The hallways are the product.

observation — attributed to Laurie Kirby

Panels are the pretext. The real value of a festival convening is the unstructured collisions — a Glastonbury veteran trading rain-plan notes with Summerfest's chief, a Sundance programmer trading discovery stories with a Cannes buyer, a Warped Tour founder talking next-gen safety with a municipal ops chief. The schedule should be designed for the collision rate, not the headliner. The mainstage is the alibi. The hallway is the thing.

For producers planning the next edition of a community-driven event.

hallways, format, programming, collisions