6-Point Strategy for Transitioning Your Live Event Online
NEWS
Well, here we are again. Now that we re all hunkered down in our toilet paper forts, we figured it s time to stop contributing to mass panic with reports of event cancellations. If panic is your thing, feel free to turn on cable news or google Dow Jones Industrial Average at your convenience.
Just to recap, pretty much everything is cancelled (Coachella, Europe, bars, the bull market, bars, my career aspirations, bars, etc.). The White House just updated it to no gatherings of more than 10 people. That is just how quickly the landscape is changing.
So, take a few moments and have a freak-out session. It s well-deserved. We re all stressed. No judgement here. I watched Contagion for the first time over the weekend assuming it d just be a zombie flick so, I get it.
Now, rein it back in and let us guide you into the shining light of online event solutions. This is only a tactical challenge and you still have plenty of options for meeting your events goals this year.
To help you out, we ve come up with a general 6-point attack strategy for transitioning your live event into an online experience. Before you decide to just cancel your current plans, go through this list. It s easier than you think and you leave yourself in a better position for success if you simply transition your event, rather than cancel it and attempt to regain your audience and momentum down the road.
Revise Your Event Goals & Benchmarks for Success
OK, we know that live events are an impossibility until at least the Summer, so let s revisit the core goals behind your live event. That attendance goal you have? It s probably time to set that aside. Your goals about a product launch, increasing brand awareness, or generating a dialogue through a speaker/panel series however, can still be very much in play. Figure out which goals are still attainable.
In the short term, a successful event is well-attended, most of the right people show up, and most everyone leaves with a positive impression. Great. But we re talking about long-term markers of success how much more traffic does your website receive after your event? How much sustained social media buzz is there for you new product? How many more online or in-store sales are you making? You re going to want your events management company, or an in-house events team to derive a revised set of success benchmarks informed by resources like livestream analytics. Plenty of livestreaming companies offer these services, but here s one just to give you an example of how you can leverage an online event into a business boost.
Revise Your Message
When we talk about a message , we re really thinking about a consistent image or concept that communicates your brand s intentions and identity to your audiences. That s still doable, but it has to change to accommodate these new circumstances. Maybe it s time to seriously alter your event s website to make it your central event hub. Maybe it s time to significantly change your approach to social media. Maybe it s time to shift gears on your brand storytelling. Think about a unified online aesthetic and narrative to communicate the message of your branded event to your audiences. Here s some ideas to get you started.
Translate Format & Attendee/Presenter Experience
Know your content and your audience. Think about the live experiences you intended your audience to have in the abstract how were audiences expected to engage aspects of your event? Was this a sitting-quietly-and-listening event or were audiences expected to interact with a person or new product? In light of that, what formats for presentation would they most likely respond to? Are scheduled video drops the way to go? Is a livestream presentation more appropriate? Would your viewers like something more interactive for Q&A like a message board? Should you send out your new product to handful of lucky people to make their own unboxing videos? There are analogous online experiences that can be created for nearly all of the live experiences you had planned.
Evaluate Personnel & Skill Requirements
Obviously, with a change in format you ll also need to think about the requirements and skills necessary to pull off this online event. Does someone need to moderate a forum or livestream? Do you need additional personnel available by phone or live chat to answer questions? Is your current website and social media management sufficient, or do you need additional personnel to forward your revised message and strategy? After revising message and your event format, prepare a list of new remote work and skill requirements needed to manage your event.
Create New Communication Plan
Navigating an online event can be less intuitive than a live event. You can t really put up signs. Announcements are more difficult. You can t just walk over to the next room and speak with someone. Revising your communication plan so that you can actively maintain contact with event stakeholders, presenters, and audiences is crucial to mitigating these challenges and will insure the success of your online event.
Finalize New Schedule
At least for the next 8 weeks, you ll have a pretty good idea of where your audiences will be and when they ll be available. You do not necessarily have to cram a whole event into a three-day weekend since you re not working under constraints like travel or the cost of renting a space. There are options here to draw out what would have been a very short event into a week-long or multi-week affair that offers viewers a small but steady stream of content every day. Think about how your audiences and presenters are now occupying their time and schedule for the best results.
Right now, online events are everyone s jam. Decibel has been tackling this online challenge for years now and plan to continue bringing you helpful content throughout this crisis to keep your organization moving forward. Check out our new podcast series here for more helpful tips, and reach out to get your live event retconned into an effective online experience today.
Decibel and The National Small Business Week Awards
NEWS
Last month Decibel Management produced one of our flagship events in Washington D.C., the National Small Business Week Awards. Since this is the Decade of Decibel, we thought it might be nice to take a deeper look at this event, seeing as our partnership with SCORE and the U.S. Small Business Administration is one of our longest standing events and to show how we help their team bring this influential event to life.
So first, a little history lesson. National Small Business Week, or NSBW for short, started back in 1963 when President Kennedy signed the first proclamation recognizing the contributions that small businesses provide the U.S. economy. Since then every standing president, regardless of political party, has reissued this proclamation in the continuing acknowledgement of American entrepreneurship.
Flashforward nearly 60 years and the tradition is still going strong. Although things really got going in 2009, or so we like to think at least, when Decibel first got involved with NSBW by partnering with the U.S. Small Business Administration and SCORE, a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses, to host the National Small Business Week Awards in our nation s capital. The awards aim to recognize and honor achievements by business owners from all over the country, their companies and their employees for all they do in the small business world. Categories range from recognizing business innovations to the Small Business Person Of The Year and include winners from every state in the country.
Every year the event takes on a new form as administrations turnover and different goals and challenges are set. This most recent year, for instance, Decibel tackled the addition of a NSBW bus tour, which included a custom-wrapped bus that stopped in multiple cities to honor small businesses in their hometowns.
As for Decibel s exact role in this week-long celebration, well, you name it. Stage design, event management, execution and let s not forget vendor management. So much vendor management. From food to travel, we covered it all. Planning and logistics are a major part of the legwork leading up to events of this caliber, but it s important we not forget the team on the ground that Decibel sends to put out the inevitable fires to come up with any large event. But by now we ve become expert firefighters.
Of course, our ultimate goal is always to provide a great event for all of the nominees in attendance, whether at the main stage in D.C. or along the bus tour route. Funny thing about awards shows, one of the most challenging aspects of producing them is keeping the winners a secret all the way through the rehearsals and show so that they are genuinely surprised when they win.
After producing this event for much of the past decade, with all the new faces and changes we ve seen, there is one thing we always find to be the same. As a small business ourselves, we consistently walk away from this event feeling inspired and hopeful. Getting to meet so many nominees and winners from all over the country gives us a renewed sense of what small businesses can achieve and how they really are the backbone of commerce and business in America. This is truly one of our favorite events here at Decibel Management and we re honored to be a part of it. Looking forward to many more!
Decibel Podcast
NEWS
Greetings everyone! We re proud to announce that this week we re launching the Decibel podcast. We hope to bring you a series of rich (but brief, we all have stuff to do) round table discussions between Decibel and industry leaders to discuss emergent trends and challenges in the events industry.
Here s what to expect from our debut:
In last week s blog post we offered a run down of the major event cancellations that have occurred due to COVID-19 s effects in the US and Europe. In only a week the situation has escalated faster than any of us could have expected. The entire nation of Italy is on lockdown. A staggering, 8 states have now declared states of emergency and schools across the United States are imposing short-term, and even semester-long closures.
Major events like Facebook s F8 Summit and Google s I/O Summit have been put on hold. Even SXSW, whose organizers held out as long as possible, was canceled last week despite approval from Austin s Public Health Board due to social panic and the loss of major presenters like Netflix. With major Instagram-oriented and occasionally music-oriented events like Indio s Coachella already receiving public pressure to cancel their events in early April (it s been postponed), we expect COVID-19 s influence on the live events industry to echo through at least the Spring and Summer. Remember that even after the virus is successfully contained, it will still take time for public confidence in public events to return.
While we believe social panic is a key influencer in these cancelations, we understand the public s concern for their well-being and are here to offer solutions to companies who still have events goals this year. We are NOT approaching COVID-19 like a crisis, and are instead approaching it as one of many possible technical or tactical challenges that companies should account for in the planning stages of an event.
Your brand can still capture attention. There are still a number of ways you can hold events and get your message out without compromising the safety of your staff or the public. In fact, this is an opportunity for your brand to build up a robust online event strategy as the industry has been slowly moving in that direction for several years anyway.
We are joined in this week s podcast to discuss events solutions for the COVID-19 outbreak by our own David Sonntag and Dan Lamphier, PM for the AV company CMI. Keep a lookout for the recording to drop later this week!
Navigating COVID-19
NEWS
This was inevitable. Here we are again to talk about COVID-19 (the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in mid-December). While the major city and province-wide quarantines implemented by China bought the world some time to prepare, the virus is now on the loose worldwide, leading to quarantines, school closures and widespread market panic. For those of you keeping score, we re only 2 full months in 2020. We suggest calling this one a wash and fast-fowarding to 2021.
As members of the events industry, it should come as no surprise to all of you that threat of COVID-19 has had a major impact on planned public activities. San Francisco and Los Angeles have declared states of emergency. Seattle, Chicago, and New York are all experiencing widescale outbreaks. As we head into the Spring and Summer months when things in the industry typically start to kick in, we expect demand for public events will dwindle and demand for streaming event services to increase.
This week, we d like to offer all of you a brief rundown on industry reactions to the virus who is postponing their events and who is staying the course? How will the events industry (and Decibel, by extension) change to accommodate this pandemic in the long term?
The tech industry has been the most proactive with regards to shuttering planned events. In just the past week, Facebook canceled both their Global Marketing Summit in San Francisco, as well as their F8 developer conference in San Jose. The massive global tech conference Mobile World Congress was to be held in Barcelona but was similarly canceled due to widescale outbreak in Spain. The game developer conference GDC has been postponed to the summer, and even Google has even canceled their own internal conferences amid fears of a global pandemic.
There do remain several events that are pushing ahead as planned. Even despite an outbreak in Seattle, Emerald City Comic Conwill go on as scheduled. However, as Washington state has just declared a state of emergency, we suspect this is subject to change at any time.
We still don t know what s happening with SXSW which is set to take place from March 13th to the 22nd. While there have been public calls to cancel Austin s annual social tech and entertainment industry extravaganza, organizers have stated they are pushing ahead with the event with support from Austin Public Health and will be implementing public health measures to protect their presenters and attendees.
We know this virus isn t going to disappear any time soon, but life has to go on and companies will need to keep their brands and workforces stable as it runs its course. There are events solutions here, and in light of public health concerns we believe this could be the best time to look towards events companies with live streaming chops. Adobe, for example, has canceled all public events for the Las Vegas Adobe Summit (March 29th April 2nd) and is instead changing the event into a fully livestreamed, online experience. Events companies like Decibel can provide a full suite of online services in digital promotion, live streaming, and broadcasting to make sure events can go on as planned while still protecting the health and safety of their participants. Just reach out.
Whether you re planning or attending an event in spite of the crisis, we d like to offer you some resources to make sure you stay safe. Eventscouncil.org has this fantastic FAQ that is constantly being updated with the latest info on how to stay safe in public and tips on how to handle live events under these circumstances. It s very comprehensive. We suggest you visit that page frequently for updates if you plan to be out and about.
If you re looking for more general information on how to prep for the virus and stay safe, look no further than the CDC. You won t find a lot of doomy spin here, just a comprehensive rundown on current outbreaks and solid information on how to keep yourself healthy. Additionally, we ve put together our own sheet for our event colleagues with some tips to help make your events safer. Practice Safe Stage! Print it out and share it! Also, we d love to updated it with any additional good ideas you would like to add. (Note: We re not medical doctors. Our list is a compilation of ideas we think are good practice.)
Stay safe and get in touch with us if you need an 11th hour solution to move your event online!
Do Ya Dada?
NEWS
In our January newsletter we talked a bit about the fun we re having with all the new material available in the public domain. To recap, January 1st is a non-holiday called Public Domain Day, in which a whole year s worth of content suddenly becomes up for grabs. Because of a series of interventions on our copyright system largely undertaken to keep Mickey Mouse out of public domain, we are currently digging for content all the way back in 1924.
But you know what? There s a lot of cool stuff to work with from 1924, and it seems particularly apropos to spend some time with this content as we enter into our own 20 s. We gave you a few suggestions of 20 s concepts to revive but our favorite was German Dadaism, French surrealism s stern older sibling that had its heyday in the 20th century s late teens and early 20 s.
So, let s talk about the Dadaist movement in a very practical way and how this could be a cool 20 s connection to your next event, or how last century s Dadaism might inspire some ideas for your 21st century event.
What is Dadaism?
Dadaism is an art movement that emerged in the cultural fallout of World War 1. The stresses of the protracted conflict in Europe, combined with interpretations of the cause of the war being rooted in cultural and intellectual conformity inspired this anti-art revolution. If antebellum art and culture was about order and logic, then Dadaism would revel in irrationality and chaos and be absurd by design. At the outset of the 20 s Dadaism was a formidable field of political, visual, musical, and poetic criticism of the cultural status quo.
Visual artists like Marcel Duchamp, produced readymade works by signing everyday objects.
Pioneering photographer and OG punk Hannah Hoch innovated the photomontage and mixed media collage.
On the literary side, Hugo Ball wrote nonsense poems around random sounds. Here s his most famous work, Karawane as performed by Marie Osmond (she s a little bit Dada).
You know how a lot of art in the 20th century is kinda weird? Dadaism can take a lot of the blame for that. There d be no 8-hour Andy Warhol stationary films of the Empire State Building without it.
So, thanks Dadaism.
How to Apply a Dadaist Aesthetic to Your Next Event
People like to use the word experimental with art movements like Dadaism. Experimental as a qualifier often gets applied to things in the art world that are obnoxious-for-arts-sake but the application of the term makes sense for Dadaism. The purpose of a Dadaist piece is to elicit a reaction. Don t get intimidated here, there isn t supposed to be hidden meaning. Through conflating different medias in a collage, defacing a famous portrait with a mustache, or applying an artist signature to a water fountain, you ve created a new artistic reality.
Basically, your goal is to trigger an emotional response from your audience that should hopefully inspire a new way of seeing the world. Whereas some argued that as an anti-art, Dadaism was intended to offend sensibilities, there are of course positive emotional responses that you can glean from your audience using a Dadaist approach.
Meme culture is without question a form of current Dadaism/Surrealism. A central aspect of Dadaism and meme culture is a tacit wit that makes its viewers all suddenly feel part of an in-joke. But be careful here, if you force it like these companies or Mike Bloomberg you re going to have a bad time.
We re just spit balling here find an absolutely bizarre, but harmless and non-alienating way for attendees to sign in to your event, then display it like a priceless art object or smash it on video (or both). Choose distinctive, seemingly clashing visual themes and meld them together for a new style. Broadly, apply a unique alternative system of visual order, or new ways to interact with commonplace objects to make a strong impact. Better yet, just get weird.
A few weeks ago, we shared this photo of Marriott Courtyard s Sleepover promotion for the Superbowl. There s an absurd element to this that could be argued to be Dadaist:
How to Use the Dadaist Mindset to Plan/Brainstorm Your Next Event
Before you sit down and think about your goals or head towards a project management plan, consider writing a short manifesto. Seriously, writing an art manifesto in the 1920 s was basically the equivalent of having a Tumblr for the era. Dadaism was all about manifestos.
Manifestos are typically full of tons of wild unverifiable claims, left-field interpretations of human nature, and insane ambition. But that s the point. They aren t held back by traditional reason and constraints. They re not even always about follow-through. Manifestos are intended to be a starting point, or a brazen call to arms and this is why they re often very exciting, charismatic documents.
If you could have it all, what does your group actually want out of your next event? Go crazy. Don t worry about what s possible clear your mind and rattle off some revolutionary rhetoric about your group s goals in 15-minutes flat. The manifesto exercise is often a great way to bring far reaching ambitions and goals to the fore that can be very useful when it comes down to the actual planning of your event.
Find some inspiration in one of Hugo Ball s Dadaist manifesto from 1916.
Send us your event manifesto and get your Dadaist-inspired event started today!
Check Out These Slick Wearable Tech Solutions for Your Next Event
NEWS
Our focus this week is the rapidly growing field of wearable technology and how it can make your next event an exciting, cutting edge affair. While we re not quite at the point where I can trust a t-shirt to screen my calls or renew my Hulu subscription, we are at an exciting innovative moment that is sure to change event planning in just a few short years.
In particular, we ve looked into 3 different devices that have been rolled out specifically for the events industry. These wearables are intended to make on-site event management a breeze, and provide event attendees with means to navigate spaces and exchanging information effortlessly. They can also provide with valuable data on how much information is exchanged and which areas of your event received the most engagement.
These devices even lend themselves to gamification, a hot buzzword in the making that refers to providing special incentives and achievements to event attendees as they meet each other and engage aspects of your event.
And as a bonus each of these wearables are environmentally friendly. They re reusable and most components in each are recyclable so there s no need to worry about them languishing in a landfill forever. That s some nice event greening for you!
So without further ado let s check out the Klik system:
PixMob s Klik system offers three different Bluetooth-enabled devices: a badge worn on a lanyard, a wrist band, and a button. All of these devices synchronize with each other and the Klik app, and all of these devices have plenty of empty real estate to showcase event and sponsor logos.
Klik lets your event managers handle registration quickly and easily. It allows them to update and change schedules and send that info to all your attendees in an instant. For your attendees, it provides an easy way to exchange contact information or provide instant alerts across a whole convention center. It can even allow attendees to receive notes from a discussion panel or a trade show participant. All it takes is a single swipe.
Here s a peak at the badges. They look like souped up versions of that pager you get at Panera Bread when you re waiting for a bread bowl to blow your daily calories.
The Klik family is also unbelievably low maintenance. They hold a charge for days and are rugged enough to withstand some abuse without incident. Think of Klik like Ron Popeil s Rotisserie set it and forget it.
I hope that reference resonated. I promised myself years ago that I would never get old and I think this is skirting the line. Let s press on.
Event Farm s EFx wristbands bear a lot of similarities to Klik. The EFx is a wristband system that communicates directly with an EFx app and allows any user to instantaneously exchange or collect information. They re also fully customizable with any brand logo.
EFx s wristband tech also allows you to set up payment systems for your guests to swipe their money away on impulse, and provides architecture in the app to manage product pickup. Want an easy way to make sure everyone at your open bar is supposed to be there? EFx has it under control.
We ve mentioned these PEEX earpieces in our article on SXSW panels but we ll go a little more in depth on their utility here.
These special earpieces are backed by Elton John, and have been rolled out for special testing and promotion on his current farewell tour. There are two things you need to know. First, this wearable tech streams high quality audio with extremely low latency. That means in a live setting you won t notice any lag between what you re seeing and hearing. Second, each setup also comes with its own equalizer that you control from your phone, which means any individual will be able to tune the sound of live or recorded audio to their personal preference.
Now, these completely make sense in a music context. If I m at an Elton John gig and my man kicks in to Tiny Dancer all I want is a crisp, clear listening experience free of surrounding color commentary and sing-alongs. The guy behind me that s 4 beers in, loudly describing his memories of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on an 8-track is interesting but doesn t really add to the magic of the moment, does it?
But we also see a number of creative non-musical applications for these devices. As opposed to expecting your audience to be seated in a room for a panel discussion, what if they could roam about freely with the option of tuning in or out at their pleasure? What if you did away with PA s and allowed your audience to control and customize their listening experiences from their seats? Think of how easy it would be to make quick and easy announcements or provide additional information about your trade show straight to attendees. It also doesn t hurt that these gizmos look a lot cooler than Apple Airpods.
While you should definitely give wearables some serious consideration, remember not to fall into the trap that Google did with Google Glass 6 years back. Your audiences will be happy to have a very quick registration, an easy way to exchange or receive information, and they ll very likely be cool with you taking anonymous stats on how users navigated your event, but they won t want to be creeped on. Be upfront and honest with your audience about what to expect with this fun gear and I m sure they ll be psyched to be part of the futuristic experience.
Do you need some cool new tech at your next experiential event? Get it touch with us today and make that happen!
Let s talk about Iowa.
NEWS
Hopefully this won t become a theme, but we have another article related to ongoing crisis in event management here for you. 2020 has been a rush so far hasn t it?
Let s talk about Iowa.
Just to recap, the DNC hired small app developer and (I assume) sexy international crime syndicate Shadow Inc. to develop an app that caucus precinct captains could use to immediately report vote tallies at last Monday s Iowa Caucus. The hope here was that results could be shared swiftly and a winner could be formally declared before midnight. These hopes died when across the state volunteers reported the app freezing, shutting down repeatedly and not accepting information. This could have just been an unfortunate footnote to the evening were it not for the fact that the back-up phone hotline system also failed under the onslaught of phone calls. As these stories continue to develop, it is also becoming more clear trolls may have blocked the lines by posting the numbers on 4chan. And here we remain, on the day after the New Hampshire primary, without a final tally.
Image from The Wall Street Journal
Much of the initial criticism after the fact was focused on Shadow Inc. and stemmed from short development times and small budgets. If you re an app developer for whom a tight budget, a small full-time staff, and production crunches have never been an issue then congratulations, you re not a developer at all. You are in fact, a unicorn (and possibly just lying to yourself). We see this as being unrepresentative of all the issues that would have caused a systemic failure of this magnitude. So, we d like to be constructive here and turn the Iowa Caucus into a teachable moment for any of you out there wondering how NOT to let this happen to your firm and your custom event builds.
Decibel does provide our clients with these types of new software solutions. We haven t taken a swing at a caucus, but we re in the same ballpark with network spanned and synced iPad displays, Twitter-powered water fountains, and custom registration systems we have direct experience bringing these types of builds successfully to our clients.
We re offering you our interpretation of what went wrong here by providing 5 things for our clients to consider when searching for and working with the right company for their next archaic voting scheme or experiential build.
- Collaboration.
Every App, line of code, and keystroke needs to be a collaboration from the top down. The outcome here was SUPPOSED to be a successful caucus and yet, that focus seems to have been forgotten. Yes, the App may have had a coding error or not been properly tested or rolled out. However, that should NEVER have been the fail point. When working with a properly collaborative team with the focus on the end product (a successful caucus) the backup plan should have ALWAYS been solid. Both failed, which suggests a lack of planning from much higher up in the chain. Shadow Inc. had issues that cannot be ignored, but simply passing the buck and blaming them does not actually get to the source of what went wrong. With the right backups in place, the app could have been a 100{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} failure without affecting the end goal. - UI & Adoption
We re talking about the environment where interaction between humans and machines occur. While we at Decibel have not had the chance to review the app directly, UI is popping up in the conversation a lot. In the events industry, it is always important to know your audience. Reports of some precinct captains still using flip phones and even trying to download the app onsite just tells us all of these possibilities were not considered in advance to ensure the UI would work for the actual user. This gets into our next point, the need for time and testing.
- Timelines
From everything we are hearing, the App was rushed to market. This New York Times article suggests it came together in the past two months. This is such a compressed timeline to concept, develop, test, revise, test, deploy, educate, and validate that we can t imagine there weren t corners cut. You cannot skip these steps.Could it be done in two months? Sure. If you re Epic Games and have warehouses of beleaguered software engineers chained to desks to crank out a new Fortnite build every month then anything is possible. But from the total money spent here, it seems that this was not the case. There needs to be enough time to test and validate. For something as critical as a presidential election, even a software check that each caucus location had downloaded the app and run a test was absolutely doable but not implemented.
- Saying NO.
While we move mountains to produce out of this world events for our clients, there is a time to say no. We don t like it, but occasionally it is important for us to be good counselors to our clients and save them from themselves. You know what we mean. Sometimes clients don t take our advice, and there will always be a vendor in the lurch willing to undercut a price or schedule to get a gig but when you re working on something as big as the Iowa Caucus, winging it is wildly irresponsible. We re more inclined to be upfront so that our collaborations have a strong basis in mutual trust. It s hard to say no, but it is the right move in some instances. - Training & Tutorials
According to this WSJ teardown, training tutorials for the App weren t fully rolled out until a few hours before the caucus was underway. One thing that we ve learned is that it s much more difficult than you d think to write clear, comprehensive instructions without fully understanding your intended audience. This adorable video presents a great example of everything that can go wrong when you don t fully think through explaining how to prepare something as simple as a PBJ sandwich. Without providing effective training and tutorials to volunteers in the Iowa Caucus, Shadow Inc. and the DNC were absolutely asking for trouble. Any time you expect to roll out a new App or program, no matter how intuitive you think it might be, there should always be experts on hand to troubleshoot all inevitable unforeseen usage issues.
Are you looking to organize a caucus or hopefully something more straightforward and attuned to the modern era? We can handle that! Get in touch with our wonderful team today to get your next big event underway.
How is the Music and Events Industry Coping with the Coronavirus in Beijing?
NEWS
We were planning to drop an article this week about wearable technologies that will make your next event rad, but that s sidelined to bring you something much more now.
As it happens, our blogger is an American who has living in Beijing for nearly a decade (hey, what s up guys?) and has spent the past 5 years organizing music, art, and brand events in the city. Beijing is unsurprisingly a challenging environment at the moment, and we thought it d be interesting to get his take on how the city and events industry there is reacting to the current health crisis.
If you ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks (scooch over, please let me join you under that rock) you might have missed out on the Wuhan Coronavirus. Just to recap, a new easily transmittable virus emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan less than 2 months ago and is now running wild across China and beyond since the emergence of the virus coincided with China s major travel season: The Lunar New Year. This is basically a perfect storm in epidemiological terms.
China has taken extreme but understandable measures to try and contain the virus s spread in Wuhan and its home province of Hubei, effectively quarantining the entire region by restricting all travel in and out. However, this is not the only place where China is seeing lockdowns. Most cities in China have implemented their own restrictions on public interaction. Schools, dormitories, and most workplaces have been ordered to remain empty until anywhere from February 10th to indefinitely at the national level, and some cities and small towns voluntarily taking more extreme measures to protect themselves from the virus s reach.
I don t want to downplay the importance of protecting the nation s public health in the least, but as an event manager here, my concerns and those of my peers in the same industry are turning more and more towards the massive economic consequences these restrictions will have over the coming months.
In China (and increasingly internationally), Beijing is known as a creative hub. Beijing is home to dozens upon dozens of bands and DJs who are supported by a number of large and small professional venues. If you re a brand like Converse or Vans you make exclusive event deals with these venues and associate yourself with bands. If you re a national or international brand looking for a product launch and want local young people to think you re cool you reach out to a local promoter to get a major local DJ for your event. More or less.
But if performers and audiences either can t return to the city due to public health restrictions, or are too afraid to attend a public event, or are short on money after being out of work, then down the line the creative culture in Beijing could encounter some real trouble. If the health crisis continues past February, it s likely that some venues or performers will be unable to weather the extended lack of revenue and be forced to throw in the towel.
Just to give you a better idea about the situation for the music and events industry in Beijing, I spoke to two major venue owners and a rising local band to see how their livelihoods are being affected by the coronavirus. I m intentionally leaving identifying information out so they don t get flack for speaking out, so here s three anonymous vignettes:
- All our gigs in February have either been canceled or postponed. The situation is serious and we don t want anyone getting sick. Besides that, audiences and promoters are afraid of attending anything. We ll have a considerable loss and it might go on beyond February, but eventually things should be fine.
- The virus epidemic has had uncontrollable, bad consequences to venues in Beijing and across the whole country. All our recent events? nearly all our February events, and even some in March and April have been canceled or postponed. The epidemic is of course unpredictable, and the situation is uncertain.
This could eventually lead to extreme operating pressures on most venues. We re still expected to pay fixed expenses like rent and wages, but without any money coming in. No shows means no cash flow.
I haven t returned to Beijing yet, so I can t speak much about the current restriction policies there. Apart from closing schools, delaying work return dates, and monitoring body temperatures on public transportation we haven t received official restrictions for music venues.
- Compared with the general population, the number of confirmed cases in my hometown (Heilongjiang) is large. For us, it is currently impossible to enter or leave the city. The highway and train stations have been closed off. Cars and street vehicles have also been banned. Occasionally you ll see some people shopping on the street.
Three members of my band are here, while one is in Szechuan. Right now, we re worried about whether a tour we have planned in late March can still happen.
Live music is greatly affected. Oddly enough, I ve seen a lot of bands livestreaming their shows or sharing videos of past shows they ve performed. I think this might be an interesting opportunity for change. Everyone is thinking about new ways for music to survive and reach audiences.
It s still too early to tell how the events industry will be affected in China in the long term, but we do see one major change to the events and live entertainment industry already underway: the reliance on livestreaming and social media technologies as a stand-in for physical attendance. Livestreaming tech here is being treated like a public health necessity, and we suspect even long after the coronavirus s presence has been mitigated, many parts of the events culture will have partly or fully adopted digital mediums for event engagement and continue to use these formats to keep their audiences feeling at ease. This could be the impetus for a slew of partially or fully online events venues, or kickstart new ways to participate in live events from the safety of a bedroom. As the situation unfolds, we ll be sure to keep you updated on how the industry handles these new uncertain realities in China s capitol.
SXSW Panels Round-Up!
NEWS
Austin s South by Southwest (March 13th -22nd) has become much more of a destination event for fans of music and film in recent years, but its conference remains critical for cutting edge takes on UX design, social technology and marketing. The schedule and abstracts for the conference panels are up and we ve spent the last couple of weeks browsing the amazing offerings. Here s just a handful of the super cool speaker and panel sessions we found that pertain to events.
1: CANNABIS & YOUR EVENT: ELEVATING YOUR EXPERIENCE
Abstract: The integration of legal cannabis into the live events industry is one of the fastest growing partnerships happening today. In a conversation about this fascinating relationship, panelists will discuss the current state and future of cannabis at events, and how to bring cannabis to your event, from music festivals to eSports tournaments and more.
With cannibas now legal in 11 states including the District of Columbia, it certainly stands to reason that there should be new above-the-books ways to professionally incorporate cannabis into your next event. I doubt anyone reading this article has a problem with an open bar is this really this much of a far cry from that? A lot of weight is added to the panel by the inclusion of Axiom Advisors. Axiom are renowned on the West Coast as consultants to major companies on public policy, technology, infrastructure, cannabis, you name it. If anyone is approaching this topic holistically and thoughtfully its them.
2: THE NEXT FRONTIER IN OMNICHANNEL MARKETING
Abstract: Your events create engagement, excitement, and connection. During this time, they are the most immersive and effective marketing channel your organization has. So why has it proven so difficult to integrate events into your omnichannel marketing strategy? New technologies are making it possible to provide a seamless, personalized brand experience at every customer touchpoint including your event experiences. In this session we will explore how event marketers can deliver more value by extending attendee engagement year-round and bringing events into their omnichannel strategy.
Here s an awesome speaker event hosted by Eventbase. Eventbase have the sickest multi-purpose events app in the industry. Whether you re pulling together a corporate event, tradeshow, or conference, Eventbase lets you assemble a unique app specifically tailored to help you and your audience keep track of everything and stay organized. As an event organizer you can even pull in some great data analytics on event traffic and user experiences as well, which is invaluable information to stay connected with your audience well after your live event wraps up. Omnichannel marketing is Eventbase s wheelhouse. We re looking forward to getting more info about seamlessly integrating digital and real-life event experiences for consumers from this session.
3: HOW TECHNOLOGY WILL ENHANCE LIVE EXPERIENCES
Abstract: Live events are at the eve of their digital disruption from augmented reality to virtual reality, in this session, David Johnson, COO of music tech startup PEEX, will examine how fans are wanting immersive live experiences more than ever, and how technology is driving this. Live events are the closest connection fans will ever experience with artists David will discuss how technology will help make that experience even more connected and personal. Although technology can t and shouldn t replace the emotional journey of the live experience, David will explain how it can and should serve to enhance and augment its reach, quality and impact.
This isn t the last time you ll hear about PEEX on this blog. We actually have a cool article on wearable technology in the works for next month that will go more in depth about their special gadget. Whereas many in the experiential events industry are focused on creating unique visual experiences, PEEX is focused on making the sound of your next conference or stadium rock show as personalized as possible. Their special earbuds not only stream audio directly from the stage to your ears without latency, they allow you to use a personal 5-band EQ to fiddle with the levels and make your own concert experience sound better than the real thing. We re looking forward to this unique audio-focused take on mass personalization.
4: MIND JOURNEYS: DESIGNING FOR COGNITIVE UX
Abstract: Our brains don t experience events objectively. Our brains filter everything we encounter through a lens of biases, needs, goals, feelings and prior experiences, creating an impassable chasm between the event and our conscious experience of it. While behavioral economics has attempted to understand the brain s filtering mechanisms, experience design has largely remained focused on documenting the practical and emotional journeys, ignoring our underlying mind journeys. We ll explore how principles of behavioral economics can be combined to recognize, and even nudge, a user s mind journey through Cognitive UX. We ll wrestle with dark patterns: when does nudging become hacking? We ll show how thoughtful Cognitive UX can help brands create deeper and more meaningful relationships with users.
This likely trippy panel is hosted by Huge Inc., a far-reaching but eccentric and trendy UX Design & Marketing Firm based in Brooklyn (surprised?). Consumer experience is a key focus of any event. We don t want our audiences to simply enjoy their experience, we want to leave a strong impression that can translate into a stronger consumer/brand relationship later on. Huge Inc. is at the forefront of experimenting with fresh ways to engage and retain consumers from opening their own special caf , to maintain their own publication on digital design. We can trust they can name check concepts like behavioral economics and have the chops to back it up.
Was this pretty far out? Keep track of SXSW s panels here for some bleeding-edge concepts to integrate into your next event. If you suddenly feel inspired for your next event, don t fight that feeling, get in touch with us to day and get those ideas rolling!
Event Industry Re-Opening Resource Documents
BACKSTAGE, EVENT INDUSTRY, TIPS & TRICKS
For Event Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic
We invite you to download, review, and share.
