Following two years of little to no events, audiences want to be brought together more than ever to stimulate connection and truly be part of the overall experience, not just act as an observer. The top-down, one-sided, schoolroom approach to event structure and content is giving way to a more holistic, experiential, and shared model with attendees looking for more inspiration and connection that leave them with a greater experience—one they helped create.
Striving to address these needs of audiences, PRG (Production Resource Group) has developed new solutions to foster these environments. The key solution PRG has created to move attendees to full-on event curators is "The Mini-Lounge," which utilizes the ample common areas of meeting venues and satellite locations to create more intimate and interactive experiences. The objective of "The Mini Lounge" is to let participants take a topic and approach it through a multitude of intersecting disciplines, leading to effective strategies and actions while allowing attendees to be a part of the event itself.
Executed for the first time as the design partner for Maritz Global Events’ Next& event in Tampa, Fla., PRG built custom "mini-lounge" experiences to blend together the event and participants. The Maritz Global Events team challenged PRG to rethink the general session and exhibit floor. The team began by developing the meeting's design space, then bringing in the technical team to ensure classic elements from conferences—such as televisions and sound systems—were in place so participants could still hear and see event leaders without ruining the aesthetics or functionality. In doing this, the creative, technical, and production teams did not work on the event as individual silos but instead came together to construct a new kind of occasion that encouraged greater audience participation.
Within each mini-lounge, attendees were encouraged to address objectives and goals individually and in small groups, building an organic and multifaceted picture of each topic under discussion. Each lounge area could be fully connected with the ability to record, broadcast, upload, and virtually connect with every other area at the venue. Attendees can move freely from space to space to participate in discussions, brainstorm ideas, and create models surrounding the objectives and goals of the event. Participants were encouraged to move through as many spaces as they wish and to participate on many levels in the lounges.
Each mini-lounge space can be individually curated by the event teams to be comfortable furniture groupings, more traditional conference setups, mini-studios, coffee bars, art studios, and more to construct a customized environment that allows attendees to develop and share their own experiences. This model empowers participants to work together and separately to create reactions, ideas, games, brainstorms, art, constructs, and manifestos relating to the meeting goals.
Ultimately, PRG is more than a technology provider, working directly with client partners in order to develop one-of-a-kind solutions that create a stronger product as a whole, while supporting the new age of events and conferences.
