Membership Criteria

The WXO invites applications from all people and companies who work in the Experience Economy.

We believe that the more that people understand their own, adjacent, connected and prima facie disparate parts of the experience ecosystem, the better they will be at playing their part in building the Experience Economy, and creating better experiences.

The path to building better experiences requires all the pieces of the experience ecosystem puzzle. So we welcome applications from designers, creators, builders, operators, entrepreneurs, technologists, fabricators, artists, storytellers, promoters, investors, front of house managers, showrunners, lawyers, real estate and software developers.

Given the emergent nature of the Experience Economy, if your job title / description isn’t on that list, don’t worry. If you work in experiences, please go ahead and apply.

Membership type: Expert

WXO Expert membership is for those who, in their application, can show the Membership Committee three (3) examples of experiences that they have created / operated / worked on.
In those three experiences, we look for ones that are outstanding from creative, commercial, and impact points of view. We look for experiences that are good for people, profit, society and planet. People: experiences that make people feel more alive. Profit: experiences that are repeatable, sustainable, scalable. Society & planet: experiences that create a better society, and are good for the environment. (Not every experience needs to do all of these things. Not every experience needs to be perfect. Just good, that shows your expertise.)
Besides creativity and commerciality, and consideration of wider impact, we also look for curiosity in our members. We used to ask people questions from the Five Dimension Curiosity (5DC) scale. But we found that the answers correlated so closely with the experiences people showed us, we didn't need to. People who make great experiences, we've discovered, are incredibly curious by nature. They think about human nature, about stories that bind us, about creating moments and magic that light people up. So we now just ask for those three examples 🙂
Upon acceptance, Expert members are invited to attend our live (virtual) events: Campfires, which take place every week; and PlayLabs, which take place once a month. They are also invited to the WXO's Private Member site, where they can connect and share with our other 600+ members, and catch up on all the Campfire and PlayLab videos that we've recorded since recording began in 2021 and available here on demand.
Expert members are presented with a 'Proud Member of the WXO' badge to display on their email etc.

Membership type: Emerging talent

WXO Emerging Talent membership is for those who demonstrate an enthusiasm for experiences and identify themselves as 'emerging talent' and don't yet have three (3) examples of exceptional professional level experiences that they have created / operated / worked on to share with the Membership Committee.
Upon acceptance, Emerging Talent members are invited to attend our live (virtual) PlayLabs, which take place once a month. They are also invited to the WXO's Private Member site, to connect and share with our other 600+ members, to catch up on all the Campfire and PlayLab videos that we've recorded since recording began in 2021 and are available here on demand.
Emerging Talent members are also presented with a 'Proud Member of the WXO' badge to display on their email etc.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

The WXO vigorously believes that experiences are created for all humans, and should be created by all humans.
We don't care who you are or what your background, beliefs, race, religion, dis/ability, gender, sexuality - so long as you're here to connect, share, listen, learn, and figure out how to make better experiences for other humans. (Oh, and other mammals and animals too.)
Actually, we'll look favourably on anyone applying from a group that's historically been marginalized.
We're especially excited about diversity of background and thinking, because that'll help you, me and everyone at the WXO be more innovative and original in our thinking - and more likely to create better experiences.
We created the Women In Experience (WiX) Taskforce in 2021 to support and promote the active participation and leadership of women in experiences. We have a nascent DEI&B Taskforce, launched in 2023. The Accessibility Taskforce is set to launch in 2024.
We recognize that we have not yet solved the issues of DEI&B, and are open to feedback on how we might approach this better.