subscribers, you can find all previous digests here (certain ideas are timeless). A catalogue of current and future topic areas can be found here.
House of Experimentation 🔮 Feature Article Thinking
Over the past few digests, we have been highlighting an “off-the-top” feature article. We continue with that experiment here in digest #12.
💣 No one wants to admit it, but could it be? Is the live event industry being forced to confront its “Napster Moment”? Feature article bomb drop here (must read).
We covered this possible future course back in digest #5. Will the combination of technology and new consumer habits drive the cost of live art to zero? Refreshing your feed with this previously linked opinion piece that sets the frame in light of artists.
The reality is, the digitization of live experience might have arrived. Are we in for 15 years of dropping revenues while social connection technology catches up? We are very interested in your opinion. Drop it in the comments.
In light of the continued race relations struggles that both fill us with hope for the future and pain for those currently suffering, we come around on inequality of opportunity once again near the end of this digest.
Arena of Environment, Architecture and Installations 🌆 The Elite Escape
Former hedge-fund manager and comedy club owner, James Altucher, stirred the pot when he penned an essay two weeks back, “New York is dead forever” (citing crashing culture and closing restaurants as two main reasons). Then Jerry Seinfeld snapped back with his own opinion piece. Two interesting sides to the argument: are we seeing the start of an urban exodus? A few thoughts:
🏙️ During the bubonic plague, the wealthiest deserted entire neighbourhoods, retreating to comfortable estates in the countryside. Is fleeing a city in a time of crisis an instinctual reaction for those who have the means to do so? Historically, it seems yes.
📉 One chart from Zillow might actually show it happening in San Francisco, elsewhere not so much.
🧿 Smart, young adults are concentrating in cities, the trend is picking up and there’s no evidence that this powerful momentum has been blunted by coronavirus concerns, states an in-depth report by City Observatory.
🏟️ An interesting experiential report from The Park imagines eight principles for event venue design in the future. No surprise to see design thinking for virtual experiences make the list. Yet we were surprised not to see a direction on size and scale.
🏢 “Offices after coronavirus should be designed for meetings and socializing, while focused work should take place at home” says architect Perkins and Will. It’s time to make them “activity-based destinations”.
The insight: a wealthy citizen exodus from urban environments will change premium, IRL events, luxury brand gatherings and charity non-profit fundraisers in the future, if this is indeed underway. Youth convergence within dense cities will increase the demand for smaller-scale, locally-sourced arts and culture (particularly with no big-ticket concerts or festivals). The psychographic profile of urban experience seekers is going to evolve, its speed and direction really comes down to who you believe: Jerry Seinfeld or James Altucher.
Arena of Safety and Security 🦠 COVID Edition
A few quick hits on pandemic protocols within gatherings:
Rapid testing before entering is happening at more high-end events. Watching this closely.
The Closecontact app is Berlin’s latest pass to enjoy the city’s famous clubs. The new contact tracing tool is meant to work alongside mask use and social distancing to allow for reopening.
Bryan Adams will headline a “return to live” concert next month in Germany. Socially-distanced seating, an alcohol ban, contact tracing, in-seat food delivery, and timed entry will attempt to ensure fan safety.
The insight: testing, cure, vaccine; the holy trinity of “return to IRL” continues to progress. Germany is the world leader in experimentation. Yet progress is slow, unfortunately.
Fads and Crazes 📱 Meaningful Virtual Experiences
So. Many. Virtual. Events. The past two weeks, and the weeks ahead will see a huge slate of big online gatherings that have, and will, teach us new things:
🦹 Last weekend, DC FanDome set a new gold standard for interactive, explorative, virtual experiences. 22 million views during the real-time, 24-hour experience that will not be released as a recording; the learning lessons are too deep and vast to summarize. Read the piece linked above or this feature to dig deeper.
🐘 The Republican and Democratic National Conventions both went virtual. And while the GOP event was mostly a flop (and COVID-y), the Democratic event came away with a few wins. A 30-minute roll call that included personalities from every State, the “liveness” of the broadcast (the feeling of live TV), and vignettes that felt like “intimate little visits” all spoke to the zany authenticity that is winning hearts in the virtual content space. Go behind the scenes, check out this photo of live director Glenn Weiss from his home, and soak in the takeaways.
🔥 In the long history of Burning Man (and it is fascinating), it has never been a digital, virtual, online experience. Enter 2020, and the concept of the Multiverses, eight virtual reality environments sanctioned by the event to stand as a digital monument to one of the most “real life events” on the planet. We will be participating heavily during the week-long festivities. We will report back on which of the eight Multiverses steals our heart.
🤳 Iconic publisher, Condé Nast debuts first-ever virtual events programming slate.
🎤 “The idea is that audiences are increasingly global”. Virtual concert platform Wave is looking to revolutionize the music experience (and was the platform driving The Weeknd TikTok performance we featured in digest #11).
The insight: Virtual experience producers are learning to be magicians. And actually, the techniques from the world of magic, blending elements of technology, human interaction and psychology, is what is working (great read here). Perception is reality, as they say. And the virtual space allows for tricks, hacks and unique applications to create the feelings of “liveness” , revealing wow moments, and surprise and delight. Very David Blaine of us.
Designer Data Drop 🧮 Chart of the Month
Visualizing 40 years of music sales. In spirit of our feature piece off-the-top, the chart below links back to an article showing the music industry’s “Napster Moment”. Dive deeper here (very interesting).
Event Feedback ⚔️ The Double-Edged Sword
Having recently executed multiple virtual events, a completely new endeavour for us, we have realized the importance of attendee feedback to the learning process.
🔬 We, of course, believe that data matters in experience design. Past data can predict future behaviour.
🔮 But there are some who believe that feedback can be a fallacy. Naturally, our biases create disjointed perceptions of reality. But over the years, we have found nuggets of truth within mounds of judgement.
🧺 Collecting it can be complex, but it doesn’t need to be. There are some tried methods that work.
🗺️ Appearances versus encounters. Expectations versus experience. We constantly mistake the map for the territory. Yet large collections of user feedback can flush out the dissonance between the two.
The insight: Not only does feedback help improve the customer experience, measure satisfaction and build retention, it shows you value your guest’s opinion, building a relationship of trust (great article on why feedback is important). As Cindy Gallop, multi-hyphenate entrepreneur and provocateur says, there is an oft-chased formula for success: design for trust. Simply put, if you believe in something, don’t believe without data: run some diagnostics on it (excellent read, particularly the thermometer analogy within).
Arena of Safety and Security 👮♂️ Protests and Equality of Opportunity
Another shooting by a white police officer of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has sparked days of fresh protests, unrest and violence. This, combined with the first official Black Lives Matter National Convention, that happened last week has brought our focus back to inequality of opportunity at the intersection of race, class and gatherings.
In solidarity with inequality of opportunity, a few points to consider:
⚽ Sporting events stopped, across all professional leagues, in protest of police violence. Impossible for organizers to see coming.
💷 “It took the Germans longer than many people think to come to grips with Nazism after the war”. What the German experience with reparations can teach us.
🚲 The way we gather, also matters. Black lives matter, bike protests.
🦽 Those with disabilities, making up 20% of us, are also in need of a rebalancing. Need a few tips for your festival? This cool accessibility event foundation can help.
🧑🦳 Ever felt like you were older than everyone else in attendance? Here’s a neat concept for 50+ “Bloomers”, focused on friendship in the online gathering space.
🤝 Four case studies on brand events that actively worked to increase inclusivity.
🚫 Support a “call out culture”, only rarely joining the cancel collective.
The insight: we continue to update our diversity, equity, and inclusion playbooks. And while there are very few resources out there for festival, event and experience designers, this HBR piece has great case studies to pull from.
Thinkers and Philosophers 🕵 Spike Lee
Filmmaker, author, actor, professor and activist, Spike Lee is a pioneer in evolving societal culture through storytelling. A controversial “thinker”, his outspoken and bombastic statements have caused many stirs, yet his eclectic body of work represents his underlying philosophy.
XX The Philosophy of Spike Lee, is a biography that highlights the socio-political commentaries central to his point of view, in that the deep structures of racism, sexism, and violence are holding us back.
XX Ultimately, his perspective is that “Art makes people wake up and think”.
XX By the happenings across the world since the murder of George Floyd, it seems like the world is finally catching up to his 30-years of messaging. As the piece goes on to conclude, “No other living filmmaker has so consistently probed the hard problems that face us.”
XX From the Oscars to Netflix, from NYU classrooms to commencement speeches, Spike Lee has forged a consistent, loud and artistic societal philosophy, channeled through American cinema that we should all be embracing.
The insight: how can events, festivals and conferences integrate art that “makes people wake up and think”? Instead of pushing controversial forward thinkers away, how can we embrace perspectives that are more inclusive and welcoming to all, even if they are painful to implement? As events, both virtual and IRL continue, we will need to integrate art forms, thinking and creative approaches to support People of Colour to create a truly collective outcome.
Beautiful event instas to inspire your next project (from a diverse group)
☁️ A flower cloud by Vikram Panicker.
🤹 Before-and-after circus theme from Moscow’s Dlya Dvoih
⚫ Black on granite tablescapes by Jacqueline Hallgarth.
🔲 Rectangular ceiling dimension by The White Boutique out of Dubai.
🕯️ Whimsical forest maximalism by Roni Bassil.
✂️ Laser cut pop out card magic by Paper Tango.
🖤 A Netflix star’s brooding wedding reception by Amber Event Production.
🎈 Colourful pops of plastic bags, en masse by Pascale Marthine Tayou.
Hot morsels to ace your next event conversation
🧟 Freaking out in the car. A drive-in horror show in Tokyo looks fun.
🛸 Drones for arena cleaning? Sanitizer from above.
🚗 Stranger Things, the popular Netflix shows also gets a drive-into experience in Los Angeles.
😷 Mask Now Party Later. We agree.
🎁 Helsinki Festival open sources their “Gift of Art” technology so other organizers can bring the concept to their city. A platform that allows people to gift, for free, short art performances to someone in need. How great is this?
📷 Ever wondered how the raw portraits of Humans of NY started? The lessons are solid: consistency and vulnerability win (long thread, worth reading)
🏕️ Doing lots of nature adventures these days? A gear rental platform launches for the great outdoors.
🪑 The Friendly Bench, uses purpose built pop-up benches to encourage new social bonds and community depth. Each site is required to hold annual events, and the built bench comes free.
End note
This was the twelfth edition of the State of Awe digest. We are approaching the six month mark of these written releases, and starting to plan a second layer to our writing, in the form of supplementary essays that cover our own thinking and lines of inquiry. We were reminded, by the following Twitter thread, how important the psychological principles of experience can be for just about everyone in society:
Very few things are more powerful than the emotional outcomes that we all feel as we journey through our lifetimes. And that taxi driver summary bottled up the raison d'etre for us.
We are finding feedback from certain new readers that these digests are helping a lot. Let’s widen the knowledge of how to navigate this new era. Share with your colleagues and contacts (you can direct them here, or just share this post). It not only means a lot to us, it apparently helps others :)
As Ever,
Jordan + Tyson