Here's the story of the Cutting Room Experiment, which ran in Manchester on Saturday 20th June 2009. The idea was to get as many people as possible to suggest an idea for one of 12 flashmobs, with the winning one in each stream being put into production by a professional events company. Here's the story of how the event was conceived, and how it went.

3. Who we are….

4. Cahoona
• Cahoona are a web innovations agency based in the Northern
Quarter.
• Specialise in producing functionality and content led websites.
• We work with people like:
– Umbro
– Band on the Wall
– PZ Cussons
– Ear to the Ground

5. Ear to the Ground
• Ear to the Ground are an events agency who conceive,
produce and promote experiential events.
• Clients include Orange, Topshop, Liverpool European
Capital of Culture and our own Dpercussion.

6. The brief
• To raise awareness of Cutting Room Square in Ancoats
through an event.
• Get 400 people there.
• It’s a complete one off.
• Limited Budget.
• No idea what to do.

8. Possibly the easiest brief in the world
…and the most difficult.

9. What shall we do?
• Film Festival?
• Music Festival?
• Installation Art Piece?
• Sports Day?

10. Let’s make it completely user
generated.
• Get the public to programme the festival.
• Get the public to vote for the ideas.
• Get the public to come to their event.

11. What did it need to do?
• Accessible for all, not just social media users.
• Fun and inviting – promote the concept.
• Users needed to be able to suggest and vote.
• The ideas needed to spread into different networks.
• Create post-event materials that would continue to
promote the space after the event

13. The Solution.
• Cutting Room Experiment.
• An entirely user generated event.
• Harness social media to spread the word.
• Use individual’s social connections to spread the word.
• 12 events. 1 day. you create..

14. The Social Connection.
• An experiment in promoting a space using social
technologies.
• Where the curators, the audience and the participants
are all the same.
• We wanted people to take ownership of their ideas and
promote them through their online social connections.

15. What were the challenges?
• People are unfamiliar with this kind of event, we had to
make it appealing and sound accessible.
• Good festivals and events are built up over time.
• One hit wonders are great if you can afford it.
• There was neither a profile or budget for Cutting Room
Square to build from.

16. How do we promote it?
• Every person who added an idea became a promoter.
– 100 ideas = 100 promoters
– Each tapping into their online networks
– Creating additional press opportunities as ideas came in
• Use the online community to spark immediate interest that
would last up to the event.
• Use online content to provide offline press opportunities.

18. The Website.
• It had to be easy to use for non-technically savvy people.
• It had to have the right look and feel for sophisticated
web users.
• We had to harness the power of popular platforms such
as Facebook and Twitter to spread the message.
• We changed the colour scheme as we entered each
phase of the project. Keeping it fresh, exciting and
dynamic.

19. Web shots

20. Web shots

21. Why did it create so much interest?
• People aren’t used to this kind of thing. Original and
ambitious.
• Each idea was a press story in it’s own right.
• People could take ownership of their idea and use it to
promote their own group or organisation.
• Social media community loves a social media story.

23. The Stats 103 ideas generated
1221 count me ins
197 comments made
770 people signed up
10229 unique visits
50032 page views
4.89 pages per visit (average)
4:42
minutes per visit (average)
534 group members on Facebook
311 followers on Twitter

24. The day included:
• The World’s Smallest Festival
– 1 tent, 3 girls, and a busker.

26. The day included:
• Swap Until You Drop
– A clothes swapping event.

28. The day included:
• Alka Seltzer Rockets
– Camera film containers powered by hangover remedy. It works.

30. The day included:
• Public Art Presentation
– Official unveiling of work created by Dan Dubovic.

32. The day included:
• Musical Statues
– Come on… we all bloody love it.

34. And our favourite…
• The Space Hopper race.

36. Where did we succeed?
• Massive public awareness.
• Over £100k press coverage.
• 7 weeks continual exposure for the client.
• Substantial data capture.
• A wild time had by all who attended!

37. What did we learn?
• Although great coverage was generated, event
attendance could have been better.
• There’s still a place for a headline act!
• How do you get Facebook and Twitter users to an event?
• The answer…

38. There isn’t one.
• It’s hard to turn a devoted online audience into a vibrant
offline one.
• There’s no magic formula.
• Idea sourcing is an exciting new way to generate interest
in something.
• It is not easy, it isolates people whos ideas are not
picked.

39. Final Thoughts
• The Cutting Room Experiment generated massive
interest, really putting the space on the map with the
people of Manchester.
• We’ve pioneered an innovative new way of programming
and promoting an event.
• We’ve gained experience in the area and have learned
how this approach can be developed further
• If you need something like this… get in touch!

40. Questions?