MKW 2022 Event Hub for Melbourne City Council and ISPT Property
narrm ngarrgu – Melbourne Knowledge Week (MKW) has provided a platform for innovators and creators to spark new ways of thinking.
Each Year, Melbourne City council runs events all over Melbourne’s CBD. In 2022 we were asked to host events and curate experiences at Foy’s Arcade, culminating in a week filled with amazing innovative and playful expereinces and discussions. We held innovative presentations, interactive exhibitions and panel discussions for the public to attend.
My role during this project was to support my client ISPT Property to pitch an event held at Foy’s Arcade to bring awareness to sustainability innovations in the property sector and bring experts to share knowledge, specifically around energy and waste management. With the intention of my role in delivering this project, producing the visuals and advising on an interactive experience to represent the progress of the sustainability goals which would hopefully lead to a reputation as experts in leading in this field.
I worked closely with Melbourne City Council where they countered with a pitch of their own, instead of a single event and exhibition we would also host other tech-related events that would fit into our space, as finding venues and hubs proved difficult coming out of the lockdowns in Melbourne CBD. This progressed to a deal being struck and contract signed where we agreed to host three additional events and one additional exhibition, all of which I would advise and support the organisers on delivering the desired experience for attendees.
The flagship event and exhibition was showcasing ISPT and Startup Bardee collaborating in reducing food waste with insect larvae for commercial and retail properties around Victoria. My tasks included producing all promotional graphics, social media tiles, promo videos and visual design for the entire event across many interactive screens. Each digital and analogue touchpoint required MKW, ISPT and Bardee branding, as well as a set look and feel, and also convey the story they all wanted to be told. I produced educational material showing the lifecycle of the insects, and the attendees could then view the insect products made at each point in the cycle and how each affected the environment and waste/carbon emissions.
This led to multiple ticketed talks, workshops and panel discussions where attendees could ask all manner of questions to these industry experts.
Another exhibition that was run concurrently at Foy’s was the “Nanobiosensing society” – a gesture controlled experience showing cancer cells with nano-particles attached to them, the visitor could zoom in and out, looking at the potential for targeted treatment at the cellular level.
An evening panel event was “Screening tomorrow” run by Deakin. This discussion looked at a theoretical future of screens, film, technology and entertainment all the way up to 100 years into the future. This also evolved into a discussion about the future of virtual ethics and morality in digital worlds.
Red Cross (Humanitech) also had two Panel events – “A Humanity-first approach to technology” – where we talked about prioritising designing technology in a way that benefits those who need it most, how humanity should be the foundation to the design, analysis, development and governance of frontier technologies, illuminating the latest insights and research. This was followed by “Frontier technology for social impact” – a provoking panel discussion on how frontier technologies are being used to tackle some of the biggest problems facing humanity.
The amount of work for this project ended up being huge, with many early starts and late nights producing all the materials, collaborating with so many vendors and companies, designing experiences, reviewing and building relationships. However, I’m glad I stuck it out because it ended up being an extremely fulfilling week.