The Future of Live Experiences in Africa

Sample editorial. This is not a forecast issued by JMC and it cites no private research.

Live experiences across the continent already carry two audiences: the people in the room, and the people who will meet the day through a stream, a clip or a photograph. Treating the second audience as an afterthought produces a record that looks nothing like the event.

Design the record with the room

The practical shift is to plan cameras, light and the run of show together. A keynote that cannot be framed, a panel washed in light that favours the set over the faces, a stream with no thought for translators: these are design failures, not technical bad luck.

The other shift is hospitality. A live experience is remembered for how it felt to arrive, wait, hear and leave. Production that only optimises the stage picture forgets the delegate who could not find the session. The future worth building is not more spectacle. It is gatherings whose care is visible both in person and later.

If the photograph could not have been taken at the event, it is advertising. If it could, it is a record.