WCIT 2019 Opening Show

In the search for the center

Yerevan, Armenia

What's in the acronym?

The World Congress on Information Technology is one of the key events in the IT industry. We've done some research to prove the point and made an incomplete yet quite convincing list of its former speakers, including Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Steve Forbes, and many other barely known folks (unless you read a lot of dusty history books).

For the first time in more than forty years of the WCIT history, the event was brought to Armenia in 2019. Over the three days of the congress, Yerevan welcomed more than 150 top speakers and over 6,400 attendees. Avocado Toast team was there too — somebody had to entertain this peculiar crowd.

While WCIT made Armenia the center for a few days, its main objective was to manifest that thanks to IT, the center in the modern world can be virtually anywhere. The event slogan — "The power of decentralization" — was explored thoroughly by the delegates and re-interpreted on stage for the opening show by Avocado Toast.

We took the essence of this idea and brought it into the storyline and scenography of the opening show. Instead of taking center stage, the action expanded well into the audience hall. We switched attention from the stage yet kept important things in the limelight. That's why many logical centres of the show — including the orchestra, the duduk (an ancient Armenian woodwind instrument), and the little boy — were much further than where you'd normally expect them to be.

To be (in) the center

Well, yes:

Anything else?

Because you don't have to be in the center to be the center.