State of Awe Digest #14 | Fall arrives, virtual bundling, Overton Window, stacks of innovation and travel as therapy
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
September 27, 2020
Our aphorism to help with the times: A long, mundane event gives up on the condensed blitz - the friction, the tension - the static electricity that builds up from tightly-packed entertainment and concise information. “Short and can’t miss”, drives a desire to be present, charging the audience to come back for more.
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
The fall, it is here. And with it, a dramatic clamp down in the ability to gather. Feeling lost? You’re not alone. That set of stories from 22 cultural workers in New York helped us.
The next 12 months, written forward, looks like a tough journey for all of us. There will be haves, and have nots. And it might take until 2024 until the world is vaccinated, according to experts.
Looking back on the various guesses from the State of Awe community in digest #9 (see comments), we don’t think we have much more clarity on a vaccine, even 2.5 months later. In case a new reader wants to wager a date (or change their original guess), comments are open. A fun prize awaits the winner of the closest dart throw.
A few thicker sections await you in this digest, as we explore topics that we found valuable over the past two weeks. Apologies to those readers who like a punchier read.
Experience Design Strategy 🏔️ Virtual Bundling
As we explore new ways of creating emotional impact from our virtual events, while at the same time exploring how to monetize the service for our business, we were drawn to this article on “bundling as a business model” from HBR. A few thoughts that may help you find your bundle:
⛏️ Recently, technology has unbundled everything from music to television, but we would argue this is not a definitive one-way street for businesses. In terms of music, the consumer was clear: “I want one song. Why am I being forced to pay $16 for the entire CD when all I want is one song that I can listen to online” (source).
📚 In terms of events, we are experts in bundling a “stack of services”. Just look at this list of stacked technologies for your standard conference. The model of adding, versus subtracting works. And in a world of fragmented virtual event technologies, look for the bundle.
💰 The economics of bundling have been clearly articulated, and the value is easy to integrate into a new model (great read).
💡 A simple breakdown on the “event stack” in the virtual space, and how a flexible stack can improve the connection and interaction between participants, a key outcome of any gathering.
The insight: gathering design requires a firm grasp of what your participants truly desire, and by extension, what immersive experience is going to create the most impactful emotional outcome. As covered in digest #7, each event format has its own technology platform use-case. And today, we don’t see an “all-in-one” virtual platform emerging, maybe ever, for the more complex social experiences. Learn the important technique of technology bundling, using platforms that each drive a user desire, and your virtual experiences will be better because of it.
Fads and Crazes 📱 Meaningful Virtual Experiences
Your quick hits from the world of virtual:
K-pop artists are pushing livestream to new limits with expanded “XR” or extended reality (amazing read).
A simple and authentic take on “how to enjoy the virtual festival experience”.
Fornite continues to push hard in making the platform a “must hit” musical touring stop.
A new “kinder” social network, Telepath, launched last week.
Movember, the global men’s health foundation, announced it will invest $3M+ in digital ideas that bring men together.
“It was minute for minute more interesting”, a review of the socially distant, virtual 72nd Emmy Awards. “What could possibly go right?”
The Royal Ballet announces an October (virtual) comeback with over 100 dancers. While the Vancouver Symphony has big (virtual) plans for the fall as well.
Bonnaroo’s virtual festival, ROO-ality is in its final day today.
The insight: the virtual craze seems to be normalizing, and these past two weeks haven’t seen much in the way of new, groundbreaking or wildly innovative. A shorter section of quick hits represents a less “media rich” environment for virtual. It might not be as interesting to members of the media as it was eight months ago? We will continue to watch and curate.
Arena of Design Thinking 🔎 The Overton Window for Gatherings
In constantly keeping abreast of fun things to propose for virtual events, we stumbled across this activity. Literally, an interactive and competitive “outside of the box” idea for at-home programming. And it got us thinking about boxes, and well, we’ve applied it below.
There is a thinking model in the political spheres called, the “Overton Window”, namely the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is the box of “safe ground” for electable politicians to operate their policy opinions within.
🔲 As this fine summary acknowledges, the window of acceptable political issues shifts over time. It is, of course, measured through the sentiment of the collective electorate, but politicians (and lobbyists) at times, have the power to tug the box in their preferred direction.
🔙 The movement of the Overton Window, in one direction or the other, is a measure of change in the psyche of a consumer. And represents what those consumers are willing to accept as a political solution in a given time period.
🎏 Of course, this got us thinking about the gathering sphere. With so much change taking place, so quickly, what preferences in event formats are becoming more acceptable in the consumer psyche? The graphic we created below summarizes our “Overton Window for gatherings”. Take a look.
The insight: event formats are shifting dramatically right now, moving along the axis of digitization (as covered in digest #12 and digest #5). This shifting box of consumer experimentation and adoption is a helpful way (at least for us) to think about where along the virtual spectrum your event might rest. Is a virtual reality headset that you strap to your head a mainstream and acceptable way to gather? We’d argue, no. But can we effectively watch our favourite bands or attend an important educational webinar through a browser? Easy. As the box shifts in 2021, and the pace of the format window shifts towards more virtual, designers should be thinking about ways to engage their audience where their expectations are moving towards, not where they are today. And once IRL returns, how wide does the window remain? Hybrid gatherings at scale are going to be impossible to ignore.
Arena of Safety and Security 🦠 COVID Edition
A stacked section of COVID-induced gathering insights. It is so clear that the live events industry is fighting hard, and innovating as quickly as possible. Ultimately for most, this is survival of the fittest. And you can see the innovation taking place in so many ways below.
🏍️ After the Sturgis motorcycle rally became a confirmed super spreader event (some reports saying 250,000 infected because of it), the trend continues.
🧺 There are ways to do it safely. Picknick Konzerte, a German picnic concert drew 30,000 attendees over 30 shows completely socially distant.
📘 The COVID passport (or immunity pass) continues to build steam in the UK
🏟️ The largest outdoor venue across Europe, opens in Italy.
🎤 Insights into the future of live music in LA. “Handshakes might be done, masks are going to be around for a while”, oh and “AI created music is going to be big”.
🚗 Los Angeles’ drive-thru 10-course tasting menu arrives.
🎟️ SXSW announces online plans while still aiming for an (unlikely) IRL event.
🎼 The homegrown Darwin Festival learned a lot of lessons producing in a pandemic. Mostly, that local talent can win.
🤳 Contactless payments via Ticketmaster? Even better: risk-free concert ticket purchases for attendees.
🕯️ Boutique, COVID-sized candlelight performances from Fever continue to soar in popularity.
⚽ The return of IRL fans at sporting events is definitely paving the way for organizers. Demand seems to exist in big waves.
🏨 Remix Hotel, a COVID safe festival, from within the comforts of a socially distant hotel room in Brisbane is headlined by Groove Armada.
The insight: while artists are expressing their angst at performing in venues with 30% capacity (no vibe), COVID-safe festival formats are happening. Some are more inventive than others, but no matter where you look, innovation is taking shape. If we are going to survive, standing still is not an option. Kudos to those producers risking it all to bring about the change to drive our purpose safely.
Thinkers and Philosophers 🕵 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) was a German writer, statesman and bonafide polymath. He was a diplomat, fashion guru, a senior civil servant, a pornographer, the head of a university, a fine artist, an adventurous traveller, the director of a theatre company and the head of a mining company. And all of these things outside of what he is regularly known for, as a poet, novelist and contributing scientist. But beyond his accomplishments, he is a historical European hero because of how he lived, and his theories on the human experience. One, as you will see below, in particular, is most definitely important to current gatherings:
📜 As regular readers will know, we include an aphorism, or general truth about gatherings, as an open to each digest we put forward. And well, von Goethe, was but the master of aphorism. “A man is not deceived by others, he deceives himself” and 590+ other bite-sized pieces of wisdom (translated from German).
🦸 The Faustian Hero, an ancient mythical character that von Goethe most famously narrated, argued that we need to be very wary of trading our holistic human experiences for fame, for fortune and for progress.
🏞️ Travel as therapy. After travelling from his cold climate in Germany through Italy, and finding personal insight not from the ancient ruins (“speak to me, you stones!”), but instead, someone who would share their personal meaning of that place with him. In other words, “the aim of travel is to go to a place where we can find the missing ingredient of our own maturity” (source).
The insight: von Goethe was one of the first “experience philosophers”, and identified early that our journey is best lived through transformation, rather than by guidebook. Travel as therapy, or rather “experience as therapy”, is more than defining our choice experiences as “relaxation” or just “taking a break from routine”, but rather as a learning lens to our own missing pieces of ego, meaning and life purpose. As an experience designer, how do you give your attendees an opportunity to transform in these ways? Be like Goethe, and make your gathering more than a checklist of things to see.
Beautiful event instas to inspire your next project (from a diverse group)
🐘 Notre Grand Éléphant by French robotics maker Les Machines de l’île.
🌪️ Tangental Dreams by the legendary Arthur Mamou-Mani.
🐛 A flexible performance cocoon by Studio INI (dive into their making of, earlier in their feed)
⚡ Haywire designs, in a collection by Anny Wang and Tim Söderström.
🔍 A cabinet of curiosities by Esrawe Studio.
🟦 Futuristic colour tapestry tunnel, with before and afters, by Camille Walala.
💠 Patterns for days by Form Us With Love.
👗 Floral wardrobes by Paula Rooney.
Hot morsels to ace your next event conversation
🤖 The 60-foot tall, 55,000 pound Gundam robot just kneeled (must watch).
📸 Secrets from the best, on how to take great photographs (of your gatherings).
🧘 5 ways to bring meditation into your virtual event.
📈 Eventbrite ticket sales up 26% in August over July.
💗 Sweden allocates 1.5B to save culture.
📋 Spotify begins to list virtual concerts on their platform.
🏆 Special Events releases its 19th Annual 50 Top Event Companies list, which includes a “top trends” summary from each company (helpful tidbits).
✌️ Hand gestures for Zoom, pop up dialogue boxes in return.
🎲 This game of Dungeons & Dragons has been going on for 38 years (digest #13 covered the digital explosion of gaming).
💊 How the pandemic has changed illegal-drug habits.
End note
This was the fourteenth edition of the State of Awe digest. And we are all preparing around here for a fall and winter very devoid of gatherings. Our lives are very quickly headed back to this:
Keep strong, IRL events will return.
As always, please share with your colleagues and contacts (you can direct them here, or just share this post). It means a lot to us :)
As Ever,
Jordan + Tyson