Barbies, Wonka and boring spaces.
In 2024 we had the Glasgow Willy Wonka world wide sentation that had rocked the news outlets in multiple countries. An event so bad that it made it to the comedy sketchs, almost parodied to complete decimation.
An event that left much to wonder and much to the imagination. The next most recent example that was met with (in my personal opinion) much harder push back from the attendees and vendors was the Barbie Dream Fest in my homestate of Florida.
Pictured above is the roller rink that was promised to be themed along with other parts of the convention space. Problems with lost product for vendors, acoustics for the performances, lack of decorations and too much empty space had plauged this convention in particular.
A lot of substitions in both events had been a great downfall to the execution. Over promising and underdelivering can impact multiple parties, the venue, the planner and the associated brands.
Nothing can replace the proper execution and planning of people that are properly equipped and knowledgeable with the kind of intuition and understanding the industry and the other key players.
This was a common problem to be found with designers, planners and leaders that don't have proper grasp of what the current space and location is.
Let me tell you a quick story of when I was a castmember for Epcot during their Frozen Dessert Party. The design for the storage cabinet that was to be shuffled from one corridor to the next in the lagoon area near the store, the wheels and weight distribution were not thought of with inclines and ramps. There was not the proper wheels that were utilized to move up and down a ramp with consistent momentum and the way it sealed didn't particularly help the contents always stay inside.
The difference is, since this event was recurring, future iterations were implimentented with these problems in mind.
The problems these two shows had, time can't unfortunately turn around what has happened. What good planners, designers and leaders do is learn from their own and other's mistakes and listen to the feedback.
I hope these organizers, if they do decide to try again, to listen to the feedback and be ready to design from the ground up.
Comments
Post a Comment