There is nothing awe-inspiring about someone holding a rabbit. But pull a rabbit out of a hat and all of the sudden you have a show. The difference is not in your final result (the rabbit), but in the assumptions you allowed your audience to hold, which you then disrupted. It’s the surprise that delights us, that sticks in our memories, that even dilates our pupils.

We’re working on a conference for a client at which they could simply say, “here is the takeaway”. They could attempt to spark transformation through simple, direct argument.

Instead, they’ve opted for the magic trick.

Upon entering the event you see sign after sign of the most common tropes about the topic. You think, “Oh yea, I’ve read that. Mhmmm.”

And then you make it to the main hall.

An instillation that flips your assumptions on their heads; that challenges your notion that the hat was empty. It’s not a “gotcha” moment, but rather a moment of unforeseen possibility.

A well-executed “ta-da” beats “here is the takeaway” any day.