Where’s your “third place”? Almost everybody has one — even if they don’t know it. Your first place is easy; that’s your home. Your second place is where you work, whether it’s  an office or the cab of a truck. But your third place? That’s more informal — think of third places as the unofficial anchors of community life: public spaces, coffee shops, perhaps even a barber’s or a beauty salon. The bar in “Cheers” is a third place, so is Central Perk in “Friends,” or Rick’s in “Casablanca.” Welcoming, comfortable, informal, and open to all, they’re the social glue that holds a sense of place together.

Because they’re so familiar, it’s easy to overlook their importance, but businesses and institutions are increasingly aware that to become part of a community, they must offer everything a third place offers. And more.

Creating shared experiences

It’s why there are coffee shops in museums and pop-up cinemas in city parks. It’s why city planners love pedestrianized zones and why places like the Distillery District in Toronto are so popular. It’s also why a new generation of third places is growing to mirror the AV revolution that’s already taken place in our homes — because third places are all about sharing experiences, and nobody does shared experiences like ProAV.

That’s why the volunteers and The Friends of Old Christ Church in Liverpool, now a thriving community center, were so keen to host Paul Alty’s immersive projection mapping “Black Hole — End of Time” and why ICFF at the Lavazza IncluCity Festival in Toronto regularly puts an outdoor cinema right in the heart of the Distillery District. Events and attractions like these keep third places vibrant and relevant by providing a nucleus for communities to form and prosper. In the same way that a community cafe is more about conversation than coffee, these events offer us an excuse to gather and be with people who are neither family nor colleagues but equally as essential for our emotional and social well-being.

So, expect to see more immersive installations with community-led content, more museums becoming places for interaction as well as education and entertainment, and maybe retail outlets deliberately slowing rather than hastening foot traffic so that third places have a chance to form.

An invitation

We’re social creatures, but we often need an excuse to socialize. ProAV is uniquely able to provide it and pull us together. Projection mapping on a floor where there was nothing before, a video wall presenting artists’ work, big screen sports events in public places, ProAV will never run out of excuses to gather and set the third place ball rolling. Because even after the pixels have dimmed, not only will the people remain, they’ll return. Event or no event.

People, not buildings, build third places and the sense of place that follows.

Now, does anyone fancy a coffee? There’s a place we know…