PORTFOLIO HEARTS AND MINDS by Laura Bickle A global online event aims to tackle climate change through the lens of compassion was reworked to include several musical interludes, graphic recordings of each session and artful videos. There were, of course, still several sessions with prominent names in both compassion and climate research. Jane Goodall and Prince Harry both appeared, as well as scientists and policymakers who were in Scotland for COP26. The focus on art and creativity was an opportunity to really explore PheedLoop’s functionality, says Alex Bickers, president and creative director of Reveal Events Group. “How could we make this as engaging as possible with lots of places for this global group of attendees to poke around and get information and enhance their experience?” That meant “bending PheedLoop,” as Bickers calls it, renaming and optimizing features like the exhibit hall and live video conferencing. The show’s multiple feeds—the mainstage in Scotland, a secondary stage in California and several remote speakers—all fed into the platform via Zoom in Vancouver where the event AV company, Galactic Entertainment, mixed it and sent it to Bickers for the live PheedLoop feed. “I had four laptops on my desk, monitoring everything that was happening in all the different areas, and then one single computer that was the actual live show,” says Bickers. Ultimately, the event fulfilled its purpose, says Worline. “There was a lot of energy generated by the event and that was part of what we were hoping to do—to catalyze conversations that keep going.” EVENT FACTS Platform: PheedLoop Time Frame: 8 hours, beginning at 10 am in Scotland (2 am in Vancouver) Attendees: 1,000 live with many more accessing the recorded event Register to watch the recorded event at pheedloop.com/compassionateplanet/site/ O ne of the goals of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University in San Francisco, Calif., is to raise the profile of compassion in the public dialogue. With that in mind, they set out to stage an event alongside the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, which took place last November, “that would introduce compassion as one of the many things that have to be considered when you’re trying to talk as a global institution about what would make a healthier planet,” says Monica Worline, research scientist at the Center. Partnering with the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Technomoral Futures and Global Compassion Initiative, planning was well underway when it became clear that, due to COVID, the live event would have to transition to virtual. After choosing the PheedLoop platform, they were referred to Vancouver’s Reveal Events Group to help produce the eight-hour live broadcast. The new format changed the scope and vibe of the event, says Worline. “We would make this into a global event that would happen online. We could open the doors to anyone who wanted to attend. It became less of a scientific meeting and more of a discussion. Attendees could feel like two interesting people are talking and I get to overhear.” With the new format, art and entertainment became a bigger focus. “When you’re trying to work with the topic like compassion, it’s really important to not make it all about the intellectualism and the thinking.” The agenda 52 | Ignitemag.ca | Spring 2022
