A COVID19-proof event experience: does it exist?
PRESS REFERENCE
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
“…best wishes for 2020, good health and…”
It seems so far off, so unreal, but never before have those traditional New Year’s wishes meant so much. The invisible monster has struck and already in the first weeks of January it seemed as if our news broadcasts were the beginning of an apocalyptic science-fiction movie.
COVID19, or as we say ‘Corona’ in our regions, snuck into the country like a thief in the night and soon destroyed public health, the economy and our social life. Necessary measures were installed and on Wednesday 19 March things would go from bad to worse: with the first full lockdown the symbolic stone was thrown that would soon become the avalanche of economic misery for the country.
SEARCH
Since then, our sector, like the cultural sector, has been treated extremely poorly and the first employments and businesses were soon lost. We had to reinvent ourselves,’ it was called. Innovation is the solution’ became the credo. Dozens of online virtual event concepts, some more rigorous than others, saw the light of day. But an ‘online fatigue’ soon arose because it was almost the only medium left for people to communicate with family, friends and their colleagues. With the first downgrade of the security measures, it soon became clear what need people had to get together physically, whether it was to party together or to protest together. Since July 1st, events could take place again, but under almost impossible conditions and with Corona’s permanent threat over our organizations, that a new resurgence of the virus could ban events.
SOLUTION
As a creative service provider, ArchitectofEMOTION wants to try to help in the way that suits us best: the search for creative ‘other’ ideas. Concretely, AoE offers a ‘free of charge’ concept that any interested party can use: “With this free of charge shared event format, we especially want to stimulate event producers to start thinking about briefings and event experiences in a different way.”, says Steven Martin.
The idea was developed by AoE, supported by a series of very experienced partners throughout the entire process. They assisted the team with advice, critical feedback and supportive thinking all based upon their years of experience with the Belgian and international event market and its players.
“In its basic elaboration, the format already offers an answer to almost every conceivable briefing, provided some insight, flexibility and creativity. The end customers may also need a little guidance in recognizing the advantages of this different approach in the current circumstances. Above all, this concept allows large numbers of people in COVID19 safe conditions to be involved in a very intense brand experience”. says Steven Martin.
AoE can assist the organizers in the thought process or in the realization of the experience, but that is not the first intention of sharing this file. Steven Martin: “End customers and event agencies, even fellow freelancers, in fact anyone can use this format without any problem, adapted or as it has been proposed. We don’t have to be involved, it’s more important for us at the moment that our sector has work and that companies can work, can bill. Let us show that together we can bring that typical positive energy back into our market full of passion”.
RULES OF THE GAME
AoE only sets 2 rules for free use: on the one hand the project has to be worked out with as many local production partners as possible to stimulate our economy, on the other hand we want to be able to evaluate the impact and use of the idea. That is why we ask to be informed who is building on the idea, preferably with an invitation to the event or some photos or video footage afterwards.
Therefore, this call. Contact your customers with the message that you might be able to offer them a real solution: to organize an event for a large number of people (therefore optimal cost per contact), with great adaptability for other customers as the same set up can be used successively for different clients (interesting economies of scale for the producer) and all this with a very intense and valuable brand experience. Best of all: COVD19-proof according to the CERM* model rules in force on 27 July.
LET’S DO THIS TOGETHER
“Carry out the format as proposed or use the idea as inspiration for further thinking. The most important thing is that we can give the end customers confidence, that events can be produced and that in the end we all come out stronger together. That’s why we’re already doing it,” concludes Steven, “we sincerely hope that all those creative strategic talents in our market will see the potential and contact their customers to create great projects and give our sector a well-deserved kick-start”.
* The COVID Event Risk Model was developed in collaboration with scientific experts and experts in their field. You can use this model to gain an insight into the COVID safety risks of any event. This is indicated using a safety label: green, orange, red. https://www.covideventriskmodel.be/
PRESS RELEASE RELATED DOWNLOADABLE ASSETS
Below are the downloadable files related to the message.
The Concept
Flow of the visitors study:
Event scan report CERM from 27/07/’20: