Galaxy Quest: The Mission For Last Minute Lasers
If you’ve spent any time in a culture where conferences are frequent, you may be familiar with glazed-over eyes, hearing sighs, and seeing some folks constantly checking phones or digging through purses. Sometimes conference-goers have “seen it all” and seem jaded and unengaged. So what can be done to shake things up a bit? You know they’re expecting yet another classroom-style lecture with a long deck of boring powerpoint slides combined with hours of unimaginative, uninspiring speeches. Thankfully your event and your messaging doesn’t have to be what everyone expects - combining the the artistic, theatrical, and technical together can reward you with amazing pay-offs instantly and far down the road.
In this situation, we had confirmed all the key details for a large annual conference happening in just a few days. Then the presentation team was ready but realized they felt stuck in a rut - they wanted to set their presentation apart since they had a hard message to deliver that was foundational for the rest of the conference. They needed to impress upon the participants the significance of the message and the brevity of the situation. But how to surprise the crowd into attention with something different? After some brainstorming, they knew what they wanted us to do - design and execute a 360º immersive galaxy effect for their keynote address.
This was an interesting idea we were excited to work out. Our challenge was having less than 72 hours to design and implement a 360º star field effect so that it was up and running for the executive rehearsal. Also, any solution needed to integrate into our pre-designed lighting strategy and equipment, all of which was necessary for each of the other sessions.
Time to embrace our inner nerd and geek out on technology. Our team immediately went on the hunt for lighting ideas and products that 1) would create the galaxy effect and 2) could be shipped to us in time or brought with us to the venue. We tested dozens of lighting products and sometimes our shop felt lit up like a disco! Conventional lights weren’t bright or dense enough to create a brilliant, tightly packed field of stars, but it turned out that laser fixtures with dispersion lenses did work.
We crafted a hanging truss support system in the middle of the ballroom large enough to accommodate over 30 laser fixtures all setup to shine on the inner ballroom walls.
After calculating and checking our measurements for lens refraction, pattern dispersion, overlap and visual consistency, we were ready to go hot. We opted for blue lasers to provide a feeling of a night-sky, aimed the fixtures above the heads of the audience members to avoid distracting anyone with blinding pinspots, and synchronized the fixtures together so the effect would initiate simultaneously and seamlessly. The canvas for our galaxy effect stretched more than 350 feet around the perimeter of the ballroom.
But enough about the details. What’s important is that the client was absolutely impressed and delighted. We had met the objective of doing something unique to wow the attendees and give them a sense that something big and important was about to happen in this keynote session.
We were proud to see the client beaming as the audience entered a darkened ballroom that transformed into an expansive planetarium, complete with a vast field of stars surrounding their senses.
Participants and presenters alike were talking about that keynote all week, referring to its message throughout subsequent sessions, breakouts, and even long after the event had concluded.
This was a great example of how painstakingly crafting a compelling atmosphere can completely transform the user experience and guarantee the delivery of a story that needs to stick in people’s minds and hearts. It was a real pleasure for us to do this kind of creative work and problem solving.
When you want your story to be remembered, a bit of risk combined with flawless execution may be just what you need. Are you looking for help executing some ideas and need a thought partner with creative flair and technical know-how?
Give us a call or email to get the ball rolling.
