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Below is the translated version of the article published on the ovice website in Japanese.
Tools and practices described in the article apply only to Goldfish Summer located in
Japan and may be different from those at other branch offices.
Yano Yuuki from ツナサポ.
The team of the Goldfish Summer Festival – a virtual event for artists – used ovice to set up an immersive event venue and create an enjoyable experience for artists and guests.Our team interviewed the event planning team to learn why they chose ovice and how they used the platform to plan and host a successful event.
Yano Yuuki:
My name is Yano Yuuki and I am running a customer support company called ツナサポ（TsunaSapo）. Also, we plan small events and build communities. I am also working at an accounting consulting company.
I work to help companies improve the efficiency of their accounting departments through the use of cloud-based tools.
mo.ka:
I am a singer-songwriter. I’ve been active for 3-4 years but, when the COVID outbreak started, I created a baked sweet potato food truck so I’m managing that as well.
LUCALAND:
My name is LUCALAND, I am a singer-songwriter. Usually, I collaborate with artists such as a painter, dancer, or musical actor and we hold live performances together. Right now I am holding a live performance “LOOK AT WONDERLAND” that encourages viewers to use all 5 senses.
Yano Yuuki:
Right now we would like to talk about the “Goldfish Summer Festival” – a virtual event we are organizing.
Yano Yuuki:
This time, we were planning to manage the “Goldfish Summer Festival” – a virtual art festival. During the pandemic, many artists can’t continue their activities, so they move their stages online. We, too, wanted to create such a space.
This time, I’m doing the planning together with two artists: Mo.ka and LUCALAND. Due to COVID-19, they had no way to hold live performances.
LUCALAND:
When I heard about the idea, I was really excited. I thought “It looks like something new is going to be born”. Until now, I was hosting events at physical sites but it would be the first time doing something similar in a virtual space.
I kept wondering “What’s going to come out of this?” It felt like we are exploring and building things as we go.
It’s been over two years since the COVID outbreak – all this time I couldn’t do live shows. I had no idea what kind of future I could picture for myself. There was no end in sight. I was really stressed.
Other than myself, there were many artists overwhelmed with the same feeling of anxiety. I thought it would be nice to create a new chance to express ourselves in the outside world. I made this event hoping many people would see it.
mo.ka:
At the end of the day, when you hold a live show, you want to invite the audience but, since I couldn’t ensure everyone’s safety, I couldn’t have people come to my shows anymore.
As I was worried about that, I heard the idea to make an online space where you can interact with everybody and talk to people. I was really grateful and excited to join.
I used the keyword “goldfish” because, as a kid, I admired the look of shiny goldfish that were freely roaming in my aquarium. I also wanted to be like that for a while. Of course, as I was growing up, I realized I can’t ever become a goldfish and moved on to a dream of becoming a piano teacher.
During COVID, life became a lot more restricted so I came back to my childhood memories and thought: “It would be nice to move around freely the way goldfish do”. That’s how “goldfish” became our keyword.
Yano Yuuki:
As the three of us held planning meetings, we gathered a lot of ideas. At one of such meetings, LUCALAND said she always wanted to hold a art festival. Since I consult people on cloud-based tools, I knew about ovice and thought it would be a great tool to use for an online art festival. That’s how we ended up using ovice.
LUCALAND:
I heard you can freely change the background in ovice so I asked nenco, an amazing artist to create a theme park type of layout for the art festival.
Yano Yuuki:
Since this year’s concept is “goldfish”, the avatars of all guests entering the venue become a goldfish image. Since we did that, during the event it looked like a lot of goldfish were gathered around the space. They were moving around and it looked like a Great Goldfish Migration. The look of it alone was great fun.
mo.ka:
Also, we create “food stands” where we can order foods and enjoy eating them at home besides singing and talking in there. Since I am running a baked sweet potato food truck, I made sure guests can order food online and have fun during the event while eating together. During the event, there was a food stand for my baked sweet potato food truck – many other food shops had such stands as well.
As for the structure of the event, there was a shopping zone in the layout – if someone clicks there, they go to that restaurant’s page where they can order online.
Yano Yuuki:
After hosting the virtual art festival, I thought it was great that everyone was able to show their artwork to the world. I was happy that ovice made it easier for performance and guests to communicate.
Through the chat feature, we could get a lot of comments, and with the “clap” feature guest could express their support. This way, it didn’t feel like a one-way street, which, in my opinion, contributed to the vibe of the event.
LUCALAND:
During the event, we hosted a talk show and an exhibition. Guests could talk to talk show hosts face-to-face through a camera. It was great that people shared their reactions in comments: “This story is good”, “I like this artwork”, and so on.
We, the organizing team, were also able to connect with guests personally – just coming by and asking a question “How did you like this or that?” – this kind of stuff. There could be, for example, mini-groups of people who were into the same artwork.
mo.ka:
Before using ovice, I was not used to online spaces. But really, once you try using it for a virtual event, it feels like you are in the same space even if you are not, you feel united even when you are physically alone. That is a great feeling.
As a singer-songwriter, I had a lot of independent activities but being able to do things with different people, getting different kinds of stimulation is a huge advantage for ovice.
LUCALAND:
During this event, I deeply felt how many people were frustrated because there were no real-life events during the pandemic. Together with mo.ka, I will be coming back to a stage to hold a live event but these three months we spent preparing this event in ovice were really impactful. Besides, I’d love to collaborate with the artists I met during the event in person in the future.
mo.ka:
As I was using ovice, I loved the feeling of being united without having to share the same space. I would love to create a space like this for interacting with fans. Also, as someone affected by hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), I’d love to create a space where other people with this condition can share their struggles.
Yano Yuuki:
My personal plan for the future would be to create a virtual coworking space. Since you can’t move much during the pandemic, I would love to create a place online where freelancers can come to work together.
