State of Awe Digest #21 | Meet me in the Metaverse
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
January 3, 2021
Our aphorism to help with the times: Togetherness is subtly spellbinding. Before you know it, time has evaporated, your heart is rested and your spirit lighter. The magical effects are realized after you snap from the enchantment.
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 🔮 Experience Economy Predictions
As a curatorial-focused digest, we build our written collections by observing the matrix of real-time content being produced, and present what we see in categories that are relevant to experience designers (i.e. you). Over the last twenty digests, we included nearly 1,500 unique links, each representing a signal in the noise that rang true for us.
In early November (digest #17), we took a long look back at the pandemic impacts on experience design, gatherings and the psychological underpinnings of change. But what about the future? What articles, in our opinion, hold the most significance for this year ahead?
Call them predictions, maybe. We would prefer to frame this guidebook of references on the human experience as growing hills for traditional organizers to work around, or as wells for the energetic and future-oriented creators to harvest in 2021:
Goldman Sachs released a realistic vaccine timeline in late November that a few countries are already struggling to keep on track. Based on the guidance of our local health authorities (British Columbia, Canada), we don’t see large-scale gatherings or a full return to touristic endeavours as a realistic and widespread activity until the final quarter of the year. Organizers of large-scale IRL events need to hang on, produce in more freedom-first areas of the world, or continue to plug away at a digital transition for most of this year.
Live entertainment is facing its “Napster moment”, as described by Skift (and others). 2020 will be remembered as the moment when artists and cultural creators began the process of digitizing, much like music, news, film and currency before it. 2021 will be the beachhead for the first wave of scalable, technology-first platforms, communities and online content collections focused on previously stubborn forms of live entertainment. The user experience will still contain many frustrations to solve moving forward, and a decade of opportunity faces the adventurous designers willing to foray into the digital spheres.
The “work from anywhere” movement will launch “WaaE” or Workplace as an Experience. With the rising prominence of remote work, corporate culture will need more intentional, deliberate and connecting experiences. Workplace design will need to accommodate. By the end of this year, a few blockbuster designs will be revealed, ready to use in 2022. Corporate event planners have a big user problem to build upon. Chief Culture Officers will be needed more than ever, but so will outsourced innovations by agencies involved in transforming social experiences inside workplaces.
A trend that accelerated fast in the pandemic, in-person and remote cooperation will become even more interest-defined and time efficient. Ben Thompson from Stratechery calls it social networking 2.0, we call it social life reimagined. 2021 will see a further shift, particularly in online methods, to engage in relationships defined by our specific interests. Time is more precious than ever. Saying no to social groups outside of your interests will get easier, and we will invest in interest-defined relationships that match our connection to niche topics, hobbies or crafts. Producers will need to emphasize interest-based connection, work a system into their plans or focus their ticket sale recruitment strategy on fresh and underserved niches.
Yet, there will be lots of room for growth at the intersection of spontaneity and “hypercasual”. In fact, social experiences that really surprise will be those with real-time fluidity. Easy to point at Clubhouse as a prime example. But read on to our feature article of the digest (section below) to dive deeper into the spontaneous merging of virtual worlds and reality’s plane. 2021 will see winners emerge to construct this social marketplace. Gatherers will want to experiment with surprise pop-ups that only exist for a very short duration.
The tinkerers working on small, boutique and intimate gatherings (think micro-weddings) will use the year ahead to become masters. Hybrid conferences and online events will increase access to content for whoever wants it. Prestige, status and exclusivity in attending smaller and more intimate event formats will become a badge of pride even after our “return to normal”. Scale will return, but masters of micro will remain a key specialty.
Inclusion is hyper cool. The poetic rage of civil unrest in communities of colour that began in May of last year (punctuated by deeper trenches of alt right beliefs) will consolidate in liberal communities embracing inclusion as monster cool factor. Brands, events, and cultures that choose to be inclusive reap the rewards. Empathetic responsibility becomes more mainstream and the George Floyd protests cement themselves in history. Everyone organizing any type of experience needs to ask themselves, “who does this design exclude and how do we include them?”
A slower, greener tourism emerges in destinations that previously embraced mass throngs and overcapacity. This will provide off-the-beat places a chance to better compete. Personally, we still strive to explore, but some of this desire shifts virtually. Tour operators will want to consider capacity caps and new digital blends. Someone may crack the virtual tour code in 2021.
Food, drink and catering changes dig deeper. Older forms of restaurants fade, delivery continues to reign and the innovators crystallize a hybrid of takeout, technology, touchless and in-room theatre.
Successful experience in online, virtual spheres will be driven by great storytelling, exploding popularity of gaming across all demographics, visiting imaginary worlds, spatial chat, and audio-focused interest platforms. All experiences, both virtual and IRL will get more mystical, more escapist and more deliberately unreal as we continue to seek exits from “constant on”. That is, of course, until the trauma of this pandemic nests fully and a new creative era is born. The year ahead will see the collapsing combination of social space, video games, music performance and good stories.
And then, all bets are off. The roaring jubilee of post-pandemic takes hold. We all re-realize the beauty of touch, vibe and togetherness. 2022 explodes in unseen and unpredictable ways, taking forward those minted habits, behaviours and preferences we don’t want to let go of.
The insight: not everything will change. In fact, we are ardent believers in the principles of our psyche that drive experience enjoyment design including long-term thinking (digest #7), contagious behaviour (digest #9), nostalgia (digest #10), fear of missing something (digest #11), rapid adaptation and adoption (digest #13 and #14), belonging (digest #15) and anticipation (digest #18). Wield these powerful forces to forge masterpieces. Oh, and while we are on the topic of predictions, congratulations to reader, Dorian Banks for being the closest guess to an approved vaccine way back in digest #9 on July 19. It really is a true marvel how quickly these vaccines were developed.
House of Focus 🎯 Feature Article Thinking
We have seeded a second universe and there’s no going back. Meet me in the metaverse (feature read).
What is it, and why it matters (long read).
The focus piece of this digest charts a path toward the inevitable, persistent, infinitely-scaling virtual space with its own economy and identity system. The dominant “virtual social modality” has recently shifted from single player to small-scale multiplayer (focused on purposeful activity). But the evolution of social life will migrate towards co-created AI worlds. And the profit seekers have begun the hunt for the profit makers.
The insight: virtual experiences are lacking randomness, coincidence and serendipity. Social connection online is structured, particularly when live. Yet this feature piece paints a further out future where looping compute power and powerful algorithms unlock this spontaneous social construct. It is an interesting (and we say appealing) vision of a future time and place. There’s something so fun about connecting unexpectedly, in the moment.
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics 🦿 A Generative Age
While we are on the topic of expanding technology, it's hard not to join the tens of millions who watched robots dance to Chubby Checker this past week. It won’t be long until we eagerly purchase tickets for robot cirque. Or get a robot tattoo with friends.
But just as the human body extends the wishes of a complex mind, dancing robots have nothing on the expanding artificial intelligence behind it. We’re on the cusp of an artificial generative age (must read for futurists), where AI tools use deepfake videos (like the alternative Christmas address from Queen Elizabeth II) to make entire feature films.
A few interesting signposts of AI’s growing creative prowess:
🤖 A primer on the influence and inner workings of algorithms.
🖼️ A video walkthrough of an art gallery exhibition in New York showcasing art created entirely by an automated “artist”.
🗣️ In conversation with GPT-3 (very interesting), the deep learning AI language model that blew minds with its real dialogue. Take one read through that conversation to become a believer. GPT-3 even turned the heads of prominent philosophers, and motivated them enough to dive deep into the issues.
🤍 Human love by algorithm. Or, better yet, here is Xiaoice, an artificial intelligence-driven chat bot that’s simultaneously dating millions of Chinese men.
🎼 Jukebox, a neural network that generates music, including vocals (with Soundcloud examples).
🪞 Lil Maquela, an AI Instagram model who regularly photographs with celebrities and has been interviewed by Vogue and the Guardian. She has close to 3M followers.
⚡ Here’s a deep read on creative culture areas where AI will manifest itself.
The insight: what happens when AI makes a better conference speaker than humans? Or the dialogue of an automated AI writer rivals your favourite novels? Or performs a catchier pop vocal? Are you an experience purist, whereby your enjoyment must be driven completely by human creativity? Or will you let your guard down and allow automated creativity in? Either way, designers of all types will be using AI to generate infinitely responsive and personalized experiences for users. As the genre of science fiction seems to dictate, where imagination goes, innovation follows. Yet the mythology of ancient gods reminds us, be careful.
Designer Data Drop 🧮 Chart of the Month
Seems speculative, but the growth rates of AI automation in the workplace are pretty intense. As we just experienced with a pandemic, it is difficult to take potential pace of change for granted (source).
Fads and Crazes 📱 Meaningful Virtual Experiences
Your quick hits from the world of virtual:
🌕 Your NYE successes. A New York City ball drop live stream (including an odd Cyndi Lauper moment), Tomorrowland’s return to Naoz (their soon-to-be persistent virtual venue), Justin Beiber from Beverly Hills, Jean-Michel Jarre live From Notre-Dame. Most spectacular? The completely virtual Seattle Space Needle light show.
✍️ Your training instructor. The event producer’s guide for 2021 by Glisser is a rare find with a deep well of applicable knowledge (great read, view here).
🔌 Your mega-event alert. CES, one of the largest trade shows in the world takes place over the next two weeks. Completely virtual. The biggest exhibitors believe that digital activation will remain long-term, opening up scale and accessibility of content. Giant physical exhibits are out, premium boutique invite-only will remain in (source). CES will use Microsoft-powered technology (without explorative avatars). We will keep our eye on the results.
🕹️ Social gaming cues. Luxury brands piling into eSport, a spectator boom, with social connection games becoming a brand showcase and networking norm.
🧙 A hologram platform for musicians will launch in 2021. Read about it here.
The insight: as virtual productions mature, “events-management-as-a-service” is a new service layer that seems to have materialized. Plus, it seems as though we have reconciled shorter events. The “fun party problem” remains.
A Brief History 🎉 The Importance of New Year’s Eve
How were your socially distant, possibly quarantined new year celebrations? We took a pause from drinking champagne (from behind a screen) to ask ourselves, “when did this ritual get its start”? And what gives each New Year’s Eve tradition historical weight?
The first recorded new year celebration was in ancient Babylon over 4,000 years ago, although it was celebrated in late March at the equinox. You owe your January 1 hangover to the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar (source).
Why do we kiss the closest person at the strike of midnight? Some say it originated at European masquerade balls, others from German and English folklore, but ultimately, no one really knows. The New York Times wrote about it first in 1863 (very cool).
What about those pesky resolutions that none of us ever take seriously? In 1671, Scottish writer Anne Halkett wrote a diary entry that contained several pledges such as “I will not offend anymore”. The tradition of breaking them materialized almost immediately.
The ball drops at midnight? This premier, lit-up 1907 feat was inspired by the maritime tradition of dropping a time ball that helped sailors adjust chronometers while at sea. The show was designed to draw a crowd through spectacle, imagined by a publisher at the New York Times.
Odd celebration rituals exist around the world. Jumping off chairs in Denmark, wearing yellow underwear in Venezuela, eating 12 grapes in Mexico, running around the house with a suitcase in Columbia and mixing ash into champagne in Russia.
The insight: however you chose to celebrate, the pick for all of us in 2021 is a social life, with friends:
Beautiful event instas to inspire your next project
🖼️ Real-time digital event art activation from a tablet by Agen-C.
🎥 ARTECHOUSE’s projected Winter Wonderland.
❄️ Stomped out snow art at massive scale by Simon Beck.
🍊 An immersive orangery-themed wedding environment by Russian star planner Lidiya Simonova.
🧊 Harbin Ice Festival from the air, by the urban drone photographer E-Jay.
👇 The most clicked on Instagram inspos from this past year’s digests: one, two and three.
Hot morsels to ace your next conversation while you wait for the vaccine
👻 YouTuber, Mr Beast launches 300 restaurants simultaneously, becoming the most downloaded app in iTunes and Play. But also one of the biggest fast food chains in America. Ghost kitchen genius.
📌 Pinterest predictions for 2021 that are pretty solid (with supporting data). We agree magical mystics will go mainstream.
🚦 Accenture’s seven key trends for 2021 include the creation of new rituals, increased empathetic design and a need to improve online experiences with joyful interaction and spontaneous moments.
🎧 The “Verzuz Effect”, and similarly, a glimpse inside the star-studded beat battle on Clubhouse.
🏆 The results of the 2020 Experience Design Awards.
📸 Stunning day-to-night photography.
🎨 Mural tourism on the rise.
💰 The essential fundraising trends for 2021.
💊 What did you put in your 2020 time capsule?
End note
This was the twenty first edition of the State of Awe digest, opening the dawn of a fresh, optimistic year. And we are busting onto set like Chris Farley on David Letterman:
This coming year, we want to triple the audience of State of Awe. We would deeply appreciate your recommendations to other readers. Direct them here.
Happy New Year,
Jordan + Tyson