Due to COVID-19, event organisers have been pushed to look beyond the traditional and find ways to make virtual experiences engaging. To help them navigate this new normal, Gevme came up with a new series called Virtual Experience Makers, featuring creative personalities and organisers that are experimenting with unique ideas to create virtual experiences that are engaging, entertaining and that can stand out.
The best part?
Event organizers that are being urged to look beyond the traditional industry colleagues and find inspiration can watch this event anytime and from anywhere. Gevme wanted to make bringing creativity to the virtual world, accessible.
The 10-part Virtual Experience Makers series kicked off on 6 April with DJ Aldrin. DJ Aldrin recently brought together various artists to create an incredible virtual experience called “Navigating Through The Pandemic”, shot at various locations across Singapore.
The Virtual Experience Makers series will feature other local and regional personalities including chefs, artists and festival organizers.
WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE MAKERS?
After a plethora of virtual events that popped up during the past year, organizers are starting to sense attendance fatigue and many struggle with monetization.
“Although virtual events are new to the scene, in a sense it is already getting old. This is as good a time as any for organisers to get back to the drawing blocks and think about how to keep people engaged and more importantly, how to convince attendees that the value of a virtual event is as good, if not better, as a physical one,” said Veemal Gungadin,CEO of Gevme.
The industry needs to see virtual as a medium that can help them express their creativity in new ways. During this COVID crisis, it is virtual events that have helped keep the MICE industry afloat. Still, many purists believe digital events are no match for physical events and are just a passing phase. Others want to take advantage of this more accessible and cost effective format but are unable to, because their digital events are not engaging and don’t provide value to their audience.
Virtual Experience Makers aims to educate and help organizers draw inspiration for their own events.
Let us show you how!
OFFER A UNIQUE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
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Virtual Experience Makers series walks the talk by showing what makes the audience feel like they’re inside the virtual space.
Inspired by the museums of contemporary art, Gevme created a GALLERY where the artist and the event organizers can showcase their work.
Event organizers need to rethink the event experience and use the latest technologies to create virtual experiences and not just events. Which is why we wanted to inspire creativity not only through the episodes, but also through the Virtual Experience Makers event space.
Just like we used the GALLERY feature to showcase DJ Aldrin’s portfolio, social media and latest performance instead of a traditional bio, event organizers need to rethink the traditional to engage their audience.
CREATIVITY IS A STATE OF MIND
The first episode with DJ Aldrin uses audio-visual aids to explain and showcase DJ Aldrin’s work, mistakes and growth.
How did a DJ whose world was shattered due to COVID manage to embrace the virtual?
How did he buy the necessary equipment to make the digital transition during COVID?
In the first episode, DJ Aldrin showed us his set up when he started creating digital experiences.
This should really inspire every creative to take the leap and begin, regardless of the lack of resources!
DJ Aldrin created a stage using his ironing board. He didn’t have a ring light so he used a red LED light to create a club-like ambience. He used his Iphone camera to shoot the event and re-organized his furniture and used paper clips to stabilize the phone camera.
As he gained popularity and support from his fans, he upgraded his equipment. Now his events look much more sophisticated and he experiments a lot with his content.
DJ ALDRIN’S EXPERIENCE WITH “NAVIGATING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC” AND WHAT HE LEARNED FROM IT
“As event professionals enter a new world of virtual experiences, they should look outside of our industry for inspiration. There are a lot of creative ideas being spun on this new canvas and it is exciting to consider the new opportunities for us to reinvent ourselves as an industry,” said Veemal Gungadin, CEO of Gevme.
DJ Aldrin embraced virtual and the new possibilities that come with it. He received a grant from Singapore National Arts Council to create a unique digital experience on March 27. (pictured above)
In the first episode of Virtual Event Makers, he shares the creative process that went into producing this ‘Navigating Through The Pandemic’ experience and some lessons he learnt.
Here are some of the tips he shared in the episode:
- Be open-minded
- Try to do more collaborations
- Be creative and push boundaries
- Create your own opportunities
He elaborates each point in the episode and gives very insightful commentary on whether virtual events only work for popular K-pop groups like BTS and Blackpink or more local artists.
Just like DJ Aldrin used this opportunity to reinvent himself, his learnings can help other creatives to learn from his mistakes and create their own (virtual) opportunities.
This is our aim with the Virtual Experience Makers series.
“I think in this past year, we have come to understand and appreciate the value of virtual experiences. We hope that this series can light the creative flames in our industry and we will begin to see spectacular events being staged, the likes of which we would not have seen in our industry before,” said Veemal Gungadin, CEO of Gevme.
DJ Aldrin,and other creative individuals like him, used technology to showcase their creativity to a wider audience. Others can replicate his process to leverage technology with creativity to create sustainable and engaging experiences as well.
The Virtual Experience Makers series is being run in partnership with WiT (Web in Travel) which was forced to go virtual last year and ran the world’s first travel hybrid conference on October 1 at Marina Bay Sands’ Hybrid Broadcast Studio.
“We’ve learnt so much during this time and we are delighted to work with Gevme on this series that will feature interesting personalities from creative industries on how they are expressing their creativity in the virtual world,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WiT.
Missed the first episode? You can watch it HERE.
