Unless you’ve been living under a rock this past week, you’ve probably heard a little music festival was taking place in the deserts right outside of Palm Springs. Just one year shy of it’s 20th anniversary, Coachella’s colossal presence was the talk of the town world.
The event unlike any of its kind attracted the likes of A-List celebrities and any millennial willing to pay top dollar to see the hottest performances of the year by artists ranging from new-comers to the industries most timeless icons.
In the event planner world, this is without a doubt one of the most influential events that everyone has their eyes on. Coachella, and its infamous brand hosted off-site parties, set the trends for design, technology and experiential marketing in the events world for the rest of the year.
We give major credit to the team that can manage 3+ full days of planning and 300,000 people over the course 2 weekends – and while there may be many differences between Coachella and the events our agency plans, there are a surprising amount of similarities. In many ways, our boutique agency has a lot to relate to these planners:
« Invitations- EOE and Coachella planners agree that a piece of cardstock just isn’t going to cut it. Invitations are your guest’s first impression of their experience, so make it count! By shipping out boxes full of goodies pertaining to the event, attendees will be looking forward to the event until it’s time to arrive.
« We use compelling, HD visuals to captivate our audience too. At Coachella, In what has been considered quite possibly “one of the most impactful immersive experiences ever”, Obscura created the “120′ dome called The Antarctic — the largest geodesic projection dome in the world — and produced an 8-minute audiovisual program to be projected at massive scale in full 360º for audiences of 500 throughout the weekend.” While we’ve yet to wrap video 360º for our clients, one of our favorite WOW moments was creating a 3D Welcome Video to be projected at Paramount Studios for Beauty Prestige Group.
« We also illustrate custom maps when our event physically covers a lot of ground. A lost camper is not a happy camper!
« Events are inevitable to unforeseen hiccups. We are there to solve them, we learn from them, and we move on. Even on one of largest stages at Coachella, the highly anticipated performance by “Migos” started off rough with sound issues. Been there, done that.
« We share the belief that evolving is the best thing that we can do for our annual events. “Let’s just do what we did last year” is not the mindset we roll with. Coachella made big layout changes this year that made all the difference in improving guest experience from past years.
« We encourage our presenters (or performers for Coachella’s case) to be well prepared by rehearsing in advance. We ensure all A/V is loaded in properly and then allow our presenters rehearsal time to ensure they are comfortable. Beyonce took no chances reportedly logging 11 hour rehearsal days prior to her monumental performance.
The bottom line of any event, no matter the shape, size or budget, should be guest experience. With that in mind, events such as Coachella and internal meetings for Fortune 500 companies really can be similar in ways you wouldn’t expect.
Check out how we integrated “Glamping”, a popular Coachella theme, into our last event for bareMinerals in NYC.
See how we’ve been elevating guest experience from day one in our gallery.