It’s quite a handy tool for your virtual event!
What in the world did Let’s Get Digital find now? It’s something called the defamiliarization effect – and it’s pretty useful! An instrument used in literature, arts and theater – but what does that have to do with organising the most stunning, incredible and surprising virtual or hybrid events? You’ll read all about it in our whitepaper! Or… just read on: on this blog we give you a quick rundown of the phenomenon.
What
A pretty long time ago, a Russian literature nerd called Viktor Shklovsky found that Tolstoyj (y’know, this famous Russian author whose books make your whole bookshelf collapse) used a strange method to entice his readers. Shklovsky dubbed it the Defamiliarization Effect, and the gist of it is this: if you let something strange happen in a specific paragraph, it puts the whole chapter in a different light.
Taken to the 21st century, it’s best put like this:
Say you take the metro each morning. Checking in with your electronic metro card is not a memorable event per se, because it happens every single day. Again and again. But what if the metrocard-pole suddenly started beatboxing instead of crying out it’s usual two-toned beep? There’s no way you’ll forget that from happening as quickly as you would when checking in regularly!
Why
Really, why would you bother using the defamiliarization effect?
To make sure your event is remembered and stored in the Long-Term memory, of course! Creating events that stand out, get remembered. And that’s exactly what we’re aiming for at Let’s Get Digital.
How
If Tolstoy did it, you can do it too!
By placing something unfamiliar in an otherwise regular experience, it becomes memorable. So: get weird! Shake things up! Create unexpected experiences!
Use for example:
- Our earthquake feature
Literally shakes things up and creates something for all participants to talk about. With each other, in the meeting or just.. in the lobby!
- Networking carousel
Okay, we might not be part of this physically, but we facilitate all your visitors meeting each other. With a countdown on the screen, smart matching and creating the possibility of meeting new people, you’re ready to see some fireworks.
- The possibility to chat anywhere, anytime.
Again, you’ll have to create the fireworks yourself, but be assured you’ve got all the tools to get the conversation started. Create a poll to ask everyone which fruit they’d be, or what they wanted to become when they were little kids. Create original, unexpected questions and let the defamiliarization effect do it’s work!
There’s a small risk to overdo it, though. So try to balance it out. If your visitors can’t even hear your guest speaker over the incredible sound effects you’ve placed over his voice, it’s not the way to go. It might still be memorable, but for exactly the wrong reasons.
We’ve got the tips and know-how on how to get your event remembered for all the right reasons. And we love to share this with you!
Read up on more defamiliarization, how to get an event remembered and much, much more in our whitepaper:
