The Experience Drop #4

WORLD EXPERIENCE SUMMIT: SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL NOW ??

The World Experience Summit is the first curated, global gathering of experience pioneers from the World Experience Organization, taking place 28-30 June 2023.

And we’re now opening our programming to submissions from both WXO Members and non-members.

Want to stage an experience workshop, pop-up, talk, or Something Else Entirely for other experience experts? Tell us about it from midday tomorrow.

And for those of you waiting… Super Early Bird tickets will be available for WXO Members to book from midday, Tuesday 7 March. More details coming soon…

EXPERT INSIGHT: THE 5 PILLARS OF REGENERATIVE EXPERIENCES ??

Charlotte-Amélie Veaux , Co-Founder of Onyo , wanted to figure out how to create an experience that isn’t only immersive, but also “regenerative” – i.e. offers audiences a space to explore alternative narratives in a soft, caring way, nurturing a more positive mindset to enact future change.?

She identified 5 key pillars common to regenerative experiences, building them into an immersive experience called The Tree of Life:

1. Story = flipping the archetype
2. Interactive = a relaxing interaction
3. Senses = reconnecting with the body
4. Spatial = a low-tech, lighter footprint
5. Collective = a collective moment

The beauty of regenerative experiences is that they show that we can change people’s beliefs not through hard behavioural change, but through something as simple as an experience. Read more about how to craft your own regenerative experience here.

EXPERIENCE TREND: WHY IMMERSION IS THE KEY TO MORE ENGAGING EXPERIENCES ???

More and more, audiences are going from being passive observers to playing an active role in the narrative. Designing for such heightened immersion is no mean feat: but layered reality, which combines digital tech, live theatre and physical sensations, is helping people to suspend their disbelief by creating convincing and visceral new realities.

But how do you keep engagement levels up in passive audience experiences? Mike Richardson, a research associate in the Psychology Department at the University of Bath, is trying to work out how to make filmed theatre experiences more engaging .

To do so, he’s been studying levels of engagement in live theatre audiences. Using bio-monitors and motion trackers, he measures audience heart rates, skin temperature and movement to calculate the level of audience synchrony, with heightened immersion found to be linked to a similar collective heart rate.?

Want more on measuring immersion? Check out Paul Zak 's work on Measuring The Value Of Experiences and The Science of Extraordinary Experiences .

EXPERT INSIGHT: WHY STORYTELLING IS IMPORTANT IN BUSINESS ??

We find ourselves in a world where everything is steeped in the how and what, but consumers are yearning for the why: the story behind the product, the brand, and its authentic message.

Natasha Mortimer , Co-Creator and Creative Director at IMAGINEERIUM , explains why storytelling is important in business and how it can be used as a tool for engagement. She reveals how to make your customer the hero of your story, create conflict that reflects their problems, and eventually use experience to make them the storyteller for your brand, vision or even television show.

(We’ve also got more on How Story Drives Business with veteran Disney Imagineer Theron Skees right here.)

DEEP DIVE: TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING FOR REAL-WORLD IMPACT ????

In 2021, creative director and theater professor David Bassuk followed a real-life rabbit hole when he replied to an email asking him to create an alternate reality game for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq. At last night’s #WXOCampfire , we learned how he taught transmedia storytelling to motivate young people to take action against climate change.

Top takeaways ahead of the full write-up:

• The game-festival-hackathon model used by Bassuk helps us to think about the structures and thresholds we use to invite people into an experience.
• The beauty of transmedia storytelling is that it allows for multiple entry points. It’s a storysphere, not a fixed structure.
• When working with a different culture, you’re tackling many “unknown unknowns”. Co-creation, onboarding and a curious mindset are essential in these circumstances – but are also true when designing any experience.
• Creating a safe space to solve problems helps create community.

Join us this Wednesday 8 March for the next Campfire, when Laika Young O'Brien will be taking us on a raucous traipse through Emotional Alchemy: Experience Design for Altered States of Consciousness.

Have you got an experience, case study, or opinion to share? Tell us about it in the comments!

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