It’s been a weird year for the events industry. Suddenly all those conventions and gatherings that rake in loads of cash from attendees and advertisers had to figure out how to keep their main source of revenue coming in without actually, you know, hosting an event. The solution most organisers took was to make the event digital, opening up attendance to a much wider group of people and hosting it online. Most of these digital events have been… well, not great, bar one or two (DC’s Fandome event was genuinely well executed), and we are beginning to suffer from digital event fatigue. That’s not stopping rAge, one of South Africa’s longest running geeky events, from giving it a bash though.
rAge against the machine
Firstly, the important stuff. Anyone can attend rAge 2020 and you’ll pay nothing to do so. All you need to do is book a ticket by heading over here. Once you’ve got your virtual ticket you can pitch up (through your computer screen, of course) when the event starts on 6 November, and stay as long as you want! You can pick and choose the content you want to see and interact and participate (in whatever limited capacity) all the way through to 8 November when the event ends.
Speaking to the process of moving the event online, rAge founder Michael James said, “We believe we’ve created a unique virtual experience that might not be what you’ve come to love and enjoy about a physical rAge Expo, but we hope it will keep you going until we can all connect with each other again in person.”
James also said that, “We’ve learned a lot from attending other online events throughout the year, and have been making notes on what we liked and what we didn’t.” Given how the vast majority of digital events this year have been more than a little disappointing, we have to imagine the notebook they’ve been using is rather thick.
If you’re missing massive events like rAge but don’t feel quite ready to head out and put yourself at risk of a potentially deadly virus, then grabbing one of those free tickets may be a good idea. At least you’ll have weekend plans for 6 November sorted, so that’s a nice load of commitments you can quickly bail on at short notice.