Welcome to Issue 4 of Van Dusseldorp’s Future of events. If you were forwarded this by a friend, you can sign up here.

GEOTUS picture on Reddit. -GEOTUS stands for "God Emperor of the United States," used to reference Donald Trump by some of his fans.

dear 503 lovely people!

That’s a big conference room full of you already! (If you live my life, that’s how you count people). If you know anyone else that should sign up, do tell them!

On with the news. To be honest, it’s hard to write a newsletter with all the spectacle on the world stage. Constantly checking Twitter and CNN does not help anyone, but we owe it to the world to witness it all don’t we?

Ethan Jacobs @ethanjacobslaw

OK doomscrolling is bad but have you SEEN the quality of the doom this week?

Today’s edition reflects that. This is a newsletter about events. And the Capitol riots were a hell of an event.

In issue one, I listed experience, expression, connection as essential reasons to go to an event. Well, bingo.

Symbol and sensation and spectacle and more. People dressed up for it. They took pictures. And live-streamed their moment in history. They felt seen. 'We love you. You're very special'

As we were all witnessing the horror, it struck me: this was a ‘’digital’’ event as much as it was a physical get-together. It started online, with online storytelling, community building, crowd coordination, all resulting in a piece of deadly performance art.

If You Were on Parler, You Saw the Mob Coming.

Kara Swisher interviewed the CEO of Parler, the right-wing social network that played a big role in getting this event set up. (Amazon, Google, and Apple are no longer servicing Parler now). In the interview, John Matze immediately linked Parler to the right to assemble. From If You Were on Parler, You Saw the Mob Coming

if people are just trying to assemble or they’re trying to put together an event — which is what a lot of people tried to do at this event today — there’s nothing particularly wrong about that.

Trump supporters gather outside the Capitol on Wednesday - phones in the air. John Minchillo / AP

Citizen investigator Melissa also provides insight into how the communications online took place, with little coordination from the top but a lot of smaller groups making plans. She calls it ‘‘stochastic terrorism in action’’.

Melissa (she/her) @LiteraryMouse

In regards to the #CapitolCoup, I’m in a unique position. I monitored forums ahead of time and then was present for the coup itself. These are my observations based on what I saw and the evidence that’s been collected so far. I reserve the right to adjust my analysis as needed.

The Pro-Trump Mob Was Doing It For The ’Gram

What about the actual experience of being right there? Buzzfeed described the riots as a meme-making social media performance. As reporter Elamin Abdelmahmoud writes, the pro-Trump mob was doing it for the ‘Gram:

They have been so influenced by experiencing the world on social media that when they go out into physical space they seemingly think foremost of this, a revolution as a branding exercise — the photos of the QAnon Shaman, the photos of the vaping rioter, the photos of the man with his feet on Pelosi’s desk, the ricochet in the far-right internet as proof of victory.
They were making content as spoils to take back to the digital empires where they dwell, where that content is currency.

The New York Times @nytimes

One white nationalist used a livestreaming site called Dlive to broadcast his actions during the riot at the Capitol on Wednesday — and made more than $2,000 doing it, according to some estimates.

nyti.msPro-Trump Mob Livestreamed Its Rampage, and Made Money Doing ItA site called Dlive, where rioters broadcast from the Capitol, is benefiting from the growing exodus of right-wing users from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Real-life is full of facts, but online anything goes. QAnon claims that a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring. Or something.

Seth Abrahamson (Attorney, Professor, Journalist) who this week also did a scary line-by-line break down of Trump’s speech to his mob, wrote a really interesting analysis of the gamification of reality by the Qanon crowd. He describes the Trump era as the First Reality War.

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

QAnon is an ARG (Alternate Reality Game). It was set up that way and is managed that way. QAnoners are playing an ARG and refuse to stop for the very reason transreality gaming can be hazardous: you can forget what's game and what's reality. QAnoners are lost in a dangerous game.

And now?

You are here for thoughts of the future of events. And the future of events is connected to how we live online.

People find each other online first, the event follows, and the tools for organizing and distributing are in the hands of anybody. An event still needs a script or a call to action for the participants to understand the plan. It’s just that different actors may get involved at any time.

I have the feeling that his digital world we live in will more and more influence not only what kind of in-person events we want to organize or attend, but also how we experience them. We will experience them as part of the digital realm, we will experience them together with people not on the spot but still there.

Let’s revisit that notion in a future edition of this newsletter.

If you have ideas, suggestions, if you disagree, do let me know!

Conversations

Do you organize an online/hybrid event that you are proud of? Invite me! I’d love to have a chat to find out what works and what does not!

Really totally random Share of the Day

Reeves @singfromthehair

Patty Labelle and Dolly Parton harmonize with each other and their acrylic nails 💅 😍

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