All the world's a stage
The latest in Studio Stories, our series unlocking creative thinking for modern events, is all about staging performance - elevating the event ordinary to event extraordinary, where your audiences can perform.
Studio Stories from M&IT is a series designed to spark imagination - and share practical, ready-to-adapt ideas for event planners hungry for creative alternatives.
Think of it as a conversation starter. A curated stream of activations, design concepts, and sensory experiences, all engineered to add value, energy and emotion to exhibitions, conferences, and brand events.
This edition considers your event as a stage. We design and build events, but the drama - is the people. Without people, nothing works, so think of your event space as a stage for human performance. Make your event an experience in performance by re-imagining the event ordinary as event extraordinary, where your audiences can perform.
Dancing on the ceiling
Stage an entrance with rhythm - activate your entrance experience with digital mirrors
Delegates walk through a multiples of upright screens. Picture a crowd of oversize live mobile phones with an onboard camera that mirror flips the image upside down of the delegates walking towards it. Add an irresistible drum rhythm soundtrack (or if you like it loud, a live jazz drummer) and watch your delegates watching themselves. As they walk, and watch, they’ll hop, skip and slip into the hypnotic rhythm as they realise their digital mirror selfies are dancing on the ceiling. Oh, what a performance, oh, what an entrance, oh what a feeling when we’re dancing on the ceiling.
Why it works:
- Starts your show with the energetic rhythm of joy
- Brandable storyfication that makes your audience the main act
- Delegates will literally see things differently
In the spotlight
Stage speed networking to a bigger audience
It's speed-networking-pod-casting-live-pitching in performance.
Set up a single speed networking table (stage) in a black out zone, under lights (studio), borrow from pod casting and add a camera and microphone on each of the two seats. Add an audience coral around (in the darkness) with audience headphones to tune in to the performance.
Go live - lights, camera, action. Under the spotlight our speed networkers/pitchers are one on one, but beyond in the darkness they are live pitching to another 50 delegates at a time. It's pitching or maybe audio-dancing in the dark.
Why it works:
- A recognisable format in performance, with an upgrade in content output
- A recognisable format with an upgrade in reach for brands
- A place for introverts and extroverts
Cut through the noise
Stage connections and conversations you’d like to hear
Make a performance out of your attendee list on your event app. Give your audience of wannabes the power to throw down gauntlets and mastermind duels as they vote/nominate two people they want to hear talk on a topic they want to learn about.
Pick two signature mastermind chairs to use wherever the performance happens (IYKYK). Host it ad hoc in theatres when not in use, DM the attendees who voted.
Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want – so tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
Why it works:
- Real connection and real conversation
- Reality for brand storytelling moments
- Real audience-powered reciprocity
Encore on demand
End each day by staging a performance after-party of content
Activate those empty show floor theatres that look so lonely at the end of the day. Turn them over to your delegates to re-visit the best of the day’s decks. Organisers can provide alcohol free drinks and an MC, but the stage is theirs.
Your star audience selects the decks, presents the decks, discusses the decks and reviews the day in performance – what rocks – or what sucks. Like the encore at a gig when the audience sings the last song, all audience hands on deck, kicking your can all over the place, singing, we will rock you, we will rock you.
Why it works:
- Crowdsourced authentic shared experiences
- Crowdsourced shareability and brandability
- Crowdsourced direct feedback
Why Studio Stories?
Studio Stories exists to give event professionals a creative nudge - a way to reimagine the experiences we design for our audiences; all filtered through a human lens.
It’s about making innovation meaningful. About connection, not gimmicks. About keeping creativity accessible, purposeful, and ready to activate.
Each story is just one spark in a much larger collection - a library of adaptable, affordable, and engaging experiences that M&IT will continue to explore through the Studio Stories series.
Because in a world where audiences crave authenticity, the best ideas don’t always cost the most.
