'Go big, or go home' KPN must have thought. The previous edition of The Digital Dutch was already a sensation that went down in the books as unprecedentedly spectacular. This year, the organisation went even further. Alle Welling, event organiser and box manager KPN: 'We have set the bar very high for next year.
Choice of online
Klaas Rohde, owner of the event agency Fjuze, has been organising the event in collaboration with communications agency Steam for several years. He talks about this year's production approach: 'Last year, we were forced to convert our production to a digital version within a month. This year we knew: we'll keep it digital with Jaarbeurs as our starting point. Why? Because last year's success was in the size of the event. We could have just hired a small studio. After all, by corona, everyone fell back on content. But content does not come into its own if the form is not right. The Digital Dutch stands for experience: big, intense and relevant. A big set, in other words.'
Go big, or go home
And so it came to pass: Jaarbeurs was converted into The Digital Dutch control room and a stage of no less than 30 by 80 metres was built. Welling adds: 'I personally don't really believe in a digital fair where you virtually walk through as a visitor. So we preferred to make a kind of film, which is why we chose a studio with an immense stage with depth and warmth. We also physically recreated our network throughout the Netherlands. To portray that, you not only depend on square metres, you also have to have the height.
"I think we may have built the biggest studio in Europe."
Digital opportunities and innovations
Anyone who knows The Digital Dutch a little knows that the event is all about digital opportunities and innovations. The innovation floor of the physical event is a great reflection of this: here, KPN shows what it achieves together with its customers and technology partners in terms of innovation. But in the absence of a physical floor, the organisation was forced to go off the beaten track.
A genius twist resulted: the participants watched live as drones flew from Jaarbeurs to all sorts of places where digital transformation is taking place now. Among others, they flew to Zaandam, where participants were told Albert Heijn's 'secret': building a 'digital twin'. They got a look behind the scenes at the Solar Team in Eindhoven and at Brekr, an e-bike from the Achterhoek region. The journey ended at the Police. Here, the audience was allowed to watch a cyber specialist at a digital investigation.
Live or online?
With more than 6,000 viewers, The Digital Dutch was a great success again this year. Both men look back on it as hugely positive. Yet there is something Rohde misses: the live feedback from visitors: 'Getting the reaction back from your audience, that's what you do it for. Nothing beats the physical experience. You feel the bass vibrating through your body, experience the depth of such a hall and the grandeur of the event. Filmmakers don't know that. Event managers do. I can't wait to bring that experience and emotion back inside people.'
Welling hooks up: 'We definitely don't want to let go of this success. But Rohde is right; the value of conversation and experience, is greater in real life. So we are secretly already struggling with next year, we have set the bar very high.' Rohde also agrees: 'In 2019, we put on a fantastic event. And this year a complete online edition. The two should now flow into each other. For now, we intend to hold it in Jaarbeurs again. It will be a powerful fusion of online and physical.'
Text by: Claire van Berkum /Photography by: Floris Heuer
