[Music]
hello and thank you
my name is again John Devlin and I am
the artistic director and conductor of
gourmet symphony and at gourmet symphony
we unite classical music with culinary
experiences in a way that we believe
modernizes the definition of what a
performance can be and what I’m going to
talk to you about today may in many ways
sound obvious and that is exactly the
point because what we have found is that
many of the best most innovative ideas
are in fact glaringly obvious but they
are difficult for current organizations
to implement within their current
structures now let’s take advantage of
this because as I will argue with the
right type of innovative thinking the
very smallest of organizations can have
a profound impact and by beginning with
incremental positive change very quickly
we can arrive at radical innovation so
what I would like us all to imagine
today is that we are the leaders of a
startup about to enter a crowded
marketplace what should we do first and
what questions should we ask of
ourselves I’m going to provide you with
gourmet symphonies model of thinking as
a possible pathway to success so let’s
begin by evaluating sameness in our
industry what are others operating under
as a given well for gourmet symphony the
given was the traditional method of
classical concert format now you might
not be a regular in the concert hall but
you probably have a memory of an
experience that went something like this
you walk into the auditorium and there’s
the orchestra far away up on a stage you
find your row and the stadium style
seating and shimmy in sorry I didn’t
mean to step on your foot okay thank you
and you park yourself here next to you
is your date for the evening and to your
left is a complete stranger you’ll never
talk to the concert began at a strict
time it ended at a strict time and
moving in and out during the performance
is not allowed you’re expected to know
when to clap you’re expected to know
something about the music you’re hearing
and when we do communicate with you it’s
through notes in a program book rather
than by the artists on the stage on top
of all of this your cell phone stays in
your pocket and food and drink are not
allowed now that’s a lot so let’s break
this down into three areas for potential
innovation first this experience is not
an interactive nor is it an immersive
one the concert communicates with you
only through sight and sound second the
experience is a prescribed one and what
I mean by that is that you the audience
are expected to understand and behave in
assumed ways and number three all of the
traditional elements of an awesome
evening out food drink conversation
they’re not included so now that we’ve
identified areas in which we can
innovate to whom can we turn for
inspiration well what we at gourmet
symphony did was we looked at peer
industries that we felt were delivering
an excellent customer experience we
looked at sports stadiums movie theaters
and restaurants we looked at amusement
parks popular music venues and museums
and the lessons that we learn from these
industries we apply to our own by making
dozens of tiny changes to the concert
format that we think add
up to something big and we determined
for ourselves five guiding principles
that would dictate the design of each
and every one of our events so to begin
the first of these principles is
positioning think about the sports
experience just like at a basketball
game we are moving our orchestra from
far away up on a stage to the very
middle of the performance space then
we’re going to allow our audience to
stand or sit 360 degrees around the
ensemble providing innovative vantage
points and a sense of intimacy between
our audience and the performers second
we believe in artist engagement think
with me if you will about the last
popular music concert you attended the
art artists probably spoke to you from
the stage between every song well at
gourmet symphony we are lucky to have 60
artists and we want them to fully engage
with our audience they are our best
ambassadors so we build in time during
every one of our shows for chance
encounters like this one or during
organized time when the musicians leave
their instruments move to the tables and
eat and drink with our our audience
members number three we believe in free
time think about your experience at a
museum you guide it yourself there’s no
schedule you paced the experience and
communicate with those around you as you
would like
think about sporting events you’ve got
halftime and the seventh-inning stretch
and commercial breaks this is more time
to spend socializing with the others
around you and thinking about the
experience you’re having so at gourmet
symphony we’ve developed what we call
the 30% rule and what we mean by that is
that our events last about three hours
during which you will hear an hours
worth of music during the other times
we’ve structured it so that you
and socialize eat and drink mingle with
the musicians and make new friends with
those at your table rule number four we
think people like to eat and drink now
the restaurant industry certainly has
figured this out but also what would a
baseball game be without the hotdogs or
the movie theater be without the popcorn
so at gourmet symphony we utilize this
idea in fact we’ve built our
organization around this idea and we
artistically curate your musical and
culinary experience in a way that
touches all five of your senses and
lastly we believe in cell phones don’t
you every industry we looked at except
with the notice with the noticeable
exception of the movie theater
encouraged cell phone use what a great
thing we think so as well and we want
you to broadcast to your networks that
you’re at a gourmet symphony event share
with your friends what you think about
it it’s great for our brand and it
allows the audience to dictate the role
that technology plays in its experience
now these five principles allow our team
a structure within which we can do our
innovation and it has reserved for us an
important place in the DC cultural
landscape and a very loyal following
amongst our audience now for any
artistic organization to innovate you
must confront a long and important
history and then adapt that history to
the modern audience and aesthetic our
team from the very beginning pledged to
honor that history while creating a
viable alternative to the traditional
concert format the result has been a
much-needed choice of experience for our
audience and for first-time and veteran
concert goers alike that is our story of
impact and of innovation and we hope
that it can inspire your own thank you
you
hello and thank you
my name is again John Devlin and I am
the artistic director and conductor of
gourmet symphony and at gourmet symphony
we unite classical music with culinary
experiences in a way that we believe
modernizes the definition of what a
performance can be and what I’m going to
talk to you about today may in many ways
sound obvious and that is exactly the
point because what we have found is that
many of the best most innovative ideas
are in fact glaringly obvious but they
are difficult for current organizations
to implement within their current
structures now let’s take advantage of
this because as I will argue with the
right type of innovative thinking the
very smallest of organizations can have
a profound impact and by beginning with
incremental positive change very quickly
we can arrive at radical innovation so
what I would like us all to imagine
today is that we are the leaders of a
startup about to enter a crowded
marketplace what should we do first and
what questions should we ask of
ourselves I’m going to provide you with
gourmet symphonies model of thinking as
a possible pathway to success so let’s
begin by evaluating sameness in our
industry what are others operating under
as a given well for gourmet symphony the
given was the traditional method of
classical concert format now you might
not be a regular in the concert hall but
you probably have a memory of an
experience that went something like this
you walk into the auditorium and there’s
the orchestra far away up on a stage you
find your row and the stadium style
seating and shimmy in sorry I didn’t
mean to step on your foot okay thank you
and you park yourself here next to you
is your date for the evening and to your
left is a complete stranger you’ll never
talk to the concert began at a strict
time it ended at a strict time and
moving in and out during the performance
is not allowed you’re expected to know
when to clap you’re expected to know
something about the music you’re hearing
and when we do communicate with you it’s
through notes in a program book rather
than by the artists on the stage on top
of all of this your cell phone stays in
your pocket and food and drink are not
allowed now that’s a lot so let’s break
this down into three areas for potential
innovation first this experience is not
an interactive nor is it an immersive
one the concert communicates with you
only through sight and sound second the
experience is a prescribed one and what
I mean by that is that you the audience
are expected to understand and behave in
assumed ways and number three all of the
traditional elements of an awesome
evening out food drink conversation
they’re not included so now that we’ve
identified areas in which we can
innovate to whom can we turn for
inspiration well what we at gourmet
symphony did was we looked at peer
industries that we felt were delivering
an excellent customer experience we
looked at sports stadiums movie theaters
and restaurants we looked at amusement
parks popular music venues and museums
and the lessons that we learn from these
industries we apply to our own by making
dozens of tiny changes to the concert
format that we think add
up to something big and we determined
for ourselves five guiding principles
that would dictate the design of each
and every one of our events so to begin
the first of these principles is
positioning think about the sports
experience just like at a basketball
game we are moving our orchestra from
far away up on a stage to the very
middle of the performance space then
we’re going to allow our audience to
stand or sit 360 degrees around the
ensemble providing innovative vantage
points and a sense of intimacy between
our audience and the performers second
we believe in artist engagement think
with me if you will about the last
popular music concert you attended the
art artists probably spoke to you from
the stage between every song well at
gourmet symphony we are lucky to have 60
artists and we want them to fully engage
with our audience they are our best
ambassadors so we build in time during
every one of our shows for chance
encounters like this one or during
organized time when the musicians leave
their instruments move to the tables and
eat and drink with our our audience
members number three we believe in free
time think about your experience at a
museum you guide it yourself there’s no
schedule you paced the experience and
communicate with those around you as you
would like
think about sporting events you’ve got
halftime and the seventh-inning stretch
and commercial breaks this is more time
to spend socializing with the others
around you and thinking about the
experience you’re having so at gourmet
symphony we’ve developed what we call
the 30% rule and what we mean by that is
that our events last about three hours
during which you will hear an hours
worth of music during the other times
we’ve structured it so that you
and socialize eat and drink mingle with
the musicians and make new friends with
those at your table rule number four we
think people like to eat and drink now
the restaurant industry certainly has
figured this out but also what would a
baseball game be without the hotdogs or
the movie theater be without the popcorn
so at gourmet symphony we utilize this
idea in fact we’ve built our
organization around this idea and we
artistically curate your musical and
culinary experience in a way that
touches all five of your senses and
lastly we believe in cell phones don’t
you every industry we looked at except
with the notice with the noticeable
exception of the movie theater
encouraged cell phone use what a great
thing we think so as well and we want
you to broadcast to your networks that
you’re at a gourmet symphony event share
with your friends what you think about
it it’s great for our brand and it
allows the audience to dictate the role
that technology plays in its experience
now these five principles allow our team
a structure within which we can do our
innovation and it has reserved for us an
important place in the DC cultural
landscape and a very loyal following
amongst our audience now for any
artistic organization to innovate you
must confront a long and important
history and then adapt that history to
the modern audience and aesthetic our
team from the very beginning pledged to
honor that history while creating a
viable alternative to the traditional
concert format the result has been a
much-needed choice of experience for our
audience and for first-time and veteran
concert goers alike that is our story of
impact and of innovation and we hope
that it can inspire your own thank you
you
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