“Don’t forget to lie” he whispered watching her pencilling her name and occupation in capital letters on the conference tag.
Project description
Science Fiction – Nov2k
In November 2014, Nov2k celebrated its 15th anniversary. With the theme “Science fiction”, the conference paid tribute to scientific innovations that may have previously been regarded as science fiction but which today have the potential to impact society tremendously and shift scientific paradigms.
Title : Science Fiction
Year : 2014, Stockholm
Role : Experience Designer
Is : conferencing
Should be : continued
Will : make you return in time to your seat after the coffee break
The workings of
There are many skills involved in the making of a social experiment – a conference. Finding funding and an agreement of a theme, the line-up of talented speakers and exciting perspectives, the booking of an inspiring affordable venue are amongst the most challenging while arranging for everyone to be sufficiently caffeinated and fed. A group of gifted scientist set out to fulfil the quest.
The art of retrieving attendees from well deserved and tightly scheduled coffee breaks seems to be one of the neglected but most exciting tasks. Rounding up the herd is critical. In the spirit of a good scientific experiment, we tested a simple set of pavlovian conditionings during Nov2k. Participants were familiarised with a set of rituals around a specific tune that would tie together the whole event.
Each speaker was introduced through a short video leaving visual prompts and associated words connected to their talk as an entry point. The underlying theme song was used to start and end breaks and connect different happenings throughout the 2 days conference. And if you wondered – yes it worked a charm, and most of the “goods” we used were borrowed in good faith.
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