Campfire Speakers

Since 2020, the WXO has run over 135 virtual Campfires. Each Campfire is a playground for experience pioneers around the world to connect, inspire, and challenge each other on the topics shaping the Experience Revolution.

Some of the world’s greatest thinkers in experience have been invited to host Campfires, spanning neuroscientists, theatre directors, behavioural psychologists, CEOs, brand experts, best-selling authors, investors, academics, technologists, and beyond.

We’ve welcomed Disney Imagineers, alumni from the likes of Secret Cinema and Meow Wolf, and independent geniuses you haven’t heard of (yet). We also host open-mic Campfires, where the community experiment with new tools and techniques together.

Coming Soon

Season 8 of the WXO Campfires kicks off on Wednesday 13 September 2023.
WXO Members can view and RSVP to each Campfire here.

Marissa Nielsen-Pincus

Associate Artistic Director, Third Rail Projects

Abraham Burickson

Director, Odyssey Works

Chris Lattner

CEO & Creative Director, THE ROOM Laboratories

Past Speakers

We’re working on bringing you the full archive of all past Campfire speakers.
Click “Read More” for links to reports (currently available to all) and
recordings (only available to WXO Members) for each speakers.

Michael T Lai

SVP of Knowledge Management & Senior Partner, TANG Consulting

Barbara Groth

Founder, The Nomadic School of Wonder

 

Carolene Méli

Experience Strategist

Brad Shelton

Vice President & Creative Director, BRC Imagination Arts

Kinda Studios

Neuroaesthetics Studio

Want to attend Campfires and get access to the full video archive?
 
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Log in to WXO Connect to RSVP to upcoming Campfires and watch past editions.

Marissa Nielsen-Pincus

Associate Artistic Director, Third Rail Projects

Nielsen-Pincus is a certified Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner, Somatic Movement Educator, and Somatic Movement Therapist. She is also a founding member of Third Rail Projects, performing and generating work since 2001.

In immersive theater, where connecting to an audiences’ experience is the driving force behind the narrative, it’s even more important that the culture of storytelling and interaction design be rooted in an embodiment perspective. Here, where we can celebrate all of the wisdom that our somatic intelligence has to offer.

Abraham Burickson

Author, Experience Designer, and Director, Odyssey Works

What does it mean to design experiences? Traditional design practices invite us to design things, and to use those things to solve problems. But experience is not a problem; it is life.

Experience designers engage with unpredictability and the unknown, partnering with their audiences to generate possibility and relationality.

Burickson will talk about how to create worlds, craft narratives that leave the page and enter people’s lives, and structure transformation.

Chris Lattner

CEO & Creative Director, THE ROOM Laboratories

On “How To Make People Believe In Ghosts” (or how to just create a really immersive experience).

Michael T Lai

SVP of Knowledge Management & Senior Partner, TANG Consulting, & CEO and Dean, X Thinking Institute

Evangelist, strategist, designer, academic and author on Brand eXperiences, including the first book published on the Experience Economy in Chinese.

Catch them: talking about how to enter the uncharted territory of business strategy.

Joe Pine

Experience Economy Godfather

An author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike, Pine not only coined the term “Experience Economy”, he wrote the book on it, too. Runs management advisory firm Strategic Horizons with his co-author, Jim Gilmore.

He’ll talk about his latest work on Transformation and how to apply it to your own experiences.

Barbara Groth

Founder, The Nomadic School of Wonder

Expert on on how to design experiences that bring people into a felt experience of wonder and awe.

Catch them: leading a walk about wandering, wondering and the art of noticing, using our full palette of senses.

Carolene Méli

Experience Strategist

Works with businesses including Cirque Du Soleil to offer an in-person experience to improve operations, customer satisfaction and revenue.

Catch them: talking about how to create operations around an experience that can be executed consistently no matter where we are, what our team looks like, who our partners are, or what kind of customers we serve.

Brad Shelton

Vice President & Creative Director, BRC Imagination Arts

BRC Imagination Arts is a full-service strategy, design and production company that creates work for clients including Johnnie Walker Princes Street, Guinness Storehouse, the World of Coca-Cola, Jameson Distillery Bow St., the Ravinia Festival, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Catch them: leading an experience design masterclass and hands-on experience creation workshop that involves storytelling, construction, problem-solving.

Kinda Studios

Experience Designer, Towergaze Roleplaying Collective

Katherine Templar-Lewis & Robyn Landau are co-founders of Kinda Studios, a neuroaesthetics studio exploring the human experience. They apply neuroscience research from the labs into creative projects to help art, culture and technology work harder for people’s wellbeing.

Catch them: talking about the newest, coolest branch of neuroscience: neuroaesthetics. Hear how aesthetic experiences impact our brain and body.