On December 7-8, 2024, Spectrum Tokyo hosted the third edition of Spectrum Tokyo Festival 2024, bringing together over 400 attendees over two exciting days.Thank you all for your participation!

Since Spectrum Tokyo is run by a small team, we’re always busy and haven’t had many chances to share the full story behind the festival. So this time, I’d love to take you behind the scenes as the project manager of the event. Here’s a look at how our biggest event yet came to life!

For details on the sessions, check out this article:
Spectrum Tokyo Festival 2024 Presentation Materials & Reports

The Third Festival: New Challenges

With the goal of enhancing visitor experiences and fostering more interaction, we took on several new challenges this time. Here are some of them:

A New Cafe Area

We set up a dedicated cafe area where visitors could enjoy delicious coffee, located behind the Local Stage—did you manage to find it?

Since the Festival is a two-day event packed with content, we wanted to keep attendees energized with great coffee. More than that, we hoped the coffee would serve as a catalyst for conversation. With this goal in mind, our coffee-loving team member, Hal, took the lead in experimenting with the best way to serve high-quality coffee efficiently. (For more details, check out Hal’s blog entry in Japanese)

Previously, we ordered coffee from chain cafes, but this time, we took on the challenge of creating a dedicated cafe area, offering hand-dripped coffee. While the coffee itself received great feedback, the unexpectedly long lines led to significant wait times. It was rewarding to see so many conversations sparked by the coffee, but it also highlighted the challenges of event planning.

Stickers to Encourage Communication

At the event, everyone wore a pass around their neck. There were four types: general attendees, sponsors and partners, staff, and speakers, each with its own color and design.

This time, we introduced “language stickers” that could be added to the passes, allowing attendees to indicate the languages they speak.

Festival attendees weren’t just Japanese—around 20-30% had international backgrounds. As a team striving to be truly global, we had in-depth discussions before introducing these stickers.

The goal was to make communication easier without making anyone feel uncomfortable. However, we were aware of the risks: if implemented poorly, the stickers could unintentionally exclude people who only speak certain languages. Labels like “No English” would feel non-inclusive, and symbols or color-coding alone might not be effective.

In the end, we decided on a combination of flags, a globe icon, and text to represent the languages spoken. While this approach worked for now, we still see room for improvement. We’ll continue exploring ways to create a communication system that encourages inclusivity and meaningful connections without leaving anyone out.

New Premium Tickets

This year, we introduced premium tickets for the first time, created especially for those who have been supporting Spectrum Tokyo. While it’s a bit more expensive than the regular ticket, it includes premium merchandise and unlimited drinks at the bar. The pass features a crown icon, making it easy to spot Premium Ticket holders right away.

Since we offered some alcohol cocktails, we were initially concerned about what might happen with unlimited drinks. What if it led to a rowdy atmosphere? However, we decided to trust our attendees’ sense of responsibility—and they didn’t disappoint. Thankfully, there were no issues with excessive drinking, and we’re really grateful for everyone’s cooperation.

The premium goods were also a huge hit, making the Premium Ticket arguably the best deal of the event!

Beyond Novelties: Creating and Selling Merchandise

This year, driven by the strong vision of Spectrum Tokyo’s producer, Ryo, we created a diverse range of merchandise. With his background in band activities, where merchandise creation was common, Ryo developed a deep passion for crafting unique and meaningful items.

Typically, events hand out the same novelty items to everyone, but not all attendees may want or need them. To minimize waste, we introduced a system at Spectrum Tokyo Festival where visitors could choose the merchandise they wanted. This year, we offered an impressive 17 different types of goods—though we may have gotten a little carried away!

This time, we created premium goods, and some of these, along with other items, were made available for purchase. It was great to be able to create items truly valuable and desirable for our attendees.

The Power of Attention to Detail

This time, we were fortunate to have the support of many sponsor companies, and we received a lot of positive feedback about the sponsor booths. These booths significantly contributed to enhancing the event’s overall value.

This success is largely thanks to the sponsors’ understanding of the event’s goals. From the start, we communicated that interactive booths offering enjoyable experiences for attendees would be beneficial not just for the event, but also for the companies involved. As a result, our sponsors embraced this idea and brought to life concepts that exceeded our expectations. Once again, we were able to create booths that truly enhanced the event, and it felt like we were all building the experience together.

Staff-First Philosophy: Pursuing a Great Staff Experience

The event wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication of our volunteer staff, who generously gave up their holidays to help. My goal is not only for them to make new connections but also to gain valuable experience in event operations and feel a sense of accomplishment.

To make this possible, we avoided assigning fixed roles. Instead, we rotated staff through various tasks. While we did assign some staff members with prior food and beverage experience to manage areas like the cafe and bar, many staff members were responsible for different areas of the venue. Assigning Person A to the reception or Person B to the merchandise booth would make management easier, but wouldn’t promote meeting new people or understanding the full scope of event operations.

So, instead, we set up hourly shifts that allowed everyone to rotate through different responsibilities. However, organizing shifts for dozens of staff members is quite labor-intensive and takes about two days of adjustments.

That said, hearing staff members say things like “I had so much fun!” “I made new friends!” and “I want to do it again next year!” made it all worth it. This year, I was especially grateful for the staff who have returned for 2–3 years in a row. It’s often the small, less obvious details where I focus my efforts to create the best possible experience for our team.

Exciting Things Ahead for Future Spectrum Tokyo Events!

The Spectrum Tokyo Festival came to life thanks to numerous thoughtful ideas and collaborations. A big thank you to everyone who attended and contributed! Our team is enjoying all the feedback and photos shared under the hashtag #spectrumfest2024.

We look forward to seeing you at future Spectrum Tokyo events!

Staff Credits

Organizer : Ryo Sampei
Project Management, Staff Management: Arisa Nojima
Communications & Social Media : Marika Hirano
Food & Bar Guy : Noriaki Kawanishi
Coffee Guy : Haruta Masaki
Brand Identity : Miwa Kuramitsu
Web Design : Sho Kuwabara
Signs/Tickets Design : Ayako Suzuki / Shiho Inoue / Sho Kuwabara
Photography : Ayu Kitajima
Premium Swag Design : Kiyoe Yokokura

Stage Hosts : Chiaki Sato / Mizuki Yamamoto / Takeshi Yamada / Riho Ichiki
AMA Hosts : Tomoko Miyake / Katsuki Inoue / Oli Studholme / Shinnosuke Horiuchi (Brian)

Volunteers : Nozomi Hamanaka / Masakazu Ikeda / Shiho Inoue / Saori Iwai / Mayuko Kano / Mizuki Kobayashi / Hiroki Saiki / Masaya Takizawa / Chinatsu Tomiyama / Saya Yoshida / Ayako Suzuki / Atsushi Tsuboi / Mamiko Numajiri / You Kukita / Takeshi Asahara / Wakana Saegusa / Sakura Sumi / Shota Yoshizawa

Bar: Yuichiro Tamai / Yuki Ohta / Izumi Honnami / Aimi Hayatsu / Aino Kishimoto
Cafe: Hiroki Tani / Ayaka Morinaga / Soyoko Konda / Oki Hebiishi

Tech: Akimitsu Kino / Sho Kuwabara / Takanori Oki / Shusei Toda / Yuta Kojima

Partners: Y’s Curry / Aashirwad / Kurosaki Base / RINDA

Sponsors: GMO Internet Group, Inc. / note inc. / DMM.com LLC / Gaudiy Inc. / cybozu.inc / Bitkey Inc. / LegalOn Technologies, Inc. / SmartHR, Inc. / Morisawa Inc. / inquire Inc. / pixiv Inc. / Wantedly, Inc.

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The Spectrum Tokyo team is always eager for new challenges and growth. If you’re interested in Spectrum Tokyo or the Festival, reach out to us through our contact form. We’d love to hear from you!

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