This week was supposed to be a celebration. The North American International Auto Show, having moved to June from January's gloom, was to begin not only inside the TCF Center in Detroit, but outside on the riverfront. That indoor-outdoor concept was one way organizers were looking to reinvent the auto show.
Obviously, the show was cancelled. The announcement was made in March, just before the TCF Center was turned into a 1000-bed field hospital in anticipation of an overflow of COVID-19 patients. In May, the field hospital was closed, though Detroit mayor Mike Duggan said beds would stay–just in case.
There remains a lot we don't know about what's ahead. And while the question of when large gatherings will return–and what they'll look like when they do–may not be at the top of our list of concerns, it is on the list. No one is more interested in the answers than the people involved in the events.
Many of the stands at auto shows at sites like Detroit—or at the Javits Center in New York, the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, or the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, D.C.—are built by Czarnowski, an international experiential marketing firm with headquarters in Chicago, Shanghai, and Cologne. Because of the slowdown, the company, like so many others, has had to furlough many of its employees. But, drawing on its experience, and seeking a way to employ some of these workers, Czarnowski found a transformational opportunity.
"Because we're familiar with these environments—convention centers, open fields for hospitality or concerts—when this pandemic hit, and we heard that there were going to be vendors who were going to make testing and treatment centers throughout the U.S., we thought, We can facilitate, and design it," says Nick Simonette, Czarnowski's head of business transformation.
Auto show stands are complex pieces of engineering and design, constructed to provide an emotional experience, but also to move people efficiently in and out of a physical space. Czarnowski applied these same principals to its testing and treatment centers.
The solution Czarnowski settled on at sites like the Javits Center was a step above the traditional "pipe and drape" system associated with military field hospitals. "A system that could be deployed in any venue in the country," Simonette says. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers latched onto it due to its replicability. So Czarnowski formed a coalition, Live for Life, with 200 industry partners in the field, and licensed the concept to the group, for anyone to build, for free. "These are people who are our competitors," Simonette says. "So we went from being competitors to collaborators."
It may be difficult to imagine ever again attending something like a convention or live performance. But Simonette believes that experiential events like auto shows will return. Aside from field hospitals, Czarnowski has also been working to help figure out how to get businesses back to work. One project will inform the next.
"There will probably be some screening on entrance, either temperature testing of individuals, or thermal testing for larger groups," he says of future auto shows. "Once you get into the space, at first there will probably be a lot of touchless or gesture-based interactions. But with a tactile product that people want to get into and sit in, like a car, it will also be a question of who will be nearby to make sure it's sterilized and cleaned. Public safety and sanitation will be a large part of it."
He also believes we will see an increase in virtual and augmented reality both at, and between, signature events like auto shows. "We have been pushing our clients for years to create more of a virtual engagement with fans and consumers off-site, but we thought we were on a five-to-seven year path for these things to converge. Now it's much more of a conversation, and it seems to be moving forward more quickly," Simonette says.
Of course, given the range of concerns regarding contagion, he says that he can't imagine that large groups of people are going to want to "strap a shared Occulus onto their head." He imagines that this augmentation will be more something they can engage with on their own device, perhaps in the form of an app. Or something else entirely, something that hasn't been created yet. "It's up to the imagination and the innovation of the people who are supporting the industry to see how consumer behavior is changing," he says.
One thing on which he seems quite certain is the belief that people will convene in groups again. "It's in our nature as humans," he says. "It goes back to the cavemen around the campfire. We are social animals, and we want to get together with people who share our interests and experience things."
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June 13, 2020 at 11:01PM
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Auto Show Display Builder Czarnowski Adapts To Coronavirus Cancellations, Looks Ahead - Car and Driver
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