State of Awe Digest #20 | The attraction of deliberately not real
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
December 20, 2020
Our aphorism to help with the times: We like to think of ourselves as nouns, as permanent things. But we are in fact events, ephemeral and forever shifting creations of the moment. We are but gatherings, of atoms, for a short time.
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 Focus 🎯 Feature Article Thinking
The knowingly unreal.
It is an imaginary place, a space, an exploding cultural interface beyond our everyday perception. It is a magical consumer mindset where the “precociously wise”, hyper-informed, always-on, digital generation slips into as an escape. Seems abstract, we know. Until you read the example rich report from The Intelligence Group, “Unreality” (our must-read feature piece).
This report brings its arms around seemingly unconnected trends that have grown massively in the past few years. From sound bath experiences to crystals and cosmology, from playing your favourite Marvel character in cosplay to staying at AirBnBs of your favourite childhood sitcom, Burning Man to Murakami art, psychotropics to wellness psychoactives, and that persistent VR helmet that never seems like something we want, yet consistently fails to fall away from importance. We are choosing en masse, to immerse ourselves within imaginary mindspaces we know don’t exist. Yet we just can’t get enough.
The insight: while esoteric in nature, this has practical applications. And you can see it throughout the report. After a day of being bombarded with reality, the escape your attendee wants is just a touch magical. This can be as simple as fantastical language, stuffing real items in strange places (check out the page on “magical gardens” for an example at scale) or potion-like cocktails. In a world where big data knows everything, hyper transparency reaches peak status and there are no more secrets, we may just be saved by a retreat where everything is mystical, unknown and deliberately not real.
Arena of Design Thinking 🔎 Hybrid Events
“The future of events is hybrid!” We have spotted this banner waiving in the streets for months now, but have yet to see a coherent, practical application with any significance. We continue to say, “really, WTF is a hybrid event?”
“Hybrid is more than live streaming your in-person event”. We agree, and Hopin (a conference technology platform) created a best-in-class white paper on the topic (view here). In theory, it all makes sense. And there are definitely wide-ranging opportunities and advantages to this format. The early bets are big.
But what’s that?! Convention centres are expanding their physical footprint? This looks more additive than transitionary, with a few including state of the art broadcast facilities in anticipation of larger in-person events that embrace hybrid virtual extensions.
Here’s a solid list of theoretical misconceptions on the format.
The insight: “Undoubtedly a hybrid fusion will form”. We just feel the weave of virtual with reality is going to be a challenge, particularly for any experience format outside of the conference space. That said, the benefits of scaled engagement, increased potential connections, better speaker selection and lowered carbon footprints are all very attractive. And Eventbrite’s year-in-review survey stats are powerful: 78 percent of respondents enjoy being able to attend virtual events in other countries without the need to travel, with 42 percent of all respondents stated they’d like the option of attending an event virtually if they were unable to attend in-person. How long do you think it will take to see this format find mainstream adoption? We can’t help but feel an urge to reprint the banners: “the future of conferences is (quite possibly) hybrid!”
Fads and Crazes 📱 Meaningful Virtual Experiences
As is our preference these days, a condensed segment on your “meaningful virtual” quick hits to make room for other, more fascinating areas of exploration:
🎊 Successes. Art Basel Miami Beach Digital, Complexland, the Vancouver-based Palomar, Andrea Bocelli’s Believe In Christmas (75,000 tickets!), and the video game, Grand Theft Auto V opens an underground nightclub for real-world performers. And truly, if you choose to click on one example showing creative constraints in action, click here (a party inside a Google Sheet from May, purely genius gathering art).
✍️ Your training simulator. Virtual cooking class how to’s, “playing for keeps” sponsorship tips, and remember, the destination still matters.
🗣️ Still not convinced spatial proximity chat is the future of online, social gatherings. Here’s a Zoom vs High Fidelity comparison piece, and the results are great.
🏅 It’s that recap time of year. Billboard 2020’s most successful streams, and Pollstar’s top 100 streams by viewership (they are missing a few key ones, like Tomorrowland). And don’t forget Reback’s annual state of virtual metrics.
The insight: Games are tools for enjoyment. Make sure it’s an intense experience. Build characters to generate desire (dig deep into the why behind this piece). What to expect in 2021? Increased avoidance of “the three cs”: crowding, close-contact settings and confined spaces. Otherwise known as more virtual.
Experience Design Strategy 🔬 Micro Events
Breaking the addiction to scale, there’s an effort underway to legitimize smaller events (really powerful read). It’s true, we love attending vast experiences (trigger: feelings of awe), but there are magical reasons why small simply works.
🍕 We present the number one trend in Event Manager Blog’s 2021 list (view here). Intimacy and meaningfulness go through the roof in settings less than 48 people, rising exponentially when you get below the “two pizza rule”.
👰 The experience of getting married continued through the pandemic, giving rise to the micro wedding concept. Popularity surprisingly soared. And it is obvious from our network of planners that the experience is emotionally impactful enough to remain as a desire, long-term.
The insight: experience designers need to master the micro event. And even when events at scale return, you need to ask yourself, “isn’t this massive event just small pockets of people eating two pizzas together?” It might be worth changing the paradigm to design from a place of micro and meaningful. Plus, pizza is delicious.
Designer Data Drop 🧮 Chart of the Month
Our feature article on “unrealities” included virtual reality. As we mentioned, the technology is progressing persistently even though for most of us, “being in VR” is just slightly interesting.
Yet it seems like we might be on the cusp of an adoption tipping point.
Arena of Safety and Security 🦠 COVID Edition
Will we get a festival season in 2021? Doesn’t seem like it, unless you live in Australia or Taiwan. We return to our regular segment on COVID-related safety news to highlight a few interesting studies underway that might help our return:
A nationwide US study is being proposed to fully understand the duration and effectiveness of vaccination.
The Dutch government will be supporting a series of festivals and concerts to determine the viability of events in 2021. Read about the pilot studies here.
Barcelona hosted a 500-person indoor concert on December 12 to test indoor contagion models. Results will be available in the new year.
The insight: hope is high, but we need more information on both how the vaccine works, and where the gaps are. Even in a return to normal, there are going to be lessons we need to implement to keep participants safe, secure and healthy. We will continue to follow the results of these studies to help highlight our collective path forward.
Arena of the Environment
A unique feature article landed in our sphere that we thought was very interesting, highlighting new truths and lessons about how nature’s ecosystem works. The social life of forests (fascinating) is a feature from the New York Times on ecologist, Suzanne Simard, and her scientifically-proven research on the interconnectedness of forest lifeforms.
🤝 The emerging science challenges hardcore Darwinian thinking models, posing the important question: “Is cooperation as central to evolution as competition?”
🫀 Simard’s long-form studies seem to point to co-reliance, whereby network effects actually allow stronger trees to feed weaker ones, even across species. Symbolically, if the social life of trees gives rise to a grander forest, we should be reminded that the strength of our own personal connections likely and scientifically bring about a more robust society. One that you are more likely to survive in.
⚙️ We are, of course, from microbiome to genome, just an amalgam of other life-forms in constant communication. Once you read the article, it is hard not to think that optimized cooperation is a top priority. Yet even the most ardent, self-interest competitive believers might be reminded that a vibrant social life increases your longevity.
The insight: there are two. The first is that if you believe, like us, that gatherings are the invisible, interconnected network keeping all of us healthier, then our culture needs to find a way to increase the value and frequency of this art form. And second, that anyone designing these experiences should be thinking like an ecosystem: the outcome for the individual requires design that integrates the whole system, with interconnections, consequences and feedback loops considered. Can we restore nature? The better frame might be: can nature restore us?
Thinkers and Philosophers 🕵 Ida C. Benedetto
For the first time, we feature a thinker who holds less renown than you typically find in this regular section of the digest. But Ida C. Benedetto is ahead of her time, and her philosophy should be particularly relevant to the State of Awe community. An experience designer and strategic convenor, Ida is dedicated to uncovering insights on life-changing moments through adventure and play.
She is the author of Patterns of Transformation, a deep dive into the designs that drive the dangerous and intimate gathering structures of sex, death and survival. Through the exploration of the extreme: sex parties, funerals and outdoor wilderness adventure, Ida’s practices are solid. The core insight? Through intentional design, we can offer solutions that rapidly quench our cravings to overcome the societal forces of isolation and diminished community cooperation.
Read in sequence, each of the example gatherings here. From a sexual membership club, to artful end of life, to the pounding truths of the wilderness, spicy insights are peppered throughout the piece.
The insight: Ida lays out a practical, seven step guide to designing transformative experiences for others. It really boils down to four motions: picking a risk worth taking, developing a trusted structure for participants to follow, successfully entering and exiting your participants into a safe, alternate reality (where suffering can be overcome), and looping the whole process, as needed. Transformation can come through repetition, acute trauma or through dramatic arc. And we agree, reconnecting with aspects of the world and the ego that you are most estranged from, gives you a chance to gain the most.
Beautiful event instas to inspire your next project
⛓️ Champagne tower with real gold by Liz, Adette and Erica from Tinsel Design.
👟 Colour spectrum sneaker installation wall by Thierry Dreyfus at Eyesight Group.
🍿 Movie watch kit for Netflix show Dash & Lily by MKG.
🧨 Opulent jaw dropper of a table setting by Sarah Haywood.
🌿 A completely “wilded” table that is a micro-wedding stunner by Joy Proctor.
🚇 Passageway that transports guests into a magical land by Yara Estephan.
🏀 Louis Vuitton courtside activation by Virgil Abloh.
🌵 Inverted cactus by Cyril Lancelin.
🚙 Jinglebeat, a wild drive thru experience by EAMOTION.
🌟 “Whoa level” cosmic field of lights by Bruce Munro.
Hot morsels to ace your next conversation about when live events will return
🚶 You think you’ve seen every event type out there? Bet you haven’t seen this. Precision walking competitions from Japan.
💃 2020 was the year that dancing with ourselves became normal.
💞 Tinder trends, the year in swipe.
📈 In case you are from Canada, great economic recovery trends for the year ahead from the Business Development Bank.
🖥️ Wonder, the spatial chat platform raised an $11m seed round to make video chat more enjoyable.
🍽️ Local dining ban in place? This Detroit hotel is using their rooms as restaurants.
👶 Interesting Gen Z trends for the past year. As they come into their cultural own, the noticeable differences are large.
🍌 Pantone released their colours of the year for 2021. One part dull, one part hopeful, it just really reminds us of the now infamous “banana duct taped to wall” art.
📨 The most creative Christmas cards? Here’s a roundup of creative agency Holiday missives from around the internet.
End note
This was the twentieth edition of the State of Awe digest, dropping on December 20, 2020 for those of you into the mystical unrealities of numerology. Either way, hard to ignore the true reality of what transpired in the last two weeks:
The jubilee of YOLO hedonism is coming in 2021.
If you are as excited as us for the return to big group hugs and large-scale festivals, bottle up that early enthusiasm and share this letter directly with two friends in the experience economy. It’s going to be epic. Direct them here.
Happy Holidays,
Jordan + Tyson