Transform Your Gatherings: How "CONNECT" Can Elevate Your Social Experiences

In this busier-than-ever world, connect has never meant more to us, or given us more to hang on to. It’s the tying that binds, the suturing that makes a moment into an experience. Connect is the octopus that cares for the baby across the reef or the octopus that makes a friend of a stranger. It’s that dinner with your family or that girls’ night with your friends, the time you spent around the campfire or the time you had with the stars. It’s that experience that made it last. How do we use technology and creativity to make those moments richer, fuller, more present?

The Essence of CONNECT in Modern Gatherings

The word ‘connect’ does not summon an image of mere co-presence; it associates with the creation of a mood that connects everyone in the room and leaves an impression for each, individually, of their special experience. The details that make it work are in the feeling of the setting, in the ‘gamefeel’ of the activities, in the way technology can be used to allow for interactions to flow.

Innovating CONNECTION Through Technology

The third kind of Soft reserves power for the process of relating – for the always-changing activity of making our surroundings more comfortable and our communications more meaningful, yet also making them more convenient and impersonal. The devices that deliver the goods for sharing, entertainment and comfort arguably play an equal role in the manipulation of our relationship: they seek to take us as close to the enchantment of intimacy as possible, and as far away from boredom and the mundane.

Projecting Memories: A Case Study of Enhanced CONNECTION

The use of a personal projector in a social context, such as the Xgimi Halo, is a device that is not just a projector, but a conduit for connection. The way it turns a living room into a movie theatre is a realisation of what it means to enrich our relational experiences through technologies.

Compact Design, Mighty Impact

Portability underscores the importance of flexibility to sharing: the ease with which you can shift the entertainment centre from one space to another creates opportunities to serendipitously build shared experience, break the ice and pull people closer, virtually anywhere.

Quality That Speaks Volumes

Add in those features such as 1080p resolution and HDR10 support, and turning on a cookie-cutter movie night into a simulated version of any number of vacation destinations isn’t a hard leap to make. It’s about a heightened sensuality, an attempt to imbue each visual with new resonance – to let your eyes become a kind of appetite, focused on clarity, colour and dimension – and in this fashion to re-engage their audiences.

The Power of Prolonged CONNECTION

Battery capacity in pocket-sized projectors such as the Xgimi Halo echoes the hope for a full life without limits. Being able to watch four hours of movies in a row without the fear of depleting your power source mirrors the important connections we all hope to have and maintain in our personal lives.

Seamless Setup, Boundless Connectivity

In how these technologies boost our social connectivity, ease of connection is the key. It’s easy to set up, easy to connect to other devices, and easy to access the content we want. It’s all part of our trend towards a new way of being social: quick, easy, and intense, but with a very shallow emotional impact.

An Investment in CONNECTION

Thanks to widespread sales and discounts, the problem is not availability of the innovative technology but rather making a choice. Choosing a device that improves connectivity will be a decision that enriches our lives, and each purchase will bring us that much closer to the next, deeper gathering.

Understanding "CONNECT"

The most interesting thing about ‘connect’ is that it seems to be about connection as well as about merely co-presence — it’s about attunement that amplifies, so that each conversation, shared giggle and memory is made richer. If this essay has demonstrated anything, it’s that we can all improve our connections by investing in the right technologies, and by approaching our gatherings more creatively. Let’s all try to do that when we next meet up.