Forging offline connections a challenge for planners
Technology is playing an increasingly significant role in everyone’s lives and as we spend more time online, new and interesting issues are coming into focus on the impact of the internet on our behavior and happiness.
As human beings, we desire – indeed require – social engagement and this desire has become reflected in the abundant amount of time that we spend online socialising.
The irony is that when we spend so much time surfing, chatting, messaging and tweeting, we’re at the risk of leaving some of our most basic real-world human contact needs unsatisfied. One of the biggest ‘feel good factors’ that we can experience as humans is through positive offline social engagement.
As with most things in life, it’s about balance. More and more media coverage is now focused on the negative aspect of online experiences. Stories abound of people losing balance and overusing technology to such an extent that it begins to create issues like addiction and bullying. Some aspects of social media and the internet can isolate people in such a way that basic human social skills are not developing properly.
How can we in the business events industry help? Well in a world full of conflicts large and small, it is more important than ever to be kind to each other at every level. For brand activators and marketers, this means creating memorable events or moments that remind us of the importance of positive offline engagement.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one avenue whereby businesses and brands can build live engagement on a project-by-project basis without going online.
Forward thinking brands are catching on to the fact that tapping into humanity is rewarding for individuals at events. It can even lead to positive actions resulting from the experience that extends the life of the event.
One case I recently worked on involved engaging kids at an environmental fair. Through tasking them with fun, hands-on experiments we got the message across far more effectively than any computer program could. Getting people offline and interacting with each other over a common goal or interest with a CSR element works in creating a memorable event.
Both brands and individuals have to remember that to keep ourselves balanced, healthy and feeling good we need to make time to interact, communicate and connect with other people in the physical world.
How i did it… Dean Cluer, Pico Qatar
The 2014 Qatar Petroleum Environment Fair, like many others, was full of stands adhering to the standard eco design.
For the ConocoPhilips Global Water Sustainability Centre’s stand we tried to avoid the norm by being eye catching and representing the water cycle in an engaging and active approach.
Although the client already had an app, we felt that much greater engagement was needed with youth as the target demographic and the event’s key objective being education.
By giving the stand a distinct ‘laboratory’ look and feel inside we deployed our ‘Mad Science’ team to engage, entertain and educate the children. From using dry ice to demonstrating the different states of water to trying out a ‘density stacker’ to reveal the different densities of oil and water, the children were captivated and engrossed all through the process. That’s the feel good factor in action!
