Intel’s Encore AI Exhibit: Four Lessons on Harnessing Immersive Event Spaces

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Rachel Boucher

Step aside yummy museums. Immersive spaces are having their moment. From Artechouse in New York City, to the traveling Van Gogh Exhibition: The Immersive Experience, to Radiant Space in L.A., consumer obsession with tech has fueled a new era of Instagram-worthy experiences leveraging multimedia at scale.

When it came time to create an additional touchpoint for its ongoing campaign surrounding the release of Intel Core Ultra mobile processors for first-gen AI PCs in December 2023, Intel turned to the trend to help consumers explore and understand its chips through the evolving (in real time) audio, visual and sculptural work of nine emerging artists in the gallery.

Consumers registered for free to attend the Intel Encore AI Exhibit, held at Illuminarium in Toronto, June 20-27. Here, we explore four ways Intel’s exhibition strategy shined bright.

Location, location, location

Illuminarium was located in Toronto’s Distillery District, which features three public parking lots on-site and four nearby off-street parking sites. Convenience? Check. But the surroundings were also relevant and interesting. It’s pedestrian-only with cobblestone streets, restaurants, bars, boutiques and, of course, art galleries—which meant Intel’s presence there for one week fit right into the fabric of the community. Authenticity? Check.

Timing is everything

With the Intel Encore AI Exhibit opening on the final day of Collision, the large annual tech conference held at Enercare Centre in Toronto, the brand was presumably able to capture attendees in town for the event, in addition to enjoying some heightened buzz around Toronto in the weeks leading up.

In addition, the experience was open 12-9 p.m. daily (attendees reserved 30-minute slots), allowing for families to visit, professionals in the area, and then, perhaps, diners, meetups and date nights after work hours. Over the seven days, the team logged more than 8,500 registrations to the experience.

“You can walk in with your family, and everybody can get something out of it,” Asma Aziz, marketing director-Canada at Intel, told us ahead of the opening. “We believe technology is there to make human life better, to make it more effective, to make it easy. So, most of the initiatives that we do, they’re very consumer- or human-centric.”

(Artist: Tristan Laughton)

Hands-on and family friendly

Each of the artists’ exhibits in the gallery featured their own works of art taken to “the next level” using Intel Core Ultra-powered AI tools from eight OEM partners. As Intel described it: “Different mediums coming to life as a living art gallery where no piece is the same twice, thanks to the interaction of our attendees.”

However, more than 10,000 works of art were generated by attendees on Intel Core Ultra-powered devices over the course of the week. At the end of the experiences, consumers interested in purchasing devices they tested were connected to local retail partners.

“Within the main gallery, the interactivity goes from writing prompts on a keyboard and trying image generation to smiling for a camera. We wanted those magic moments to feel like a gallery where it’s just super approachable for a wide range of audiences,” said Dan Berzen, creative director at Mosaic, agency lead on the program. “You step up to the devices, they’re processing these things live, and you can see how those pieces have become AI-powered to be interactive.”

Thought-provoking content

Each night, Intel hosted talks with the artists that allowed attendees to dig deeper into their processes and thoughts on technologies’ impact on what they do, and the world. Given all of the conversation around AI and its impact on human work, Aziz said the goal was to show how important humans are to the process—that technology adapts to people, and that there is a human side to AI. All told, the experience generated more than seven million p.r., media and social impressions.

“As a consumer, when you come to this show, it’s designed to ignite your imagination. It’s designed to help you be able to see AI and PCs in action, in motion. And you become more appreciative of it. And you also start thinking about how this could apply to you,” Aziz said.