BIG Ideas for the week of 6/22

Creative inspiration for a new (virtual) reality

114 years ago today, Harry K. Thaw, heir to a Pittsburgh coal & railroad fortune, shot famed architect Stanford White at the original Madison Square Garden over showgirl Evelyn Nesbit. During his subsequent trial, Thaw’s defense team argued that he suffered from bouts of temporary insanity, or, as they termed it, “brainstorms.” While it would be easy to say brainstorming sessions also kill creativity, here are a few BIG ideas that perhaps prove otherwise.

• Let’s keep the history lesson going This overview of video conferencing from Quartz has some fun background on the topic, including the fact that a cartoon was published in 1878 predicting the very thing.
• The importance of being social Electronic Arts, makers of the Madden series, believes weaving social interaction seamlessly into their games will be a key to their future success. It makes perfect sense to me, and the lack of truly organic integration of social interactions with the current crop of video conferencing platforms seems to be a big miss. From video telephony platforms like Zoom & Skype to virtual conference providers like Intrada and Inxpo, none of them has come close to cracking that nut, IMHO. Keep watching this space, though, as I hope we’ll have something rather exciting to say about this soon…
• Moving beyond the screen Most virtual events are two-dimensional affairs that take place solely on the attendee’s screen. With some imagination, however, it is possible to extend beyond the limitations of a laptop or tablet and provide attendees with a deeper, richer experience. Pittsburgh-based agency DeepLocal has built an award-winning business off of ideas that do just that in fun, memorable, and, most importantly, value-adding ways.
• Thinking Local, Staying Local Wunderman Thompson Intelligence looks at trends in vacation travel. Well actually, vacation “staying put.”
• Real Virtual Returns How do you calculate ROI for a virtual event? Why are you asking me, I’m a Creative. Take a look at that link or this one if you want to know. (Assist to Royal Benear for these.)

• How ‘bout these apples This year’s WWDC had lots of big news, but here’s a little tidbit that didn’t get as much attention: App Clips. When activated, App Clips, which are triggered by QR codes or NFC tags, allow a small part of an app to open, even if the user hasn’t previously downloaded it. They can be used to deliver content or complete a transaction (via Apple Pay), enabling all sorts of location-based interaction that could be employed to provide a richer experience to live event attendees, from facilitating exhibitor engagement to delivering value-added content and/or products & services.
• That Real Feel An interesting look at how designers are bringing museums and galleries to life, virtually. I’d love to see some of this thinking applied to the cheesy designs we’re currently seeing on Intrado-type platforms for conferences and exhibits.
• When will “live” be live again? Six Live Event professionals give their takes on when, and how, they see concerts, festivals, and other live events returning. A common theme — they see them returning, but different than before. Some might read this and be depressed, but personally, I think it’s exciting, because “different than before” means opportunity for us
• Yo, check this out A cool new platform Rob Wilcox brought to my attention. I love the simplicity (no video client needed) but as currently configured, I think it will be rather chaotic for larger groups. I would expect they’ll be adding functionality to help organize events, but for now, launching it in this stage is a smart move to get people using it asap.
• Just under the wire from Christine Kiesling, this review of Monday’s WWDC speculates on the future of keynote addresses, after Apple’s virtual presentation effectively filled in for what is usually one of the most anticipated and covered live keynotes of the year.

Those are your BIG ideas for June 22nd. As always, please share any interesting stuff you find and, if you must brainstorm, please do so responsibly.