3hree Things: Experience as an Offering, Events Postponed & Vaccinate
Three interesting tidbits from the experiential space.
- Experiences as an offering are coming from more and more places these days. You’ve certainly spent time on Zoom recently as the service has blown up during the pandemic. If you’re like most people you probably think of them as a video conferencing service or a meeting company. But they’re also a marketplace for paid live events. They launched a beta version of OnZoom during the pandemic in hopes of taking advantage of their large client base and name recognition. They’re not the first brand to extend unique offerings on their platform that were not originally part of their core business. Airbnb used their breadth of resources and influence on travel plans to launch Airbnb Experiences in 2016 in a select few cities and has since blossomed to include entertaining and educational experiences all over the globe including a new online offering. The Atlantic published a piece about buying experiences over things that shed light on the positive psychology experiences deliver. Since then there have been numerous publications and more research reinforcing that viewpoint, so look for more brands who have a grasp on your attention to follow suit and begin to extend their platforms peripherally with experience based offerings.
- Two huge events were originally scheduled this week. Both would require heavy travel and attendance from people at the apex of their professions. Global CEOs for Davos 2021, the World Economic Forum annual meeting, and the best tennis pros on earth for the Australian Open. Planning event logistics around groups like these can require months or even years to make sure the execution is flawless on the surface, but both of these events made late pivots to their programs in order to negotiate the current virus environment. Davos adapted through an online format and even opened viewing to many of the sessions to the public on their site. This broadcast is a welcome change to the yearly flagship event for the World Economic Forum who has previously received criticism for a lack of transparency at the event. They are also planning a one year break from their Davos tradition to hold an in-person event later in the year in Singapore.
The Australian Open postponed their event about a month before the originally scheduled date and are now scheduled to begin play February 8th. Organizers faced an uphill battle due to Covid concern and superstar demands, but the athletes have arrived in Melbourne and are sticking to strict quarantine. In a sport that has to be played live, the show must go on.
Moving an event online or postponing the schedule a few weeks are small changes on the surface, but they amount to seismic shifts for production teams. The tactical support required to move large events on short notice can mean long hours working with what’s available rather than the original elements and learning about new equipment, elements and team members on the fly. It can also bring significant manpower and financial implications to negotiate. That’s why it was extremely impressive to witness Davos’ smooth pivot to an online event this week. So when you watch the Australian Open in early February remember the army of event producers in the background working hard to deliver a polished and joyful experience for you.
- 100 million doses in 100 days and 200 million more in the pipeline! It’s all about the vaccine these days and to deploy that many doses, they’ll need to average a million per day, every day. That’s a daunting task and the best way we can help is to go to the official site for information on the Covid Vaccine. See when you qualify to schedule vaccine shots and help each other stay healthy.
3hree More Things
- Could waiting in lines be a thing of the past? I’d skip to the front for that.
- Meow Wolf Las Vegas tickets are now on sale.
- NOK NOK, who’s there? It’s GME, AMC and the story you couldn’t miss this week. The stock market short surge explained.
