(6) The result

The evening went better than I had any right to imagine (see previous blog). Thankfully, instead of being annoyed at the interruption people seemed curious and some even came over to see what was going on and joined in.

Jez’s talk was well received and the installation that he had been making for three weeks was appreciated, questioned, poked and played with and at least one guest was wrapped up by the end of the evening. See picture below.

Periscope was great. We had friends and strangers from around the world join us online, giving the evening an international feel and helping to make the night especially fun. And I got to pretend I was a television presenter. I definitely wanted to take this further.

Amazing canapé from the in house Cafe Think went down well and very quickly. Plans I’d made for taking the left overs home not being necessary.

I hadn’t planned for it, so was very pleasantly surprised to find out that members of the Hub had taken pictures and we’re sending them to friends on social media. Indeed, in the days that the installation was up, far from anyone being irritated, I would see people sitting in it making phone calls or even with their laptop working.

 

Though, while it was all very exciting, I realised something was missing. My ability to professionally analyse and evaluate what had happened, to measure it’s impact. It was all very well kicking the ball off the top of the hill and seeing what happened, now, I had to  find ways to optimise that. Like finding ways to incorporate the members social media response with the events social media presence.

As Donald Getz and Stephen J page (2016) point out some  events, while having an element of control, can partly take on a life of their own. There is a part of me that likes that, but I already understood, even if I couldn’t define it before studying, that I wanted to design event experiences. I wanted, ‘both planning and spontaneity’ (Getz and Page, 2016: 63). And I would have to develop my skills if I was going to take this event organising thing further.

Next time I’m will have to think bigger if I want to develop the laex project into a live show promoting interesting art, especially art in the office. With the tools we have available these days, like the brilliant Periscope, it would be possible to build quite a substantial online audience.

It’s rather gratifying though, although possibly a little early, to consider that I might have added to what Hazel Andrews and Teresa Leopold (Andrews and Leopold, 2013) called social capital. I saw talking, making plans to get together and swapping numbers. Below is a short video of the night.

 

References:

GETZ, Donald and PAGE Stephen J. 2016. Event Studies. Routledge.

ANDREWS, Hazel and LEOPOLD Teresa. 2013. Events and Social Sciences. Routledge.

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