Multi-sensory Event Experience
Our daily interaction with the world around us involves a number of sensory perceptions including sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. All of these senses combine to provide us with rich, layered experiences that help us engage with the people (and even the objects) around us.
If any activity engages only one or two of our senses for a long period of time, we often come away feeling something in the overall experience was lacking, and that we did not get the most out of the time we invested in it.
In an article titled ‘Please touch the merchandise’, the Harvard Business Review cites a number of research studies to highlight how our decision making is almost imperceptibly influenced by the multi-sensory sensations we experience in our day-to-day lives.
When these studies started to emerge a decade or so ago, retailers were quick to understand the implications and absorb the lessons. From mood lighting to subtle perfumes to free testers, they tried everything in the game to bring in the crowds and boost sales. Nowadays, it is a well-recognized maxim that carefully modulated environments can trigger nostalgia as well as curiosity, helping to draw ever-growing crowds into stores as well as to loosen the purse strings!
Smart event planners are also focusing on providing multi-sensory experiences to keep the event participants engaged and entertained. Gone are the days of long, dull treks down an exhibit hall, or session after session filled with monotonous presentations. Exhibitions and meetings, where attendees are being offered a variety of new and engaging experiences, are breaking the mold and growing faster than their competition. Be it through creative lighting design, gourmet food services, trendy touchscreens, interactive gaming or guided tours, these initiatives are proving a big hit with attendees, especially those who crave new experiences when they return to an event!
Here are some articles that highlight how creative show organizers across the globe are successfully providing multi-dimensional and novel experiences to their attendees:
- http://www.bizbash.com/see-guests-dine-at-an-oversize-artists-palette/los-angeles/story/28239
- http://www.connectyourmeetings.com/feature/building-a-healthier-attendee-experience/
- http://www.wassermanexperience.com/news/the-worlds-first-multi-sensory-fireworks-display/
- http://techcorner.tsnn.com/content/a2zs-chirpe-photo-booth-creates-buzz-and-showfloor
- http://www.successfulmeetings.com/Event-Planning/conference-management/Articles/The-Top-Four-Meeting-Trends-of-2014/
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