State of Awe Digest #33 | Emotional networks and their viral buttons
The Latest Wonders in Experience Design, Festivals and Gatherings
June 20, 2021
Our aphorism to help with the times: by way of relationships, we become. An expanding circle of friends is a prosthetic that augments your future shape. Change your contours.
State of Awe is a regular trend briefing from experience designer, Jordan Kallman and event brand curator, Tyson Villeneuve at The Social Concierge.
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For curious subscribers, you can find all previous digests here. A catalogue of current and future topic areas can be found here.
Insight Map 🔮 The Digest Summary
Experience Design Strategy: the world has changed, and emotional networks are the new cooperation structure;
On Persuasion, Hype and Contagion: viral social psychology and its role in community building;
Arena of Economics: the cooperation economy and why live event industries are well suited to capitalize;
Arena of Design Thinking: extending enjoyment per ticket dollar spent;
Fads and Crazes: latest developments around NFTs for experiences;
Meaningful Virtual Experiences: the digital experiences creating legitimate social currency;
Creators and Builders Coliseum; a future glimpse into stages and concert experiences;
As is tradition, one aphorism, six hot morsels, four beautiful instas (in visual banner form) and our polite reminder to share this digest with an event mind who you know.
Experience Design Strategy 🏔️ Emotional Networks over Stoic Hierarchies
“The world will choose networks over hierarchies” says Malcolm Gladwell. His argument poignantly compares Martin Luther King’s hierarchical leadership versus today’s decentralized Black Lives Matter approach. Gladwell’s point is that the pandemic changed how we organize ourselves:
Pathways of power. We have gone from a clear preference for rigid, top-down structures to a fluid, flat network approach to solving problems. This is showing itself in remote work settings, to how we vaccinate, from how we do business to the next advances of technology.
The Darwinian counter take. It is a hard shift away from the self-made individual, survival of the fittest mentality. Not only does that way of thinking run counter to what we are learning about nature, but it is counterintuitive to our social patterns and our neurobiology.
Network identity. Even the most current philosophical thinkers lean into our self-identity as a network. Who are we? How do we best see ourselves? The current answer: as a fluid collection of other things.
Prestige modifiers. In a large-scale study by Momentum Worldwide on live event consumer preferences, there are dramatic changes. Only 12% of respondents desire events so they can post on social media. And only 21% feel that it is necessary to feel like a VIP. What is replacing these previous bastions of event desire?! Emotional currency. How much joy does this experience bring me?
The insight: Gladwell concludes, "I think we're in a very different world now". It is a reality that values emotional community involvement over rigid, tiered access. And we can see this shaping gathering design quickly. As designers we are shifting from structured, one-off gathering patterns to networks of experiences that are enabled by technology. The consumer has become the collaborator (wonderful summary). And they want designs that trigger emotional states.
On Persuasion, Hype and Contagion 💬 Viral Community Building
With such a distinct shift in how we organize, there will be a distinct shift in how we persuade others to organize. Community building still involves traditional, individual power laws. But as the research is showing, creating communities that others want to join is more multifaceted than building audience-based virality:
👑 Social psychology. The strongest social motivation driving community growth? The opportunity to interact with more popular or powerful members of that community (study source). Yet that same study shows that it is actually a stack of varied motivations by each member that creates the collective laws of attraction. Communities increase in value over shared interests, benefit exchanges, social solidarity and identity, helping others, and collective action.
🪢 Pull over push. Ultimately, the goal is to use community building power laws to achieve a viral pull:
🗣️ Acceleration techniques. Community building is naturally a slow process, but once you understand the stack of motivations swirling within your community, you leverage them into the viral channel most effective to increase the growth of word-of-mouth and invitations to join. These channels are contained mostly to the left side of this chart (insightful thread).
The insight: primarily, you need to get your community to talk about your community. As Seth Godin posits, “people talk about you because of how it makes them feel, not how it makes you feel”. His brilliant nine reasons why your community is not remarkable enough to talk about is an easy guide to follow.
Arena of Economics 💰 Cooperation Economy
Everyone involved with gathering others is going to be deeply comfortable with cooperation. Which is why, for live event professionals, the emerging “cooperation economy” is going to only amplify the outcomes that can be created:
How we organize. In this long and detailed explanation of this dawning economic environment (must read), the concept of “liquid super teams” is introduced. Resting at the intersection of the individual creator economy and liquid social culture, talented solopreneurs and collectively-minded individuals will have the cultural freedom and technological tools to fluidly team up to challenge larger players.
Community shareholders. Closing in near the end of the article, the concept of the collective digital organization (or decentralized autonomous organization, commonly referred to as a DAO) is explored. It is a term that will only rise in prominence as the tools get better, unlocking the “community-owned event” (must read). Web3 technologies are quickly unlocking opportunity (great examples).
Emerging examples. The first creator collectives are already emerging. Conceptual intellectual property that is community-owned can be seen in DAO-based “character economies” like CryptoPunks and Aku. If complicated character-based intellectual property can be community-directed, why not intangible experience assets?
The insight: as experience creators, we are already so well-suited to collective decision making and cooperative organization. Thus, as the cooperation economy continues to pick up speed, achieving scale and winning hearts will get a structural reinvention. Expect to see DAOs bring very new types of experiences to life. Community-driven ownership will be perfectly positioned to make a home within the experience economy.
Arena of Design Thinking 🔎 Extending Enjoyment Per Dollar
In a report on the strongest trends leading toward 2030, we noticed an interesting observation: entertainment forms providing the highest enjoyment-time-to-dollar ratio are the ones growing most quickly. This chart summarizes it well:
The insight: the digital transformation, winner-take-all industry effect is beginning to shape itself around experience formats of all types. How might you use technology to extend enjoyment per dollar of your experience?
Fads and Crazes ⚡ NFTs for Experiences
The image above says a lot. For events, we need to replace JPG with “ticket” and NFT with “access”, and you have the experiential-explainer on why NFTs will have a profound impact on experiences. A few quick hits from the latest fad we believe will transform into a must-have:
Turn the music up. Behind-the-scenes conversation on the music industry’s first tokenized live performance. A series of influential investors funded a music-industry NFT marketplace that promises to embed experiences as part of each offering.
Redirection of flow. This technology shift is about so much more than profits and currency. It is about a fundamental desire to transform the economic structure of extremely difficult creator industries like art, music and events.
The insight: the frontiers of the technology are vast, examples galore. We will continue to track the latest developments in experience access as they appear.
Meaningful Virtual Experiences 📱The Latest and Greatest
The virtual gathering space continues to advance and consolidate. Here are the latest developments:
Acquisitions and developments. LinkedIn makes a big bet on virtual professional events with an investment in Hopin. Meanwhile, Hopin continues to acquire hybrid event enablers.
Creator worlds. Wilder World, which has yet to launch, announces Jake Paul boxing events inside. Roblox ramps up brand partnerships as the big marketers lean into the Metaverse as a key experiential space.
Engagement learnings. Pioneer magicians are decoding the secrets to virtual Zoom shows, and the insights are predictable. Instead of the magician doing 95% of the work, audience participation is required so much so that the magician is now only half of the experience.
The insight: digital experiences are turning into legitimate social currency. Here are a few stats.
Creators and Builders Coliseum 🎪 The Future of Stagecraft
We can still remember when we first saw the Tupac hologram performance at Coachella in 2012. It was that “future wow moment” that still stands the test of time.
Rolling Stone goes future seeking in this great article (paywall, text only version here) about the future of stagecraft and concert design. The coming innovations are meant to fill a new space, where “people are entertained while they are being entertained.” In other words, the space that exists between our digital device and the IRL stage.
The insight: the coming innovations are exciting; virtual environments that move around an artist in real-time, extended reality stage components viewed exclusively through a device, simultaneous streaming of IRL performances into the Metaverse via an avatar, lyrics and sound beamed straight into your ears, and user generated visuals, to name a few. But even more so, headliners are looking to reduce their IRL consumption and the waste of those elaborate build outs. Watch this space, it will get interesting.
Hot morsels to liven up conversation at the next micro event you attend
🧥 Have you ever wanted to sail away at the end of a balloon? Well, we found your jacket.
🏟️ New York City plans a mega concert in Central Park to celebrate “homecoming week” and the end of you know what.
🚽 Global shortage crisis, event style. Mooning toilet demand is making this summer look somewhat normal again. But wait! Female urinal innovations might change the perspective.
🙌 Denmark and the Netherlands approved full capacity outdoor events with vaccine validation or rapid testing. Belgium gave the approval for 75k open-air capacity.
📐 A fresh thread on creative paradigms to free you from a rut.
🕯️ We have all lost so much. In the case you are looking for a ritual to honour that pandemic loss, here is a simple guide to leading one.
End note
Yesterday was a day to think about how to expand diversity in our gatherings. For those of you, like us, who are constantly working towards a more inclusive delivery, here is a nice spread of improvement ideas.
As always, thank you to the many of you who continue to spread the word on our digest. If you know someone who might benefit, direct them here.
As Ever,
Jordan + Tyson