Wondering how experienced-based event companies are innovating in every aspect of an event? Keep on reading to stay updated on the trends and be inspired for your next event But what has changed in this industry so much that it keeps grabbing people’s attention? Well, it is simply because of our advancing technology.
Experiential events are elevating like never before. They are bringing more people together & exceeding guests’ expectations. These are buzz-generating happenings, people love talking about them with their friends & family, posting about them on their social media, & creating similar events themselves. But what has changed in this industry so much that it keeps grabbing people’s attention? Well, it is simply because of our advancing technology.
Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality
Virtual reality has been around since the 80s, but it is only now that we see more people using them for their own entertainment & even more in experiential events. Our advanced technology has allowed companies to use VRs to bring people together, allow their guests to experience, see, & do things they never have before, & win prizes in escapade competitions. The company Perrier hosted a digital scavenger hunt to promote the Perrier x Murakami collection. Perrier is a sparkling water company that originated in France 150 years ago. Murakami is a global corporation for manufacturing rear-view mirrors & cameras for automobiles that were born in Japan 135 years ago. Making this collaboration a unique experience for its guests. The scavenger hunt allowed fans to customize their avatar & be in extraordinary worlds to look for the company’s merchandise collection drop in a certain amount of time. Whatever the fans found during the scavenger hunt they were able to keep. Fans won T-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, & more. The scavenger hunt not only helped the companies promote their collection, but also promoted it in a very interactive & enjoyable experience for their fans.
Experiential event companies also use virtual reality to design media zones for many themed events. One of the companies is Catalyst Arts, a woman-owned experiential entertainment company that is based in San Francisco. Catalyst Arts did a virtual reality zone as a part of a superhero-themed event for a biotech company. These zones had different expertise levels to ensure that no guest felt left out from participating in this exciting virtual reality experience. The VR zone could either be used for an individual guest or as a multiplayer experience, allowing guests to interact however they were most comfortable. Not only did Catalyst Arts design multiple virtual reality zones but they also created interactive installations for the guest to make the experience more authentic. For one of their events, Catalyst Arts installed a scientific-themed set with a moving media attendant.
Not only experiential event companies are designing different ways their guests can interact with each other & the hosting companies, but individual artists are also raising the bar as well. An artist in France named Anna Zhilyaeva designed an augmented-reality painting for her Youtube channel. She accomplished this by combining mixed-reality footage using a virtual reality software called Tilt Brush, similar to real painting on a canvas allowing her to create masterpieces in the air in any kind of creative or simple locations whether it be in her living room floor or the middle of a lake. She intended to make an effect to make the painting appear alive in AR. Tilt Brush is a 3D VR painting app where the user would need a VR headset & a touch controller to use a variety of brushes, effects, & tools to create 3D illusions. Viewers can see the finished piece in an online gallery, allowing viewers to see the painting in 3D. However, Anna is not stopping here, she is exploring experimentation with animation to take art & creativity to the next level. Not only artists like Anna can use this app, but experiential events can also use it to help them explore their creativity in a foreign way & allow their guests to interact with each other to create art masterpieces.
Art Installations & Media Installations
Art installations have existed since the late 50s. However, 2023 is taking it to the next level, including media installations. Art installations have mostly had deep meaning tied to them or are intended to symbolize a value, an emotion, an expression, etc. Even though these are still important & seen, they have become more interactive with guests at events. Whether they are a walkthrough, a projector, sculptures, etc. our technology has made it possible for these art installations to connect with the guest, host, or company. Reddit, an online social discussion platform company did a collaborative event with The Communi-tea Bar to install a crystal ball that generates honest conversations that are happening in Reddit to practically “spill the tea” on what is going on in the guest’s communities. The company’s motive for doing this was to help the guests to deepen their existing relationships & to make this event an easier way to network.
Creativity in art has evolved tremendously to the point where people don’t need to travel to a different country to see their favorite artists’ art pieces. Instead, people are able to view them through media installations that are being installed in local residential areas. This is not only being seen in the United States, but internationally as well. In the city of Mexico, Frida Kahlo’s art pieces were projected in three different spaces. The induction space, main hall, & interactive space. The induction space is a small room where guests first visit the exhibition to give them the background of what they will experience in the main hall. The main hall is where all of Frida’s paintings are projected surrounding the viewers with music & a sitting area. The interactive space is filled with games & sets where the guests can take pictures. This created a multi-sensory experience for visitors by turning her art pieces into a monumental scale, adding music, sculptures, & interactive & digital animation to bring her paintings to life & allow visitors to create deeper connections than ever seen before. Frida is not the only artist with an immersive exhibition, Van Gogh has an immersive exhibition as well that is located in various countries such as France, Japan, the U.S., & more. Van Gogh’s exhibition has very similar components to Frida’s exhibition but only lacks an interactive space. However, Van Gogh’s exhibition has a space that tells the story of Van Gogh’s life allowing his admirers to gain more knowledge of who he was as a person. His admirers were able to connect & understand his artworks on a more meaningful level. These exhibitions are uniquely made for the artist’s admirers so that they can connect, understand, & feel their artworks similarly to how the artists felt when creating their art pieces.
Not only art pieces are being evolved, but also sculptures. Sculptures used to be created about important & wealthy individuals conveying motion, verism, social status, etc. But now they are created to promote companies, bring more life to events, allow people to interact with them, & of course, have technology embedded in them. Marathon Oil, a production company, installed an LED sculpture in its headquarters lobby. This sculpture blends art & motion to respond to the visitors & workers’ movements. However, not only does this sculpture present beautiful art blended with motion, but it also allows people to interact with it. People can learn more about Marathon Oil’s history, learn about the staff in the company, & the statue allows people to see the impactful changes the company has done in the community.
The photo booth was first invented in the 20s called the “Photomaton” & it functioned fairly the same as how one would today, however, the process of printing out the photos took 10 minutes which now only takes 5 seconds. But, the evolution does not end there. Today, people can use a big space & incorporate props, include live actors in their photos, & have an extravagant background. Catalyst Arts have used this dynamic photo booth in some of its events making the guests’ experience more memorable & more interactive with each other. They created a science lab scene with backdrops & props for the guests to use to depict them as wild scientists who are making mind-blowing discoveries within the space of a photo booth. Catalyst Arts added live actors to enhance the realism & interactions of the photo booth. They also incorporated the ring light iPad into the booth to capture photos & gifs. Each theme that Catalyst Arts creates is customed for the client & the company.
Elevated Food & Beverage Experiences
Food has brought people together for centuries, it is where people put their differences aside & come together to be in the moment. Art & science has always been seen can be seen in food & drinks created by an expert chef, but now experiential businesses are taking food experiences to another level. Victoria Taylor is an experiential designer for hospitality, luxury, & entertainment brands, specifically in the UK. Recently, she created an ocean dining room theme where the floor was a screen presenting the ocean waves, & the space around the dining table was shaped as the coral reef to have the guests fantasize that they’re dining in the ocean. These designs made the space peaceful, elegant, & extraordinarily beautiful giving the guests an immersive experience. Creating these magnificent immersive experiences makes them memorable & impactful experiences for the guests.
Expert chefs keep innovating different styles of food, mixing exotic foods, & are now mixing science into their foods. The new trend in restaurants is dry ice desserts, this is most frequently used in ice cream. This technique may sound complicated, however, it is fairly simple & amusing. All you need to do is to add dry ice to the dessert recipe, yes
it’s that simple & it makes your desserts look exotic. A restaurant in Prague, named Sangam Indian Restaurant, came up with a new dessert recipe with dry ice. It is a mango, pistachio, & rose ice cream topped on dry ice. Doesn’t that sound delicious & make your mouth water? Many guests are going crazy about this dessert emphasizing how this dessert including the food made their visit memorable & cannot recommend this restaurant enough. There’s a pastry shop located in Romania, named La Calub Alb, that serves chocolate globes on dry ice. Guests are saying how this is their favorite dessert since they can taste the fresh ingredients & get a show when they serve the dry ice. When restaurants serve dry ice desserts they are having their guests use all of their five senses to make their experience memorable, exciting, & delicious.
Champagne is a drink used for celebrations, but it has not been used extravagantly in the past. However, that is changing. There are champagne trends that have been spiking in the U.S. & Europe. Companies are becoming more creative with champagne resulting in an elevated guest experience. Experiential event companies are incorporating champagne in their performances making it an unforgettable event. An international company, Scarlett Entertainment, performs in the UK, Italy, Dubai, & the U.S. They have many different performances including an aerial champagne chandelier. They hang from a chandelier & perform while pouring champagne to the guests. Another company that innovated champagne is Catalyst Arts. They make skirts out of champagne for their waiters to serve the guests. The champagne skirts make the models look elegant & extravagant at the same time. These champagne dresses bring the event together by elevating the hospitality & making the event one of a kind.
Le petit chef is elevating the food experience to another level. It is a restaurant that has a 6-inch French chef cook in front of the customers through a digital screen on the table. The scenario changes depending on what the chef is doing. For example, if the chef is getting vegetables for the dish the scene will turn into a garden and the customers get to experience see the whole process of how to make the dish right in front of them. Right after the digital experience ends the actual food comes out making the whole experience unforgettable.
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