State of Awe Digest #17 | A long look back
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
November 8, 2020
Our aphorism to help with the times: There is a social zealot within each of us that screams into the fray at the first sight of company. Let out the jailed fanatic for a thrilling ride.
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 🔮 A Long Look Back
The past two weeks have been a fairly wild rollercoaster. It is likely you navigated a socially distant, very contact-reduced Halloween. Which was immediately followed by a razor thin, drawn out US election. And unless you were living under the rock (you could actually rent a property under a rock, featured in digest #16) the emotional highs and lows were intense. Pandemic case counts are spiking nearly everywhere, and the interest in, uniqueness of, and innovation around gatherings has really come to an arresting halt.
For us, it truly seemed like an appropriate time to look back and highlight a set of core experience design insights gleaned since the first State of Awe digest at the end of March. Read on for a summary of the most relevant lines of inquiry worth pursuing:
It all started with a crazy explosion of “virtual everything” after regions around the world began various forms of self-quarantine. Digest #1 covered examples of church, happy hours, DJ sets, meditations and food tastings all going virtual. Optimism for a quick replacement to IRL togetherness was high, yet we now know it is much more complicated. Regardless, this is a trend line that has only continued to expand and a behaviour that continues to normalize.
We started looking back in history, searching for signals of what might happen to culture, gatherings and experience desires in general. It was obvious from digest #2 onward that historically, pandemics change a lot. We launched a review of great thinkers from our past (even numbered digests) to parse out insights on the human experience that might be helpful as we forge our futures in providing immersive moments.
We realized quickly that game theory was going to be incredibly important to the design of virtual events. We saw video game concerts explode in popularity from digest #3, when Travis Scott hosted millions in Fornite. Psychologically, digest #9 and #13 dove deep into design principles. Gaming continues to explode, and game theory has only become more important to the virtual experience sphere. What gaming also gets right? Storytelling and alternate reality building.
New habits stick after 66 days. Around digest #5, we began noting these changes in the form of “work from anywhere”, sweat at home, altered state consumption, forced preference for small gatherings, and livestream adoption even among older folks. But the virtual space has issues, and we started to track digital fatigue and enjoyment gaps in digest #4. What habits do you see changing now?
Throughout, we have noted the importance of behaviour science in understanding how to respond to the changes. From persuasion techniques to contagion theory, status seeking to celebrity mimetics, the power of nostalgia, rapid evolution, and a shifting overton window for gatherings, the consumer psyche is underpinned by forces that are powerful levers.
An explosion of protests and civil unrest led to our frequent link to inclusion as a driver for trending experience designers.
In a pivotal “drop anchor moment”, we positioned our focus around live events and IRL experiences having their “Napster moment”. Yet even before this observation, we had noted the exploding innovation of gathering technology, and created a summary outlining what each live experience type needed in a virtual platform. For now, audio-only platform formats continue to fill big gaps. Experience economy players need to embrace many years of disruption.
Digest #5 and #11 helped navigate virtual event pricing, while digest #4 noted the changing nature of event sponsorship. And digest #14 covered virtual platform bundling for maximum effect. We added detail on the layers to virtual producing in digest #15. For those amongst us producing virtual experiences, these are key lines of inquiry.
Spotting interesting things gives us new things to combine. How sporting bubbles got it right to fashion runway innovations, end of life ritual, kid gatherings, pandemic tourism, the miniaturization of AV hardware, and the story of Berlin’s nightlife industry.
And all along, we have been tracking the holy trinity of return to IRL: testing, cure, vaccine. From hybrid models, to rapid testing, arena-sized science experiments to immunity passports. We believe the complete effectiveness of one of the “trinity factors” are required before we can all welcome a golden jubilee of being back together.
The insight: we see the inquiry summaries above as key focal points of the present moment if you want to succeed. We all have deep desires to return to in-real-life, but the lessons of history teach us: things will have changed. Experiment now to come out ahead. And well, there’s always our Instagram escapes at the end of every digest if you just want to say f*** it.
House of Focus 🎯 Feature Article Thinking
Bringing your attention around to a feature piece, by the immersive retail design firm Shikatani Lacroix Design, the presentation builds out four scenarios to help envision how the future of large gatherings might unfold.
The insight: the sense-making report compares future attendee preferences for safety and security, against technology use and adoption. A clever matrix. The four scenarios point to distinct social realities that lie ahead. Looking at the spectrum of potential outcomes in the report, we feel our collective immersion into digital technologies will continue unabated for the foreseeable future. And once a cure, treatments or vaccines fade the pandemic into the background, a “Roaring ‘20s” will emerge that launches social celebration to highs never before seen. What do you think?
Fads and Crazes 📱 Meaningful Virtual Experiences
As we continue to track new things taking shape in the virtual gathering domain, here are your quick hits of the more interesting variety:
💥 If there is one thing you click on and experience today, it is this. A short, virtually haunting interactive story that shows the rising power of deep fake technology (and how it might be used for fun?). Also, CGI influencers.
🎤 J Balvin, the latin pop star, hosted a trippy eye candy concert in Fornite over the Halloween weekend. Gorillaz and Beck performed in Animal Crossing. Video games continue to be the hottest new venue for music.
🔓 How do virtual escape rooms work? Watch four friends direct a remote live human to solve the puzzle.
🎷 A Vancouver supper club that was torn down in 1955, The Palomar, was virtually resurrected for a night of “phantom jazz”.
📽️ “What are you making when what you make must be made into something else?” Classical music and the mass pivot to video as their new central medium for loyal fans.
💰 Paid virtual events have been a boon to big publishers this year. And the data in the article shows how engagement ratchets up dramatically when you charge. Need more convincing? Amsterdam Dance Event reached 35 million viewers across their channels.
🐯 Tiger Beer launches a virtual food cart fiesta where you can order real food from those concessions you are craving.
🖥️ Microsoft technology will platform the all-virtual CES 2021.
📋 Five, nicely specific (which is rare), learning lessons from a virtual expo experience.
👁️ Virtual attendees need to feel that they have been seen. What you can learn from AirBnB’s Online Experiences.
The insight: we are still vibrating from that creepy deep fake story platform above. A really unique use of technology to tell a story, which impressed us. We are still in search of a nice public gathering space. Here’s your call to action.
Designer Data Drop 🧮 Chart of the Month
When do the experts think we will be back to normal? Depends on your desired activity, we suppose.
Arena of Safety and Security 🦠 COVID Edition
It is becoming more obvious that the coronavirus transmits through the air. We were sent this extremely helpful visualization on how spread works inside a room, a bar and a classroom. We recommend avoiding indoor yodelling, for sure. Yet we remain optimistic, and here are your links that show promise:
The much anticipated Restart-19 scientific study from Germany on indoor arena events released results, and the findings are very interesting (awaiting peer review). Here’s a take on the conditions needed by Deutsche Welle. Heavy HVAC ventilation seems to be the deciding factor, a positive outcome for certain venues and a detractor for many (especially older and smaller spaces).
Planning an event in the US? Here’s an interactive event risk assessment tool to bookmark.
Proximity bracelets that vibrate within 6 feet of another, and that don’t stop buzzing within 3 feet? We think this is cool.
“Try everything”. Four actions every indie venue owner must do.
The insight: have we hit the darkest part of the night? Doesn’t feel that way quite yet. But maybe, as cracks of light are showing in interesting, possibly controversial ways.
Arena of Design Thinking 🔎 Event Tribalism
If there is an area of experience design that needs moonshot thinking and rocketship solutions, it surrounds the question: how can gatherings and experiences be the catalyst to blend communities? How can they be used to reduce cultural tribalism?
⬜ Among white Americans, 91% of people comprising their social networks are also white. The differences in social networks don’t change much when diving into communities of colour either (source).
🧱 Political mindsets gather with likeminds a majority of the time. And we continue to “sort ourselves” into similar neighbourhood communities.
⭕ There has been a rise in a neotribalist belief, in that humans evolved to live in tribal communities as opposed to a mass society, and thus, will naturally form networks that resemble these evolutionary roots. Which, as this long read attests (and Tim Urban’s even longer read), is likely true.
🤝 Yet scientifically speaking, the simple act of contact across different communities almost always reduces prejudices that exist across these groups. And, as people gatherers, we need to focus on being a force that increases this intergroup contact.
🔨 Of course, at the individual level, we can meet people different from us relatively easily with a bit of intentionality. But how do gatherers bring boundaries down across groups?
The insight: maybe the winds of change have arrived in the US and President-elect Biden will bring about a much needed healing tone. At the least, reconciliation is an on-going activity in many places. As designers, we need to be on the lookout for the moment where joyful celebration can melt members of separate communities together, an act of reconciliation via experience design. Use the following:
Identity design. Self-righteousness is dramatically reduced by encouraging belonging to many small groups of likemindedness.
Incentives and ownership. Create appealing space to settle and avoid ownership models that cement protectionism.
Increase intimacy. The closer the forced (even virtual) contact, the better the result.
Beautiful event instas to inspire your next project (from a diverse group)
🧨 Lee Broom’s incredible red Maestro chair orchestra, socially distant.
📮 Bipartisan florals? An inspired and encouraging installation by Kelsea Olivia.
👑 Headdress of nature from Crystal and Ndidi of Yechi Style.
🍪 Tiled sugar cookie creative that is hot baked goods by Morgan G.
🧸 The Fisher Price tape recorder from the ‘80s, neatly framed in their Instagram museum. Nostalgia + virtual + physical design = win.
👸 Wild costumes from Voss Events’ drag queen drive in events in Denver.
Hot morsels to ace your next event conversation
🧟 34 Halloween Costume Ideas For Your Zoom Party NEXT Year (please no).
📻 Presenting something virtually soon? Yup, it’s weird. 3 solid tips.
🚗 An insider view of Tyra Banks and Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s 10-Course Drive-Thru Dinner.
👼 Psychographic curious about Gen Z? A nice summary.
🏃 Missing the D-Floor? Running out your inner bass beat is electronic music’s new enthusiast’s nirvana.
End note
This was the seventeenth edition of the State of Awe digest. Welcome to the many new subscribers, and we hope you are all finding your virtual vibes outside of Zoom.
If you like the digest, please consider forwarding this letter directly by email to two colleagues in the experience economy. Direct them here.
As Ever,
Jordan + Tyson