For nearly two decades, we’ve operated at LFL with a conviction that immersive, hands-on experiences do something traditional campaigns cannot: they generate belief. The 18th Annual Shorty Awards—recognizing work we built in partnership with Google, Salesforce, and Qualcomm—suggest the broader industry is arriving at the same conclusion.
The through-line is consistent. When audiences participate directly in an experience built around emerging technology, understanding follows. So does trust.
With Google—a partnership now approaching 18 years—the challenge was turning a developer conference save-the-date into an event in itself. Prism Shift, a quantum-computing-inspired puzzle game powered by Gemini, asked developers to guide beams of light across seven evolving worlds to unlock the Google I/O date. Engineered to resist the code-crawling that had exposed previous puzzles prematurely, it demanded genuine engagement to crack. Android Police ranked it the most technically complex Google I/O teaser ever produced. The Shorty Awards agreed: Winner, Gamification, and Finalist, Launch Campaign.
With Salesforce, the problem was making agentic AI legible to thousands of business leaders at Dreamforce who had heard the promises but hadn't yet seen the proof. Agentforce City—a 1.5-football-field Main Street housing 17 branded storefronts across seven industries—put Equinox, Lululemon, Volkswagen, PepsiCo, and a dozen other partners directly into live AI workflows that attendees could test themselves. The result: 16,000 digital scans across roughly 6,200 visitors, a 1,376% increase over the prior year. Gold, Physical and Digital Convergence, and Silver, Creative Use of Technology.
With Qualcomm, a full year of experiential keynotes alongside CEO Cristiano Amon—aided by an agentic Q&A platform we engineered—brought tangible use-cases for the future of edge AI out of the spec sheet and into users’ hands. The result: Silver Honor in Event & Experiential, and Finalist in Physical and Digital Convergence & Creative Use of Technology.
Three partners. Three technology credibility problems. One consistent answer: build something people can participate in, and the technology makes its own case.
Reach out to hello@leftfieldlabs.com to inquire about how we can help you craft your next technology experience.