The Creation of a Flash Mob

While our Gendex Flash Mob at the Greater New York Dental Meeting (GNYDM) seemed to be over in a flash, behind the scenes, it took many hours of preparation, secret-keeping, and organization! Setting the stage for the event was like creating the “perfect storm.” There are so many elements that could potentially go wrong, but if all the pieces planned fell correctly into place, we were sure to create a great surprise and lasting memory.
 
First and foremost, we started out with a vision and a purpose. We wanted to share an idea, surprise meeting attendees, and simply have fun! Before devising the activity, we explored our audience, their ages, occupations, etc., to help us determine a music style and even a style of dress so that our dancers would blend into the crowd. The creation of the song and dance was targeted at capturing the essence of the vision. Our plan was to reveal the Experience Gendex Campaign to the dental community in New York in a fun, eye-catching manner.
 
 

The GNYDM was our perfect venue. Of course, we had to work around some restrictions regarding sound, space, and number of people allowed in our “mob.” This was new to the GNYDM committee, so we were breaking new ground. We carefully checked with the committee, and with the city’s laws and regulations. We didn’t want to go through all of planning to prepare and implement this amazing happening, only to be fined or even interrupted during the performance! We also had to plan a myriad of logistics, check sound quality, and make sure that our film crew was in place so we could post our flash mob video on our YouTube page, Facebook, and Experience Gendex Blog for everyone to see! After making sure that we were within all of the requirements, it was time for choreography.
 
The fun part was truly the song and dance coordination. We had to make sure that our song properly represented the long-standing and highly regarded reputation of our company and our products. Though we knew that all eyes would be focused in the dance portion of the mob, the lyrics must contain our message. We chose to combine an upcoming artist’s new song mixed with our company’s campaign jingle. Local artist, Matt Palmer’s song really established the beat and concept for our choreographer to put into motion.
 
 

The choreographer’s job was daunting: Get 40 people to dance in unison and do so, starting with one dancer and growing the number slowly from there to truly create that surprise factor—it was quite the feat. Also, these dancers would not be able to practice in the venue; a challenge that we planned for. Pavan Thimmaiah of PMT Dance Studios, our choreographer, was a true professional. He really “got” what we were striving to attain. His philosophy is simple: “Surround yourself with the right people who have the right energy, and it will be a rewarding experience.”
 
Once all of these elements were in order, we were ready for the magic! When the music started, curious meeting attendees started to notice that the “assistants,” “dentists,” and various other “attendees” were jumping in to dance to the Gendex music “mash-up.” People grabbed their cameras and smartphones to catch the action. Our assignment was completed—we put the innovation and creativity that is found in Gendex products to music and dance—and it all happened in a flash!