The day when the New York GEL Conference was hacked by the world's most entertaining performing arts group
In April 2011, one of the lecture halls at The Times Center was packed to capacity: the audience was waiting for John Reynolds, who came to present and promote the latest social media platform, „twirlr.” Despite the strange name choice, the attendees of the GEL conference did not suspect anything (that year, Twitter was already celebrating its 5th birthday, and users shared an average of 140 million messages daily through it).
The GEL (Good Experience Live) conference specialized in speakers like John Reynolds: invited guests considered exceptional authorities, pioneers, or unconventional thinkers in their fields provide new insights on topics related to business, technology, healthcare, art, or education.
The twirlr guru's presentation began in the usual manner, after a brief introduction. At the start of the presentation, Reynolds politely asked those present to turn off their mobile devices and not to share what was said at the conference, as news about the new social media platform had not yet been released.
What followed was undoubtedly unprecedented in the history of conferences:
Of course, neither „twirlr” existed, nor was the speaker actually named John Reynolds. The „social media guru” and his companions were members of the New York-based Improv Everywhere (IE) performance art group, whose founder, Mark Hurst, authorized the „prank.”.
Thanks to Hurst, the 29-member chorus of Improv Everywhere was able to hold a rehearsal before the conference, during which they could practice not only the presentation but also the technical setup (e.g., camera placements).
The IE team had to meticulously work out every detail, as they had only one opportunity to perform the production „live.”.
Improv Everywhere continuously executes such and similar pranks in ever-changing formations, which they refer to in IE terminology as „missions.” Since its founding, the „agents” carrying out the missions have executed hundreds of pranks (some of these include: passengers freezing in place stopping time at Grand Central Terminal, staging a fake U2 concert from a rooftop in Manhattan, but also opening an Apple Store in a subway station's glass elevator. Enthusiastic agents love to reenact movie scenes in „real life” – my personal favorite is the detailed reenactment of Rocky Balboa's run through the streets of Philadelphia:
According to Improv Everywhere's creed, they strive to evoke chaos and joy. Some of their missions are carried out with just a few agents, while at other times they work with an entire „agent army.” It is important to note that the group does not refer to their activities as flash mobs and had already professionally employed group attention-grabbing for entertainment purposes years before the flash mob phenomenon emerged.
1. The members of the group 2. document in detail the individual pranks on their website – it's worth browsing through them. 3. Improv Everywhere.
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5. Improv Everywhere: Venue rehearsal at The Times Center, the day before the GEL Conference
