We need more weddings, events and meeting that are unpredictable and unforgettable like this. Made me smile and the staff ran into my office to watch. Yes, this is how to do it! [And look, they filmed it and put it on YouTube for the entire world to share! That's using social media!]
Great way to promote social media!
Excellent!
We definitely need to do our events different and unexpected!
(needed to see it directly from youtube website though)
Cheers Jeff!
Well, allow me to share some event innovation experiences with you all:
Once upon a time, I was a bass player with the Boston Pops. Long story short, the bass section would often do spinning and other visual things, and it fell to me to be the ad hoc arbiter/choreographer of these visual embellishments to the show. It was entirely up to me as to what we would do and when, and I would pretty much make it up right on the stage on the spot. At the time, I was all of 25 years old.
This “bass section fooling around” was a long standing tradition, but it was never officially sanctioned by management. So I must tell you, every time I called for a “bass section spin,” my guts were tied up in knots. My mind would leap around with all sorts of thoughts about wondering if the crowd would enjoy it (they always did), was I pushing things too far (I was), would the management yell at me (they never did), and would I end up feeling like an incredibly stupid idiot (I often did).
Anyway, I’ll get to the point: in my experience, a lack of innovation is not caused by a lack of ideas. We have plenty of ideas, but we are endlessly taught to suppress them.
In the aforementioned fun little wedding video, wow, this is a wonderfully simple idea, and it’s something that almost every wedding party does at the reception (usually once they’re drunk). Even so, I’m willing to bet that more than half of the people in that wedding party had their guts tied up in knots just before they did this. I’m also willing to bet that there was at least one fuddy duddy in the audience who thought the whole thing was a terrible thing to do. And in most organizations, that lone voice of doom has tremendous clout, as they represent what we all fear the most– i.e., being thought silly or stupid.
To be honest, their dancing/choreography, for the most part, was nothing special. But their willingness to “put themselves out there” was overwhelmingly charming. This illustrates what really separates the greats from the also-rans in the music biz. It’s not talent or precision of execution. It’s the ability to manage and overcome the fear of looking stupid, and thereby achieve greater connection with the audience.
Large organizations tend to be risk averse. Without risk there is no reward, but of course, without risk . . . there is no risk. How far are you willing to push the risk envelope when you aren’t certain of the success of the venture?
I will risk being thought pushy and tell you that I blog and speak extensively about this topic.
— jl
Thanks @Justin & @KenaSiu for stopping by and leaving your comments. Justin, your story is great and had I been in your audience, I would have talked about you for days. After a couple of concerts, I would be asking my friends, what will they do next!