Spectrum Tokyo Festival 2023 Event Report & Behind the Scenes
Spectrum Tokyo Festival 2023, held from December 2nd to 3rd, 2023, has ended with a great success. Thank you to everyone that was involved and to all who attended.
This is Ryo, organizer of the event, and here I would like to briefly summarize what we focused on for this event, along with photos from the day.
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Last year, since we announced the event just after two months from the launch of Spectrum Tokyo, we struggled with attracting attendees. However, this year, through the activities like webzine and meetups, we were able to build up the community and garner a lot of interest.
We had more than twice the number of attendees compared to the last year’s event in 2022. This year, tickets sold out during the early bird prices, and we ended up having many people on the waiting list for cancellations. We sincerely apologize to those who were unable to attend this year.
Representators of Diversity in Design
Over two days and two stages, there were a total of 36 sessions, with people from various fields and specialties conducting talks or workshops. Design is now everywhere, and I wanted to showcase its diversity and potential, so I deliberately created a diverse lineup without any specific themes. However, once the event started, it felt like there was a common theme running through it.
Each participant brought their unique dedication to their respective fields. The event connected design not just within itself but also with business and society, and emphasized the importance of eliminating biases to embrace diversity. Each speaker related the themes we set to their own work and digested it well, which ended up creating some sort of chemical reaction. I am sure this led to insights on how we should engage with design in the future. I am deeply grateful to all the speakers who took time out of their busy schedules at the end of the year.
For this event, we received many applications through our call to speakers process. I apologize to those who couldn’t make it to the final line-up. Many applications were interesting enough to be qualified, but we had to make tough decisions based on the balance of each content, industry, profession, and other factors.
The stages were divided into 2 stages; the Global Stage and the Local Stage. The larger Global Stage featured not only Japanese presentations but also English ones, with simultaneous interpretation provided for both Japanese to English and English to Japanese.
The Local Stage, compared to the Global Stage, was a slightly smaller area where we conducted not only talks but also workshops.
Ask Me Anything
For both stages, we arranged an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session where, after the presentations, attendees could move to a space next to the screen to speak with the speakers.
This arrangement was made to facilitate more casual conversations around the speaker after each talk. The reasons are as follows:
- Raising a hand to ask questions in front of a large, quiet audience can be intimidating.
- At the end of a Q&A session, lines often form around the speaker for individual consultations or business card exchanges, preventing the sharing of knowledge.
Therefore, we created an atmosphere where attendees could leave their seats, come to the AMA space in front, and surround the speaker in a smaller, more casual group.
Additionally, even if a talk is good, there isn’t always a question to ask. So, we also created an environment conducive to sharing feelings like “I resonated with that” or “That was good”, and where attendees can easily join in on others’ questions.
No livestream
Last year, the event was a hybrid of in-person and livestream format, but this year we fully committed to an in-person format. This was to maximize the value of the in-person experience.
Our festival offers attractions beyond the presentations on stage, and we felt that the value might not fully come across through livestreaming, something that had been a lingering concern since last year’s event. We emphasize the importance of AMA sessions and interactions in the mingle spaces as much as the presentations, but we couldn’t offer these experiences online (and it would be difficult to integrate them with the on-site event if we tried). Due to this limitation, we restrained from providing certain fun offline experiences to our online audience last year as it wouldn’t be fair to them.
Believing that the value of events lies in personal interactions and dialogues, we regretfully did not offer livestreaming this time for those who couldn’t attend in person.
To make a festival-ish experience
Swags
This year, we paid special attention to how we handled swags. In a typical conference, everyone receives the same items, but that can result in unnecessary items for some people. So, we distributed swag tickets this year, allowing attendees to choose any two items they liked.
Those who wanted to keep their luggage light could choose smaller items, and those who didn’t want anything could simply not take anything. This approach also allowed us to offer slightly more elaborate items, and even items like caps that might not appeal to everyone.
Bar & Catering
This year, with the aim of enhancing the drink experience, we set up a bar. We offered a wide range of drinks, not just alcoholic beverages but also numerous non-alcoholic options, which could be exchanged with drink tickets. There were even original cocktails like Spect-rum, which was exclusively made rum drink for this event.
Also, when you talk about music festivals in Japan, festivals and curry go hand in hand, so we invited curry vendors again this year. Moreover, we had different curry vendors for each day, showing our commitment to this idea. Of course, in addition to curry, we also offered a variety of foods like onigiri (rice balls), sandwiches, and kakinoha sushi (sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves) for attendees to enjoy.
Sponsor Booths
In the mingle area with food and bars, we also set up sponsor booths. This year, five companies participated, and each one embraced the festival’s theme with fun and engaging activities. We are careful with sponsor booths, as they can easily become one-sided marketing for the companies. Therefore, we ask sponsors to create something interactive and fitting for a design festival. The booths featured a variety of creative concepts, including swag, coffee, lotteries, and games, making the mingle space an enjoyable area on its own. Thank you to all the booth sponsors for their commitment!
(For a detailed report on the booths, please refer to the blog by Smartbank, as they have already written about it in detail.)
Wrapping up
With the cooperation of many, we were able to pull off another successful festival. Thank you again to the speakers, sponsors, staff, and most importantly, everyone who attended. Given the greater-than-expected response, I’m already pondering what to do next year, but I hope to upgrade and provide another enjoyable festival.
On the other hand, having fully shifted to an in-person format, I’ve started feeling the need to do something for those who couldn’t easily attend. Whether it will be online or a different form of in-person, I’m not sure yet, but I want to keep thinking creatively and coming up with interesting ideas for next year.
Our whole team looks forward to seeing you all at our future events!
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Finally, let me introduce all the talents that were involved to put together this great event. Thanks to all, and rest well!
Staff Credits
Organizer : Ryo Sampei
Project Management : Arisa Nojima
Communications & Social Media : Marika Hirano
Catering & Bar Owner : Noriaki Kawanishi
Staff Management : Akimitsu Kino
Data Management : Kentaro Ito
Brand Identity : Miwa Kuramitsu
Venue Design : Takumi Kadouchi
Web Design : Mizuki Yamamoto / Sho Kuwabara
Signs & Tickets Design : Ayako Suzuki / Sho Kuwabara
Photography : Ayu Kitajima
Stage Hosts : Katsuki Inoue / Shota Kawamura / Shiho Nagashima / Chiaki Sato
AMA Hosts : Riho Ichiki / Yu Koga / Ryuki Murakami / Takeshi Yamada
Volunteer Staffs : Nozomi Hamanaka / Aimi Hayatsu / Masakazu Ikeda / Shiho Inoue / Saori Iwai / Mayuko Kano / Mizuki Kobayashi / Soyoko Konda / Maki Matsumoto / Ayaka Morinaga / Tabito Otsubo / Hiroki Saiki / Hami Sasaki / Takayuki Shirasuna / Moeka Suzuki / Tafumi / Kanako Takai / Masaya Takizawa / Chinatsu Tomiyama / Saya Yoshida
Bar Staffs : Yosuke Doke / Mayu Ikezaki / Daiki Ishida / Junki Furukawa / Yuichiro Tamai / Kayoko Namba / Moeka Miyagawa / Megu Mito / Makoto Omura
Partners : Y’s Curry / Aashirwad / Kurosaki Base / Kanazawa Brewery / RINDA / Tsuji-Shuhan / je prends ca / Uchiki
Sponsors : Recruit Co., Ltd. / freee K.K. / TOYOTA Connected Corporation / DMM.com LLC / Gaudiy, Inc. / note,inc. / STORES, Inc. / Ubie, Inc. / pixiv Inc. / Heurithm, Inc. / inquire, Inc. / M3, Inc. / ZYYX, Inc. / Wantedly, Inc.
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