Remote Christmas party for Samsung

Galaxy Lametta Xmas Party! That was our take on a remote Christmas party for 450 Samsung employees at home in Austria and Switzerland. Ninety minutes hosted, commented on and interpreted by Hazel Brugger in an ugly sweater, delivered in under 4 weeks.

Video (Vimeo)

Highlights:

• Interactive Christmas tree bringing photos from home offices straight into the studio
• Chat and calls with Hazel Brugger
• Live sets by DJ Ronfa from French-speaking Switzerland
• Interactive illusion with magician Arthur Roscha, for people to try at home: it works!
• Speeches from management in ugly sweaters, plus our Lametta Christmas Secretary looking after the chat

The surprise studio guest was comedian Kaya Yanar, who joined Hazel for a laughing verbal contest at the Lametta Lucky Wheel.

Before the event, we sent almost 500 parcels containing ugly socks, a card set and sweets to employees in Switzerland and Austria. We planned and delivered a shoot at Samsung Switzerland’s headquarters, scouted the location and developed the concept, look and feel, and landing page.

Delivery

• Content concept: story, connecting theme and dramatic arc
• Graphics
• Technical concept: streaming, chat and call channels, social wall
• Overall event management, script, copy, schedule and production plan
• Interactive photo activation: technical workflow and delivery
• Landing-page design and programming
• Parcels: story-led contents, ordering, packing, shipping and coordination in Switzerland and Austria
• Artist coordination, contracts, briefings and support
• Location scouting
• Decoration concept for the streaming location, including set-up and take-down
• Organisation of the streaming shoot, including catering, parking and COVID measures
• Camera crew, direction and streaming in collaboration with Smovie
• Reporting and debriefing

A new era of events brings new questions

Remote events opened up a new field. They brought questions and challenges that we addressed with common sense, new ideas, a willingness to take risks and plenty of adrenaline.

With remote events still in their infancy, there was a lot of trial and error. These are some of the questions we worked through:

How long should a remote party last?

We cut the initial 3-hour plan to around 1.5 hours, mindful of how long participants would spend in front of a screen.

How can live music work, taking latency, budget and technical challenges into account?

We chose live DJs on site. This was technically manageable while retaining a live atmosphere and opportunities to interact.

How can we put a stream on a landing page in the party’s look and feel, with a technical setup that will not collapse?

We chose a conventional streaming setup, separating the chat and social wall to keep the data load from 400 simultaneous users on the streaming page under control.

Which COVID-19 risks need to be considered and reduced? What if artists, camera crew or our team have to drop out shortly beforehand because of quarantine or similar reasons?

We created a risk register and did need to use it: the original DJs from Berlin could not travel because of lockdown. Four days before the event, we had to book and brief a new DJ in Switzerland and prepare 3 sets.

Everyone on set had to present a current negative COVID-19 test.

What would you like to know about remote events?

We have put together a Know-How page about remote events.