Activate the hallways; the action moved out of the room.

technique — attributed to Chris & Jill Drury

When the Drurys started, the model was a stage, a show, and hallways where attendees hung out waiting for the next workshop. They saw the hallways as the unrealized opportunity. Their first social-space experiment, paid out of pocket because even IBM hesitated to fund it, used highboys, couches, branded power strips, and white furniture carrying the event branding into the corridor. Now every conference activates its hallways. The move has continued into the streets. The principle generalizes. The most undersigned spaces of an event are often where the participants spend the most time. The team that takes the corridor seriously gets disproportionate engagement for low marginal cost.

For conference designers, corporate event teams, and venue planners. The technique is most useful as a question (where do attendees actually spend their time) when budget defaults to the main stage.

hallway-design, social-space, branding, informal-interaction