Last Friday I attended Transmedia Storyteller’s Conducttr Conference.

There aren’t many things that get me up at 3.50am, on a train by 5am and in London by 8am.

But this did.

So I want to share my experience of the day, and write up some of the projects being presented (with a few take away points…)

City of Conspiracy (CoC) – Jonny Virgo

“It’s Dan Brown Meets Harry Potter With More Black People In It”

Jonny Virgo, not only surprised us all with his energy levels at 9am on Friday morning but also with his conspiracy-rich (mid speech) rap.

Partners – The major point I took from the presentation was the importance of partners when distributing the project. TimeOut, Groupon and Amazon, for example, were all partners that generated hits for CoC.

While there isn’t currently a secure business model in place for CoC (which currently relies on individual events and sales to generate revenue) it will be interesting to see where this project goes, and how Jonny manages to turn his project into a consistent revenue generating product.

Creative Passion – It is clear to me that Jonny has pure passion for his art, chatting to him afterwards was like a nostalgia trip, as we both arrived at Transmedia in similar way. Unaware of what the hell it was, but excited of the potential it could hold for our respective ideas.

It’s a simple point, but keeping the passion at the heart of a story was a massive standout point to me, and it was refreshing to see it in Jonny’s talk.

You can see more of Jonny’s Project here: http://www.cityofconspiracy.com/

So, already inspired (and jotting down ideas for future projects) I was ready for Jill Golick to take centre stage.

Ruby Skye P.I. – Jill Golick

“Wherever The Audience Is, That’s Where They Find Us”

Ruby Skye is awesome. Great story storytelling, great production value and most importantly, great interactive experiences. I was extremely impressed by how well the story and the characters blended together with the interactive puzzles given to the audience online.

Character Interaction – There was something so special about the seamless breaking of the fourth wall, where protagonist Ruby Skye talks to you the viewer, and asks you for help in her investigation, mid-scene, before stepping back into her fictional storyworld.

This is then followed up by a link to one of many online destinations, which piece together clues from the webisode, allowing you the viewer to communicate directly with the character. WOW!

Marketing – Approaching popular online personalities, who are directly associated with the themes of the story, or integrating real life charities into the series, all VERY smart ways of getting their project in front of the right audiences. This was definitely the standout point of the session.

Definitely check this one out here: http://rubyskyepi.com

By this point, I had already forgotten that I’d been up 7 hours and hadn’t eaten…

I was hungry, but it wasn’t food I needed, it was more information!! After a quick coffee break it was time to hear Alison Norrington and Nataly Rios.

The Chatsfield: The Loedown – Alison Norrington & Nataly Rios

“A website about a hotel, not just a hotel website”

Designed as an online Transmedia project, The Chatsfield puts the audience at the heart of a murder mystery, and right off the bat I knew I loved the product.

Graphic Design – The look and feel of The Chatsfield Hotel was phenomenal. Alison spent a lot of time describing the effort and research of the design and rightly so. The logos and designs were breath taking.

I wish I could have spent a night in The Chatsfield Hotel (despite the murders).

Fragmented Storytelling – As a writer myself, It was great to see how the story was delivered to the audience. And Alison was keen to show interactive touch points and onscreen emails, clues, and domains. I was also VERY impressed with Nataly’s story development process of working backwards, from end to start. Treating it like a mathematical problem – very cool.

Social Integration – Finally, a major takeaway point for me was the difficulty that the story had in connecting social audience with each other. It’s interesting that, of those who participated in the mystery story, very few socialised with each other online to share clues or insights – despite having a designated space to do so. You can never predict what they will or won’t do.

Check out the trailer for the Loedown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AEBSteF1Mc

And more info here: http://www.millsandboon.co.uk/marketing/the-chatsfield

In Part 2…

Part 2 of this post will pick up with the highly anticipated presentation by Belen Santa-Olalla, and her experience with the Game of Thrones/ Canal+ project 19 Reinos.

It was pretty jaw dropping.

Ok – there’s more – go here for Part 2