4B Festival

Boosting Engagement with a Social Media Display

For the 4B Fest, an event celebrating bourbon, bacon, beer, and BBQ, I played a pivotal role in creating an interactive digital experience that leveraged the capabilities of Ready.io. This festival, organized by the company I was associated with, aimed to integrate technology to enhance attendee engagement and interaction. I developed a station outfitted with a projector displaying images on a large screen, which showcased real-time social media posts tagged with the festival's hashtag from platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Creating a Live Interactive Social Media Collage

In collaboration with a fellow programmer, we devised a system where the backend, built in PHP, continuously polled for new hash tagged content across these social media platforms. The frontend, which I was responsible for, dynamically displayed these images on the screen, creating a live, interactive collage of the festival's highlights as shared by the attendees.

To gamify the experience and further encourage participation, we introduced an innovative feature: each social media post acted as an "entry," contributing to a virtual beer tap animation on the screen. This animation showed beer filling up a stein; once it reached the top, it triggered a signal to Ready.io. This signal was then relayed to an Arduino connected to emergency flashing lights positioned around the event space. The completion of the beer stein and the subsequent activation of the lights signaled the commencement of a giveaway, distributing festival swag to attendees who approached the designated table.

Driving Engagement

This interactive installation not only promoted the festival's themes but also drove engagement by visually rewarding social media interaction. Attendees could directly see the impact of their shared posts on the screen, fostering a sense of community and participation. The integration of social media content, visual feedback through the projector screen, and physical interaction via the giveaway created a cohesive, engaging digital experience that highlighted the innovative use of technology at public events.