State of Awe Digest #27 | A Roaring ‘20s showstopper?

The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings

Mar 28, 2021

March 28, 2021

Our aphorism to help with the times: The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host, anticipating the needs of guests in the moment. The role of a host is that of a very good, intentional designer, thoughtfully planning future desires of the user. The two roles are one and the same; turning interaction with form into experience with reality.

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.

New to the digest? Understand OUR BELIEF and dial in OUR INTENTION.

For curious subscribers, you can find all previous digests here (certain ideas are timeless). A catalogue of current and future topic areas can be found here.

Insight Map 🔮 The Digest Summary

House of Focus: will social anxiety hold back our collective outpouring?
Experience Design Strategy: why manufacturing a step change in frictionless access to your experience is a top priority;
Arena of Sport, eSport and Gaming: video game adoption is diffusing quickly as genres walls come down;
Designer Game Drop: making space for trust;
Fads and Crazes: the weird and wild from the land of NFT experiences;
Arena of Safety and Security: hedonism may require a passport;
Altered States: updates from the sobriety movement;
As always, six beautiful instas, six hot morsels and one request to share this digest with someone who would appreciate it.

House of Focus 🎯 Feature Article Thinking

Is our futuristic version of the Roaring ‘20s a disillusioned dream?

Conversations are bubbling about soon-to-be group hugs and anticipated, sweaty dance floors. But with each percolation, we are also finding an equal, underlying hesitancy. For those who are already back (or gathering secretly), we hear of increased social anxiety when being close to so many.

Psychological timidness, explored:

John M. Barry, the leading historian of the 1918 pandemic, believes this pandemic won’t birth the wildness, the fatalism, or the acute survivor’s guilt needed for the explosive spirit.

This Wired feature on psychological rebound speaks to perplexing changes in social networks and a general exhaustion that will take time to dissipate.

And many people don’t want to return to obligations, social expectations and the performance culture of events.

The insight: A built-up social resistance might be more common than we think. A recent report from the American Psychological Association on stress in America (must read) presents a range of wild facts. Notably, 49% of adults reported feeling uncomfortable about returning to in-person interactions when the pandemic ends (including 48% of those who are vaccinated). Our take? The malaise is age-related and mindset-based. Your average 20-something will be festival bound immediately. Yet for most, the post-pandemic ON switch is not an easy flick. This room needs a warm up act before the headliner comes on.

🥁 We would love to hear your opinion. Are you anxious about those inevitable social obligations? Throw a ⚡ in the comments if you feel the resistance, ❤️’s if you are ready to hit the dance floor with abandon.

Experience Design Strategy 🏔️ Frictionless Exploration

As summarized in our previous digest, technology’s unbundling effect finally has arms around the live event content stack. How do we command this new digital reality?

The answer is inspired by the Ocean of Books, an open, explorative space where you can get lost in a sea of interests, authors, and titles (do yourself a favour and set sail). It is an imagined place you can make impromptu connections with no friction. And the ease of exploration is the key element:

🪜 A step change. Clubhouse, the conference panel killer, made it dramatically easier to both create a panel and listen to one. As Ben Thompson frames it, expectations of effortless access is the inevitable outcome of technology advances.

🛫 95% of us miss travel. Travel is going to be really hot on the return, as will our continued consumption of cinematic escapes from the couch. Exploration as an immersive content form is a few frictionless degrees away from becoming very popular.

The insight: From a strategic design perspective, there is a powerful combination between frictionless access and beautiful exploration. How can you make entry into an imagined place seamless for the audience? And for you IRL loyalists, how can you facilitate increasing scale of frictionless exploration of real world experiences? It will pay if you do.

Arena of Sport, eSport and Gaming 🎮 Genres Experiments

Genres are disappearing, and not just in music. Digest #22 covered the “big boundary blur” of content forms. Gaming culture will continue to have an oversized impact on experiences of all types:

Sensorial rebrand. As the depth of haptic immersion increases, we are going to need a better term than “video game” argues the Co-Founder of Neuralink. Think that is too far away to matter? Check out Facebook’s neural wristbands.

Cultural nexus. Iconic producers like SXSW and Burning Man are transforming traditional gaming platforms into centres for community, entertainment, and business. New frontiers, opened by influential creators.

Regal experimentation. You know when the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is in on the action, things are changing. As RSC believes: “audiences will no longer be bound by their location”. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at their motion capture production for Dream, their virtual Midsummer’s Night show.

Follow the money. Sponsors are diving in to experiential partnerships on Twitch. Rec Room, the social gaming microverse, raised capital on a $1.25B valuation to expand their hyper growth of virtual community.

The insight: the track of this runaway train gets steeper ahead. As genres blur, the social adoption of “video games” diffuses effortlessly into culture, providing openings for inventive designers (great example). And of course, the forces of nostalgia (covered in digest #10) only strengthens with age. It is why love retro-games so much. Now is the time to dance between the tables at the wedding of content forms while the older genres stay seated, longingly eyeing the exit.

Designer Game Drop 🕹️ The Evolution of Trust

The trust-making trifecta. In this beautiful, interactive game we learn the three keystones to build belief in an experience: repeat interactions, win-win design and a ruthless focus on clear communication. Also, altruism wins.

Dive deeper. Social psychologist Roderick Kramer’s presumptive and tempered trust model.

A third player? Can AI and robot forms trust you to catch their fall? Doesn’t seem so. Trust requires constant negotiation and a level of humanity absurdity.

Fads and Crazes ⚡ NFTs for Experience

Speaking of trust experiments, we are putting our faith directly into the hands of creators and communities as NFT technology emerges. Digest #25 kicked off our insights on the topic, digest #26 followed closely, and here is a starter thread of ideas (bonus: NFTs through a historical lens).

Your NFT experience-related hot ones for consideration:

✨ Public opens. The vision laid out by the purchasers of the $69m Beeple art auction at Christie’s is impressive. They believe in cultural decentralization so everyone can find their group. To move it forward they are going to create worlds that are artistically inspiring and open to all.

🧑‍🎤 Eyes Wide Shut. Likely the most wacky experience-based NFT we have seen yet. CryptoBabes’ Devotion is a one-of-ten digital photograph, but also an invitation to live out a night of artistic, non-sexual desire as an immersive performance in any global capital city. You need to admire the intrigue on this one.

🏇 Post time. For those derby lovers amongst us, we present the first NFT horse race (replay available) and a platform to buy, trade and breed your digital thoroughbreds.

The insight: we are inside the rise of a major repositioning of commerce, where we can all place our economic trust in the future of digital over IRL, individuals versus brands. Watch out market intermediaries, the future of experience economics will be more direct.

Arena of Safety and Security 🦠 COVID Edition

One year later. 15 things that changed. Despite our anxieties, we are paving a path back to IRL. Here are quick hits to get you current:

Roaring back? Scientific proof that we all need a good party when this ends. Gatherings increase life satisfaction.

Bull run. The market is bullish on events coming back strong. Live Nation is confident on a festival circuit for the summer. Here are the 2021 events you should know about. These event producers pick what will be popular.

Gathering tracker. Here is a platform that tracks event activity across major global cities over the last 90-days.

Vaccine passports. They rolled out in Israel for concerts. Wildly controversial, but support in the UK seems strong. It won’t be long until the EU follows Israel.

The Grammy Awards. Takeaways and learning lessons on how to do boutique in-person.

The insight: famous bands are ready and can’t wait for the “burst of hedonism”. Magic happens in big crowds, but can we handle the social intensity right away? Either way, you may require a passport for entry.

Altered States 🍸 The (Mostly) Sober Movement

While on the topic of changing natures, we come back around to our section on altered states. It has been a full year (digest #1) since we opened up a conversation about the growing sobriety movement. A few hangover-free morsels to pair with your Seedlip spirited non-alcoholic cocktail:

🧮 The stats. Alcohol is one of the most harmful drugs to society (72/100 score), 40% of Americans are drinking less than five years prior, and 2020 saw 30% year-over-year growth of low- and non-alcoholic beverage sales. And there’s more.

📉 The trend, nicely charted (worthy click).

🍹 Casual sobriety. A feature piece (subscription required) on how various groups are balancing a creative lifestyle with less alcohol.

🤒 All upside, no hangover. Scientist David Nutt believes we will give up alcohol within a generation. His lab is developing alcosynth, a liquid compound that side steps the negative biological processes of our favourite fermentations. But we are 5+ away from a regulated, alternative beverage. To stopgap, his lab created Sentia Spirits, a botanical distillation that interacts with the GABA receptors. Here’s the VICE review. It is available for pre-order in the UK.

The insight: this is a story of fragmented realities. Consumption of alcohol has been roaring during the pandemic for certain population segments, but as the Economist’s most popular article of 2020 summarizes, legalized drugs and Gen Z demographics are having a big overall impact. And there is a growing influencer mindset of “mostly sober” and conscious consumption (great resource). We definitely imagine a near future tipping point where hangovers are as culturally passé as the whiff of tobacco smoke.

Beautiful event instas to inspire your next project

🎳 The most enjoyable drone fly through of a bowling alley you have ever seen by Jay Christensen.

🧊 The whole universe in a single cube by Ouchhh.

💛 #StopAsianHate billboard art by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya.

🎺 The Grammy stage and its inspiration sketch by Misty Buckley.

〰️ A Ziggy installation by line art pros, Nancy Hou + Josh de Sousa.

🌿 A very Spring-like tablescape by luxury table setters, Casa de Perrin.

Hot morsels to ace your next conversation when you get bored of guessing when events will return

🎪 A young upstart wants to revolutionize the World's Fair. Grand vision, and he isn’t incorrect in stating that current Expos are lacking something. We will continue to track progress on this herculean challenge he set for himself.

🎧 Lo-Fi music is boomtown. Science proves it helps relax and focus.

🚪 Zoom Escaper lets you sabotage your own meetings with crying baby sounds.

🏃 Walking agents of chaos. Stroll headlong into a crowd on your phone and research shows you deserve a scolding.

🏈 Super Bowl viewership hit a multi-decade low but was the most streamed game ever. Legacy television is seeing a big drop, even in live sports. The new NFL deal broke records, and shifted the focus to streaming too.

🎻 After his last vaccination, Yo-Yo Ma played a surprise concert for those in the room. Feeling those vibes.

What did you think?

One click, totally anonymous. How would you rate this digest?

Valuable to my thinking | Somewhat interesting | So-so, missed the bullseye

End note

Impromptu survey. Watch this, volume on. Are you a ⚡ (feel some resistance to go back) or ❤️’s (full of energy to return). Copy your emoji badge and drop it into the comments.

State of Awe