The starting point of the project was the question of how we can improve the social experience of participants at large-scale events such as conferences. Conference participants can find it challenging to find people with the same interests, or from a specific field that they wish to connect with. The goal was to create a system that would allow conference participants – at break times – to find the conversations happening in the space that would interest them the most.
The resulting interactive table provides a designed textual presentation of the conversation happening around it. The conversation is recorded and analyzed in near real-time, and the table displays the current topic of discussion and related words that were spoken. These words are grouped by their topic, forming typographical clusters that move around the table surface, going in and out of view depending on the current topic. The working prototype of the table provides insights on the value of the visual presentation, its level of distraction and its potential to direct and to change the flow of the conversation.