//Experiential Intelligence: The Event Professional Guide to Embracing AI

There was a time not so long ago when chatbots were just fun internet toys – shortform entertainment for anyone who happened upon them, testing the capabilities of a machine’s ability to engage in dialogue on par with human conversation. Now over the last year and a half, following the release of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and countless others, the public discourse around these language models has shifted dramatically. The fear of machine intelligence replacing human effort is no longer confined to conspiracy theorists and technology professionals. Alongside this fear are new ethical challenges concerning environmental impact, knowledge sources and the rapid pace of AI development that seems to outstrip the ability to fully comprehend its implications. AI has permeated society’s stream of consciousness, setting off a rising degree of unease much like any other major technological advancement would. This concern is valid for many reasons, both already discussed and some yet to be considered. What is abundantly clear is that the world must adapt swiftly to accommodate the AI revolution.

In the world of public relations, communications and experiential agencies, a unique opportunity exists to take advantage of this new technology to its fullest. The need for complex problem-solving, creativity, persuasion and astute awareness means event professionals are unlikely to be replaced anytime soon. While many industries stand to benefit from AI, experiential marketers are in a particularly advantageous position. Artificial or machine intelligence, when used as a “prosthesis for thought,” can augment creative and logistical processes, allowing for innovation in ways previously unimaginable. Event professionals can leverage AI not just as a tool but as an extension of cognitive capabilities. This perspective harnesses the potential of large language models to enhance work without succumbing to the fear of obsolescence.

Many articles have speculated on how to apply the use of AI to experiential marketing. Where this outlook falls short is ironically the specificity. The widely available generative AI platforms or LLMs are akin to interactive search engines and the default response is generalized, as they are trained on wide berths of data without any specialization. This means that the quality of the response is up to the user, who must fuel the AI with adequate prompts to get it to work the way they need. The key is understanding that AI is a human-led tool, not the other way around.  

Here are some guidelines to optimize your prompts:

Ethics – using generative AI in a professional setting requires a higher level of ethical consideration. AI will not consider the impact of its output past the general guidelines programmed into it. It is easy to create a bubble of bias when prompting a generation, so always scrutinize your prompts to reflect an output free of self-interest or exclusion.

Refine – never decline. Every response is mechanical, no matter how human it sounds. Frustrations may emerge when the output doesn’t match the input. It will be tempting to type in “no, do it this way”, but this only prompts the AI to build on what is already there. It is challenging but avoid cluttering the context and aim for more specificity as the “conversation” moves along.

Identity – the standard response from generative AI is a composite. Clarify the level of expertise you want from the AI to help establish both a baseline of knowledge and tone.

Depth – after marking the perspective of the output, you can also make it clear how much or how little of a response you want. There are varying advantages and disadvantages to every degree of depth you may ask for, but ultimately the best practice is to request open-ended responses that allow the user to develop further ideas.

Details – there are three categories of detail that determine the output quality:    research materials, audience demographics and output format. Most platforms allow you to upload documents and resources found beforehand, including images, videos and audio files. Demographics are tricky, so refer to the first guideline regarding ethics. AI’s knowledge base is governed by human input, so it has the capacity for harmful bias. Lastly, being able to choose output format is one of the best features of generative AI. Of course this is dependent on the platform, but you can and should always specify how you want to receive your response. Lists, essays, songs or pictures – the choice is yours.

Following this method to develop your AI prompts won’t guarantee success, but it will certainly streamline its effective use. With these in mind, the limits of AI are far from the ends of any individuals (or agency’s) imagination. This is truly a momentous time for human creativity! So, get online and type toward your dreams.  

 

//Hello from our SoHo office!

The OSK blog is back and we have some news to share! A lot of things have happened since we last checked in. One of the biggest changes: we moved! We left our longtime Chanin Building office of over a decade last year and are now at home in SoHo. Midtown Manhattan and SoHo are worlds apart and we have been busy exploring the lunch spots around our new office. Luckily, the views are still great and we also have access to a terrific roof deck for summer fun!

We are now on the top floor of the Graphic Arts Center Building, a 1927 Art Deco industrial edifice that first housed printing presses and later offices for graphic design (they are all gone now). We share the space with our sister agency Merkley+Partners, who also works closely with our client Mercedes-Benz.

Let us know if you’re in the neighborhood! We’d love to hear from you.

Check out our new digs!

Our new address is:
OSK NEW YORK Inc.
200 Varick St., Floor 12
New York, NY 10014

//Green Card Activism: how to get involved as an immigrant

Germany. The Philippines. Vietnam. Guyana. China. USA.

These are the countries represented in our office, this diversity is what makes us stronger, and it’s what gives us the foreground to engage in conversations that matter – we inspire each other with our unique perspectives and we challenge each other to look through different lenses.

In our COVID-19 world of virtual meetings, we’ve also opened more doors to discuss what matters to each of us. The passion for social justice that started with just a few expanded to the rest in our open online office setting.

As a team, we are comprised of six immigrants and the rest are ‘Born in the USA Americans. That being said, all six immigrants have been calling the United States their home for quite some time – this country isn’t just one of their stops along the roadway of life, this country is their home and they care about what happens here. They care about who’s in that big white house, they care about equal rights, they care about the fight for justice, and they wish to see success for this country they now call home.

With non-US citizens, permanent legal residents, and visa holders on our team, we asked ourselves: How can you help make changes when you can’t vote? How can you protest with your neighbors without risking confrontations with law enforcement that could affect your immigration status?

How can someone actively push change when restricted?

I’ve got two words for you – mutual aid.

The Climate Justice Alliance describes mutual aid as the collective actions it takes to support community well-being and reaffirm that all lives have inherent value. With the main mutual aid principle being “Solidarity Not Charity“, this leans into the sentiment that charity plays into social and systemic imbalances.

Dean Spade, who taught a course at the University of Chicago titled “Queer and Trans Mutual Aid for Survival and Mobilization,” further states that charity differentiates those who have from those who need and puts those who have in a position of power to make decisions about how to meet other’s needs. Mutual aid emphasizes working cooperatively to meet each others needs.

Charity addresses the symptoms of systemic issues, while mutual aid analyzes the causes of issues and aims to boost a community through relations and long term societal support. Mutual aid is a pure, genuine, boots-on-the-ground way to support your community – so participate in mutual aid funds! Contribute to boosting the longevity of your community.

Now that mutual aid has been broken down, I can reel it back in a bit and divulge into what exactly can be done when a compassionate activist isn’t a citizen.

Donate!

If you want to spread some monetary love, do it purposefully. Make sure you know where your money is going. Look into mutual aid funds relative to the causes you’re passionate about. Below are just a few ideas of where to start:

Sign petitions!

As a non-citizen, you can sign unofficial petitions, such as those on Change.org, since they don’t have any direct connection to the government. So if these are unofficial, why sign? Signing shows solidarity, helps grow the numbers in a big picture sense, and you are able to share the signed petition to further spread the voice for change across your own social platforms. Some petition starting points below:

Protest – but do it right!

Protesting can be risky. But if you want to protest anyway, make sure you do it safely and know your rights. Real Simple and The North Star highlight peaceful protesting tips and lay out your rights – we’ve summed them up for you below:

Tips for safely protesting:
  • Know the logistics. The protest organizers often share all of the details you need including the route, timing, and speakers. The more you know, the more you can anticipate the outcome.
  • Use the buddy system. Don’t attend a protest alone, attend with a friend or two and coordinate a meeting spot in case you guys get separated.
  • Have emergency contact info handy. It’s recommended to write this info on your arm with sharpie just in case you find yourself in a situation where you don’t have your phone.
  • Be mindful that we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. Social distancing while protesting is kind of difficult, so make sure to generously, and frequently, sanitize your hands. Also, wearing a mask goes without saying, but you should pack a few extras in case the one you’re wearing gets too sweaty or damaged.
Understand your rights in case you do have a run-in with law enforcement:
  • You have the right to remain silent. If you do choose to remain silent, say so out loud. 
  • You may refuse a search. You don’t need to consent to being searched, but an officer can pat you down if they suspect you have a weapon. 
  • You have the right to speak to a lawyer. You can refuse to sign any and all paperwork until you have the chance to speak to a lawyer. 
  • Do not lie about your immigration status or provide fake documents. You can refuse to show documentation that says what country you are from.

So I think we can agree

Immigrants have limitations, but options, too. Even when feeling stuck in a room of locked doors, there’s bound to be a window or two that can be pushed open.

//Phase Two: what to do and where to eat?

With New York heading into Phase 2 of reopening next week, there’s a lot of “Do we?” or “Don’t we?” questions bouncing around.

Phase Two means outdoor dining options, some in-store shopping, hair salons, barbershops, real estate firms and offices in the city now have a real, tangible option of reopening. From a community standpoint, Phase Two means some of our favorite local spots are reopening and hoping back in the game – are things going to start shifting back to normal?!

Eh, maybe.

There is still a very real threat of a potential second wave of the virus showing face, so really it’s still better to take the, “better safe than sorry” approach. AKA – maintain social distance, keep that nose and mouth covered, and keep things virtual when possible. This also means that even though restaurants are starting to open outdoor seating, it’s still better to remain cautious and continue to make takeaway the primary restaurant interaction.

So while NYC is still in this strange COVID-19 limbo, it’s still possible to continue to support your community and be an active part in the uplift and regrounding of your favorite spots. To take your active stance further, why not make it a point to support even more specifically the black restaurant owners in your community?

Check out some of our black-owned NYC restaurant recommendations below.

Sisters Painkiller

Sisters

Clinton Hill

Chic cafe by day, cool bar, restaurant and music venue by night. Their menu is an eclectic New American style with something for everyone.

[I’d totally be down for a Sisters Painkiller right now.]

Takeout available on Caviar or by calling them directly 347-763-2537

Due to COVID-19, Sisters recommends keeping an eye on their Instagram for updates on menus and hours of operation.

Melba’s

Harlem

After taking down celebrity chef, Bobby Flay, in a Throwdown – Melba’s founder, Melba Wilson, continues her reign as the Queen of Comfort Food.

[Comfortizers?! Gotta get a hand in some of that fried catfish!]

Takeout available on Seamless or by calling them directly 212-864-7777

Personalized Bowl from Urban Vegan Kitchen

Urban Vegan Kitchen

West Village

Comfort food, but make it vegan. Urban Kitchen was founded by NYC’s most successful vegan restaurateur, Pamela Elizabeth.

[Chili cheese fries! No wait, a burrito sounds good. Or do we go for chick-un waffles?!]

Takeout available on Postmates, Seamless, GrubHub, DoorDash, & ChowNow.

Harlem Shake

Harlem

The old school interior of Harlem Shake perfectly matches its satisfying menu of rich milkshakes and one of a kind hamburgers.

[10/10 for whoever can guess the cost of the Dimepeice combo.]

Takeout available on Seamless, GrubHub, UberEats, DoorDash, Delivery.com, & ToastTab.

Pie from Brown Butter

Brown Butter

BedStuy

Myriam Nicolas’s Brown Butter Craft Bar & Kitchen has brunch lovers and southern comfort food aficionados ready to chow down.

[I honestly can’t stop looking at the pie pics #drooling]

Takeout available on their website.

Sweet Chick

Williamsburg + Lower East Side

Sweet Chick brands themselves as “New American Comfort” and with fun cocktails and bomb fried chicken…they’re doing it right.

[Hi, yes, I’ll take one – make that two – Purple Dranks pls!]

Takeout available on GrubHub: Lower East Side Link & Williamsburg Link.

Above we only mentioned six restaurants, but we found this app called EatOkra that shows you a wide selection of black-owned businesses across the country. You can download the app on both Apple and Android.

//Do you miss going to the office? Here is what might help.

Most people with office jobs have likely worked from home before. However, the majority of us have probably never done it for an extended period, and the way it currently looks like is that we will have to do it for at least another three to four weeks. In order to stay productive, sane and healthy (apart from anti-Coronovirus measures), we wanted to share our best WFH practices.

First off, make sure your “home office” is set up in a way that allows you to work comfortably and doesn’t cause any back or neck pain. Hunching over your laptop for eight hours a day will make you feel miserable pretty quickly. Try and put your laptop on a stand or stack of books so that the screen is on eye level. Invest in a mouse and a keyboard, so you can keep those at elbow level and sit in an upright and healthy posture. Keeping a distance is not only important to avoid virus infections, but also to protect your eyes. Don’t sit too close to your laptop screen and if you have glasses with blue light filtering lenses, wear them!

Next on our list is keeping or rather establishing a new routine. This helps with getting a sense of normalcy and distinguishing your work day at home from your weekend at home.

Set an alarm and get up a good amount of time before work starts so you can to get in some body movement and wake yourself up with stretching, yoga, or even a run if you’re up for it. Even if you are not going anywhere, put on some decent clothes, as it will make you feel more productive and ready to work. Eat breakfast, or don’t, and write a to-do list for the day while you fire up your computer. Don’t be overly ambitious and set realistic goals that you can actually get done in a day.

As you work away, remember to keep moving. Since you haven’t left home and might not do so for the rest of the day, get up and walk around or stretch for five minutes every hour. You can even do that while being on a conference call! You are not tied to your home office desk, so switch things up and take your laptop to lounge on your couch for a bit or stand at your kitchen counter.

Speaking of kitchen: Lunch time is around the corner! Actually take a break and eat lunch away from your laptop so you don’t get interrupted by emails that are popping up. Treat yourself with some chocolate or a cookie for dessert to keep the mood up and be more motivated for the second half of the day. To get over the afternoon slump, you can also go for a quick walk, but remember to keep a distance!

During breaks or after you’re done with work, give yourself and your eyes some digital rest and try not to be on your phone. Read a book, cook a new recipe, go for another walk, take care of your plants, play an instrument, draw something or journal your thoughts with an actual pen and paper.

Last but not least, your work from home day is still a weekday, so go to bed around the same time as if you would go to the office the next day and get a full night’s sleep.

We hope this helps with improving your work from home routine until we can all meet in the office again. Stay safe and healthy everyone!

//All my bags are packed, I’m ready for take-off

Always on the road – that applies very much to our team. We are travel enthusiasts, both in our work and private lives.

On our vacations in 2019, we have ventured to places such as Spain, Italy, France, the UK, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Aruba, Thailand, and all the way down under to Australia. And while privately we traveled abroad quite a bit, our work trips have taken us all over the States again.

On average, each of us spent 40 days on the road with about 9 trips per person. Our most frequent traveler had a total of 111 days out of the office spread over 22 trips.

With the new year around the corner, we look back at the highlights of each month’s travel in 2019. We are excited to see what 2020 has in store for us!

//What’s for lunch? Navigating Midtown’s foodscape in the age of reward points and subscription services

The typical desk lunch has been a staple of the American office culture for a long time. Here at OSK New York, we handle things a bit differently. Lunch is a thing. Our team sits down to eat together at our long dining table with proper place settings and coffee and chocolate as dessert. We mostly talk about work-unrelated topics: what’s happening on the weekend, the latest episode of The Handmaid’s Tale or the difference between the American and German school system. As studies show that taking an actual break from work increases performance and creativity, we take lunch very seriously to make sure that we reach peak productivity.

People either bring their own lunches or go and get something in the sea of food options available in our neighborhood. Every day approximately 3.1 million people go to work in Manhattan with a big chunk headed to office buildings in Midtown East. And starting from 11:30 a.m., people swarm out of those buildings to the many restaurants, food halls, delis and bowl places to get their food.

With ever increasing lunch prices – now starting at approx. $12 for a salad – it can get quite pricey to buy lunch every single day. But luckily, it’s 2019 and there is an app for that – or actually two.

The apps we’re looking at are not the usual food delivery apps such as Seamless, UberEats, or DoorDash. These two apps have emerged and established themselves as the lunch apps of the moment that a good amount of people in Manhattan, and also of our team, has subscribed to.

Subscribe!

For the first of these apps, subscription is actually the key word. MealPal is a meal subscription service that was founded in 2016 and is now operating in markets in the US, Canada, and Australia. In New York, it’s gaining more and more traction as you can tell by the number of food places setting up the MealPal QR Code on their counters.

How does it work? Users pay a monthly subscription fee that includes 12 or 20 lunches. You go into the app, pick the dish you want from a participating restaurant, select a pick-up time, and reserve your meal. Lucky for us, the majority of the restaurants around our office is participating so there are plenty of options.

It’s a good deal for everyone who participates: Restaurants get a predictable and confirmed number of customers and can optimize their food prep by making a large amount of the same dish. Diners get a subsidized meal for about half the price of a regular lunch and don’t have to wait in lines. And MealPal makes a margin on each order and can collect consumer data to optimize their offering.

Feather’s website: A subscription service that lets you rent furniture on a monthly basis

MealPal is the latest incarnation of the subscription service trend. This trend once started with music and video streaming services, and has now taken over almost every imaginable industry. Only to name a few: There is ClassPass for workout sessions, Blue Apron for home-cooked meals, Burst for toothbrushes, Misfits for organic vegetables, Feather for furniture, Birchbox for beauty products, JustFab for clothes, and Nike for kids’ shoes.

According to a report by McKinsey, the subscription e-commerce market has grown by more than 100% annually over the past five years. The target audience of these subscription services are often younger and affluent customers in urban areas that appreciate the convenience and discounted price they get in exchange for their commitment. MealPal hits that sweet spot with both a convenient and affordable offer.

Subscriptions per se are not a new thing. Monthly cable bills have been around forever and everyone at some point in their lives probably has had a magazine or newspaper subscription. However, the unexpected combination of a subscription with products that you never thought about subscribing to before, but that you actually do need on a regular basis, is what is new and appealing. And the possibilities are endless. 

Gimme points!

The second app that we have recently discovered is called Ritual. Ritual was founded in Toronto in 2014 and expanded to the US three years later. Last month, they ran a promotion for $1 lunches that made us all sign up. Initially we expected that everyone would stop using it after the promotion ends. But surprise, we are still ordering food through Ritual.

Ritual rewards: With Elite status, you get more points per purchase

How so? At first sight, there is nothing new about Ritual. You use the app to make an order and then go pick it up when it’s ready so you don’t have to wait in line. It also asks you to join your company team so that you get notifications when one of your co-workers makes an order. This way, you can piggyback on their order and they can pick it up for you along with their own order. This saves you a trip through the masses of people on Midtown streets during lunchtime. 

Apart from their sporadic $1 lunch promotions and regular $5 off from selected restaurants, Ritual has a rewards points system. And this is where it gets interesting. In a society where people are obsessed with collecting points and read The Points Guy like a bible, Ritual offers an advantage over other food ordering apps and proprietary apps.

Most restaurants and food places have a reward system in place that for example gives you a free meal after ten purchases. These reward systems, however, are all specific to each place and unless you go to the same lunch spot every day, it takes quite a while until you actually get a reward.

Dedicated shelf space for Ritual and MealPal at Just Salad on 3rd Ave & 40th St

With Ritual, you collect points in the same system no matter where you order, which allows you to get to a reward much more quickly. This universal reward system in combination with its regular discounts, presents a big draw. 

Both MealPal and Ritual have found a unique selling point to set them apart from the well-established food ordering apps. They have even amassed a big enough of a user base to prompt some places in Midtown to set up designated shelves so that their users can easily find their orders and pass by the line of people ordering in store. 

How we get our lunches will probably change again within the next year or even the next few months. But for the moment, even though we don’t know what is for lunch, we know that there is an app for that – or actually two.

//Tribute in Light: In remembrance of the World Trade Center Twin Towers

The Tribute Lights to remember the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center

For the 18th time the Tribute in Light illuminated the skies of Downtown Manhattan on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The two vertical lights symbolize the fallen Twin Towers of the World Trade Center that collapsed in 2001.

Birds “trapped” in the light beams (Photo: nytimes.com/Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

From our South office windows, we have a perfect view of Downtown Manhattan, and on a clear night like it was, we got to clearly see the blueish lights as they reached far into the sky. Located a little bit south of the actual World Trade Center, the installation consists of 88 searchlights – pretty impressive!

Side story: According to the New York Times, the bright lights are endangering approximately 160,000 birds every year. The beams lure the birds off their normal migratory flight paths, which puts them at risk of exhaustion, starvation and injuries due to the amount of glass skyscrapers in the area. Luckily, a group of scientists and volunteers keep an eye out for the birds and make sure the lights are actually shut down for a short period of time if the number of birds trapped gets too high.

//Welcome to the world of OSK New York!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the world of OSK New York! You might have seen our website where we showcase our best work and talk about our impressive skill set – but this is not the same thing just in a slightly different format.

Our blog will introduce you to our micro cosmos, the world of OSK New York: NYC agency life meets creative/fun ideas meets relevant topics of local and global scale.

Expect to see impressions from the latest and greatest of our travel and adventures, our thoughts on new trends and cultural issues, topics that are of interest to us due to our work or personal backgrounds, and simply fun stuff. We will touch on anything from experiential pop-up spaces, flying cars, and PR stunts to food halls, the curviest roads to drive on, and the environment.

Our team consists of highly organized and wildly creative individuals who have lived and worked on four continents. With our different backgrounds, we complement each other in the work we do. On a personal level, we have grown into a multicultural family.

We hope you enjoy our stories!