Speaker: Alison Norrington Storytelling – understanding your why I would say storytelling is extra important in a digital production. Especially through the lens of circus performers or dance performers because you are now, by going digital, opening up the doors where you're competing with the big names. YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fortnite, Sony. All of the platforms we all know. So, in an everyday scenario if somebody's going into a performance – circus, dance whatever it might be – there is an elective process of them volunteering to want to go. They've seen what they want go to, they’ve checked the dates, they’ve bought a ticket, they’ve gathered some friends. You’ve set the day, so it’s an event. So you go together and in stepping through the doors of the venue, and whether you’re sitting down or whether you’re immersed in the moment, you have chosen to be there. And you have a rough idea of what to expect. You also have a rough idea of timing. You are probably going to be there for anything from maybe 45 minutes to two or three hours. Once you take that and you put it into a digital realm you blow everything up. There is a lot of noise as everyone knows. There is a lot of noise on the internet. By taking this style of storytelling into a digital realm, I would say you need to understand your why much more strongly. Because you need to know what you're representing, you need to know why you're there. And also, to measure success. I’ve worked with performers and I’ve said to them what does success look like? Some of them have said ‘I want a hundred volunteers, or users, or followers and I want that hundred to still be with me in a year's time’. Others would say success is a monetization, which is pretty much a model that we know from having events on a venue. So it also gives you the opportunity to define what success looks like. Digital opens up the opportunity for you to do brilliant marketing, build community, raise awareness, open up the doors of accessibility for a new audience. But digital also puts you in the game, with a ton of other frontrunners, who people know as they go to a place for how they spend their leisure time. I would say, going digital is a big responsibility and the considerations to making in doing that are – know your why, why do you want to be there. Also, why will people care? What is your degree of success, what you're trying to do by going digital. Understanding how you want your audience to feel. But through all of that you are threading a story, a narrative design, experience design and an emotional design. It has to kind of sit in the DNA of whatever it is your thing is in that moment. Storytelling is so much more important when you're moving into a digital space, because you don't want to be part of the noise. You need people to really get quite quickly what you're about, what to expect, and what the promise is that you're delivering to them. It’s really important.