Converting Presentation into Experience
- pjwoolston
- Jan 1
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 10
Situation
As part of our work with music education, we present regularly to youth ensembles. This is an opportunity to reach two kinds of audiences: not just the prospective college music major, but also the college-bound high schooler. We pioneered many different kinds of value-added presentations that left students smarter and inspired, an absolute necessity since the time we spent presenting often came out of rehearsal time and would not be approved unless the youth ensemble leadership saw enough value in it. As other organizations began to mirror the kind of work we were doing, we were looking for a way to create an additional experience that would be more memorable and visceral than even the most engaging, educational, or entertaining presentation.
Solution
A fundamental tenet of the work of Woolston Inventive is creating experience by actively engaging the audience. While visiting a youth ensemble then, there is already a trained group of musicians. Since they were there to rehearse, we identified an opportunity to engage them as musicians, we just needed to change the parameters to engage their minds differently. We imagined a different kind of micro-rehearsal that we incorporated into the presentation. We gave each member of the ensemble a branded kazoo, and taught the group a mini-lesson via proxy with a volunteer from among them (in and of itself an engaging and entertaining experience!). Then we had the group’s conductor conduct them in a piece that they were working on where they all hummed their actual instrumental parts on the kazoo.
Success
This is such a unique and fun experience that infallibly the group devolves into ecstatic laughter. In addition to having an unexpectedly great time, participants leave with a branded keepsake (the kazoo) that reminds them of the experience; we effectively turned a cheap giveaway kazoo into a legitimate souvenir with staying power. Inevitably, the actual micro-rehearsal itself, just by nature of being so different from what is usual or expected, attracts a lot of attention, and you know you have created actual buzz when a sea of cellphones appears to capture the moment in picture and video, many of which are extent on YouTube today!
