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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260930T095500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260930T110000
DTSTAMP:20260923T152553Z
CREATED:20260923T124434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T152553Z
UID:50711-1790762100-1790766000@worldxo.org
SUMMARY:How to Design for Life’s Hardest Moments: An XR Case Study
DESCRIPTION:How gesture\, pacing\, worldbuilding and embodied interaction can turn sensitive psychological research into something participants live\, not simply watch.\nHow do you design participation around one of the most difficult experiences in human life? \nNana Lou is an award-winning interactive VR animation from in which the participant plays a spirit accompanying a grandmother through her final moments. Rather than simply watching the story unfold\, the participant has a role within it – using their presence and actions to accompany Nana Lou on her journey. \nThe experience draws on research and training around end-of-life care and grief psychology. But translating that research into an immersive experience creates a very different design challenge: how do you turn emotionally delicate material into actions\, interactions and moments a participant can actually live? \nIn this WXO Campfire\, Nana Lou writer and director Isabelle Andreani will take us inside the design process. \nThrough an exclusive case study\, Isabelle will explore how the team built gesture\, pacing and presence directly into the roleplay\, and how decisions around narrative\, interaction and technology helped create an emotional journey without turning the participant into a passive observer. \nThe result is not only a useful XR case study but also a wider exploration of how experience designers can give audiences meaningful agency when working with complex or sensitive subject matter. \nWhat you’ll leave with\n\nA practical approach to emotional pacing – including how performative pacing can work alongside narrative story beats\nWays to use worldbuilding to control narrative pacing\, rather than treating environment and story as separate elements\nPrinciples for interacting with animated characters while maintaining emotional and narrative coherence\nAn example of embodied\, diegetic interaction\, using head tracking and hand tracking rather than separating the interface from the experience\nA clearer understanding of designing participation around sensitive material\, through the specific challenge of end-of-life care\nA detailed XR case study showing how research\, narrative\, interaction and technology can be developed as one experience\n\nWho should attend?\n\nCreators\, producers and designers working with XR and immersive technology\nNarrative and interaction designers exploring more meaningful forms of participation\nWriters and directors translating linear stories into interactive environments\nCreative technologists working with hand tracking\, head tracking and embodied interfaces\nExperience designers interested in emotional pacing and participant agency\nAnyone exploring how immersive experiences can approach difficult or sensitive subjects responsibly\n\nAbout Isabelle Andreani\nIsabelle Andreani is a writer and director specialising in new media\, interactive storytelling and immersive technologies. \nShe has worked in interactive content and digital experiences for more than 25 years and wrote and directed Nana Lou\, an interactive animated VR experience produced by Small Creative\, Skill Lab and France Télévisions. The project has been presented internationally\, including as part of Venice Immersive. \nAlongside her creative work\, Isabelle supports creators\, producers\, agencies and institutions developing digital formats. \nOriginally trained as an engineer and researcher in physics\, she later completed a Master’s degree in New Technology Management at HEC – Télécom ParisTech. Her career has subsequently crossed software development\, marketing\, entrepreneurship and production\, and she also teaches new forms of narrative at university. \n\n \n\n  \nHow to watch this Experience Briefing:\n\nExperience Briefings are available for WXO members only\nTo join the WXO\, please head to our Application page\nThe WXO is a global home for the leaders\, shapers and doers in the Experience Economy\nAs a member\, you’ll get live access to Experience Briefings like this one plus unlock an on demand library of over 100 recordings\n\n  \n\n  \nTimings:\nCampfire #1 is suitable for those in the APAC region or Europe\, but everyone is welcome! Here’s when we kick off in your time zone: \n\nLondon: 9:55 – 11:00 (BST)\nParis: 10:55 – 12:00 (CEST)\nDubai: 12:55 – 14:00 (GST)\nMumbai: 14:25 – 15:00 (IST)\nShanghai / Singapore: 16:55 – 18:00 (CST/SGT)\nTokyo: 17:55 – 19:00 (JST)\nSydney: 18:55 – 20:00 (AEST)\nAuckland: 20:55 – 22:00 (NZST)
URL:https://worldxo.org/event/designing-for-lifes-hardest-moments-inside-the-xr-storytelling-of-nana-lou/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:WXO Campfire
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://worldxo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Isabelle-Andreani.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260930T175500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260930T190000
DTSTAMP:20260923T152602Z
CREATED:20260917T112450Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T152602Z
UID:50677-1790790900-1790794800@worldxo.org
SUMMARY:Can Immersive Make Money? How to Design for Audiences and Capital
DESCRIPTION:A practical session exploring the financial\, operating and structural choices behind immersive shows – and how producers and operators can build projects that capital can understand and price.\nImmersive and experiential shows promise outsized engagement – but they carry a financial and operating profile unlike traditional live entertainment\, and supply is flooding in faster than the industry can explain what actually drives value. \nThis Experience Briefing breaks down the sector challenges\, operating metrics and capital structure choices. \nThe goal: provide producers and operators a framework for building shows capital can actually price correctly. \nImmersive entertainment presents a particular challenge for producers\, operators and investors. \nThe creative proposition may be clear. The audience response may be strong. But understanding how an immersive show creates value – and translating that into a financial structure that producers\, operators and capital providers can all understand – is less straightforward. \nIn this session\, Neil Chakravarti\, Principal and Co-founder of EVOQ Ventures\, will examine the financial and structural considerations behind building immersive shows. \nDrawing on more than 25 years across media\, technology and investment banking\, alongside his current work financing and building immersive entertainment businesses\, Neil will explore how the sector can develop a clearer shared framework for assessing projects. \nThe session will explore:\n\nHow the financial and operating profile of immersive shows differs from traditional live entertainment\nThe wider sector challenges affecting how immersive projects are understood and financed\nThe role of operating metrics in explaining what actually drives value\nThe capital structure choices available when building immersive shows\nHow producers and operators can structure projects so that investors can better understand and price them\nHow creative\, operational and financial considerations interact when developing a viable immersive project\n\nAt London Experience Week 2026\, Neil took part in Tug Of War: The Dance Between Creative And Finance\, exploring the relationship between creative ambition\, guest experience\, commercial viability and financial risk. \nThis session takes that conversation into the specific financial and structural challenges facing immersive shows – giving producers and operators a clearer framework for understanding how their projects look through the lens of capital. \nWho is it for? \n\nProducers developing immersive and experiential shows\nOperators responsible for running immersive entertainment\nFounders and business leaders developing new experiential concepts\nInvestors and finance professionals evaluating immersive projects\nCreative and production leaders who want to better understand the commercial structures behind their work\nAnyone working on the financial or operational model for an immersive entertainment project\n\nAbout Neil Chakravarti\nNeil Chakravarti has worked across media\, technology and investment banking for more than 25 years. \nHe is currently Principal and Co-founder at EVOQ Ventures\, which focuses on financing immersive entertainment\, as well as Co-founder of immersive live entertainment company Shocap and film studio Branded To Film. \nNeil has founded\, built and exited two media businesses. Earlier in his career he worked in investment banking at JPMorgan across New York\, Toronto and London\, primarily covering technology\, media and telecoms. He is also an active angel investor\, advisor and board member across media and technology businesses. \n\n \n\n  \nHow to watch this Experience Briefing:\n\nExperience Briefings are available for WXO members only\nTo join the WXO\, please head to our Application page\nThe WXO is a global home for the leaders\, shapers and doers in the Experience Economy\nAs a member\, you’ll get live access to Experience Briefings like this one plus unlock an on demand library of over 100 recordings\n\n  \n\n  \nTimings:\nSession #2 is suitable for those in the US or Europe\, but everyone is welcome! Here’s when we kick off in your time zone: \n\nLondon: 17:55 – 19:00\nParis: 18:55 – 20:00\nLos Angeles: 09:55 – 11:00\nSanta Fe: 10:55 – 12:00\nChicago: 11:55 – 13:00\nNew York: 12:55 – 14:00\nSão Paulo\, Santiago & Buenos Aires: 13:55 – 15:00
URL:https://worldxo.org/event/can-immersive-make-money/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:WXO Campfire
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://worldxo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Neil-Chakravarti.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261007T095500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261007T110000
DTSTAMP:20260923T152325Z
CREATED:20260921T100556Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T152325Z
UID:50691-1791366900-1791370800@worldxo.org
SUMMARY:We ARE The Story: How to Design for Identity Change (early)
DESCRIPTION:How experience designers can create moments that shift how people see themselves – and what they believe they’re capable of.\nMost of us are two steps away from a significant change in our lives through the story we tell about ourselves. \nAll it takes is a moment – an experience that makes us realise what we’re capable of\, and therefore who we actually are. \nExperiential designers have an unusual opportunity to create those moments. Experiences aren’t passive. They put people in situations where they have to choose. To act. To commit. \nAnd when someone walks out thinking\, “I can’t believe I did that”\, something has shifted that no campaign\, content or digital touchpoint could produce in quite the same way. \nIn this WXO Experience Briefing\, Raj Samuel\, founder of Malice Arts\, will explore what this means for experience design – and introduce a framework for deliberately designing the gap between the person who walks into an experience and the person who walks out. \nAfter ten years of building dark\, story-driven underground worlds – hidden rooms\, quests\, live performances and experiences involving thousands of participants – Raj didn’t set out to develop a theory of human transformation. \nHe simply noticed that something kept happening. \nPeople weren’t just escaping. They were rehearsing. \nTrying on versions of themselves they’d stopped believing in. Doing things they didn’t expect themselves to do. Walking out slightly different from how they walked in. \nRaj’s central argument is simple: every experience is rewriting the story someone tells about themselves. The question is whether you’re designing that rewrite deliberately or leaving it to chance. \nHis original London Experience Week session explored this through what he calls Main Character Moments – moments when somebody stops simply observing and begins acting as the protagonist of their own story – alongside ideas including Identity Editing\, the Permission Paradox and the Afterglow Effect. \nThis session will take that thinking further and turn it into a practical framework experience designers can apply to their own work. \nWhat you’ll leave with\n\nA new way of thinking about what experiences actually do at a psychological level – and why this matters when designing them\nThe Identity Editing framework: who arrives versus who leaves\, and how to design that gap deliberately\nPractical questions you can apply when designing experiences at any scale\nA clearer perspective on transformation: what it means in an experiential context\, and why a single moment rather than an entire programme may be where the real change happens\nA little audience participation along the way\n\nAfter seeing the original talk\, Joe Pine responded: “This is something I should have said in the book.” \nWXO’s Darren Kerr described the idea as creating: “Places to rehearse new selves\, reclaim imagination\, and step back into a main-character feeling that everyday life flattens.” \nWho is it for?\n\nExperience designers looking to create deeper participation and impact\nImmersive and theatrical creators building participatory worlds\nBrand experience and experiential marketing teams interested in changing more than awareness\nAttraction\, entertainment and cultural teams thinking about transformation and behaviour\nStrategists interested in the psychology behind memorable experiences\nAnyone asking what we really mean when we describe an experience as transformative\n\nAbout Raj Samuel\nRaj Samuel is the founder of Malice Arts. \nHe began his career in global advertising agencies including AMV/BBDO and Ogilvy\, working with brands including Cadbury\, BT and Mercedes\, before moving into immersive experiences. \nOver the past decade\, he has created underground\, story-driven participatory worlds through Malice Arts. His London Experience Week talk drew on ten immersive music events and thousands of participants to examine how experiences can influence the way people see themselves. \nToday his work combines brand strategy\, venture building and experiential worlds\, and he is writing We Are The Story\, exploring why experience can function as a business strategy. \n\n \n\n  \nHow to watch this Experience Briefing:\n\nExperience Briefings are available for WXO members only\nTo join the WXO\, please head to our Application page\nThe WXO is a global home for the leaders\, shapers and doers in the Experience Economy\nAs a member\, you’ll get live access to Experience Briefings like this one plus unlock an on demand library of over 100 recordings\n\n  \n\n  \nTimings:\nCampfire #1 is suitable for those in the APAC region or Europe\, but everyone is welcome! Here’s when we kick off in your time zone: \n\nLondon: 9:55 – 11:00 (BST)\nParis: 10:55 – 12:00 (CEST)\nDubai: 12:55 – 14:00 (GST)\nMumbai: 14:25 – 15:00 (IST)\nShanghai / Singapore: 16:55 – 18:00 (CST/SGT)\nTokyo: 17:55 – 19:00 (JST)\nSydney: 18:55 – 20:00 (AEST)\nAuckland: 20:55 – 22:00 (NZST)
URL:https://worldxo.org/event/we-are-the-story-early/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:WXO Campfire
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://worldxo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Raj-Samuel.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261007T175500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261007T190000
DTSTAMP:20260923T152311Z
CREATED:20260921T100907Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T152311Z
UID:50694-1791395700-1791399600@worldxo.org
SUMMARY:We ARE The Story: How to Design for Identity Change (Late)
DESCRIPTION:How experience designers can create moments that shift how people see themselves – and what they believe they’re capable of.\nMost of us are two steps away from a significant change in our lives through the story we tell about ourselves. \nAll it takes is a moment – an experience that makes us realise what we’re capable of\, and therefore who we actually are. \nExperiential designers have an unusual opportunity to create those moments. Experiences aren’t passive. They put people in situations where they have to choose. To act. To commit. \nAnd when someone walks out thinking\, “I can’t believe I did that”\, something has shifted that no campaign\, content or digital touchpoint could produce in quite the same way. \nIn this WXO Experience Briefing\, Raj Samuel\, founder of Malice Arts\, will explore what this means for experience design – and introduce a framework for deliberately designing the gap between the person who walks into an experience and the person who walks out. \nAfter ten years of building dark\, story-driven underground worlds – hidden rooms\, quests\, live performances and experiences involving thousands of participants – Raj didn’t set out to develop a theory of human transformation. \nHe simply noticed that something kept happening. \nPeople weren’t just escaping. They were rehearsing. \nTrying on versions of themselves they’d stopped believing in. Doing things they didn’t expect themselves to do. Walking out slightly different from how they walked in. \nRaj’s central argument is simple: every experience is rewriting the story someone tells about themselves. The question is whether you’re designing that rewrite deliberately or leaving it to chance. \nHis original London Experience Week session explored this through what he calls Main Character Moments – moments when somebody stops simply observing and begins acting as the protagonist of their own story – alongside ideas including Identity Editing\, the Permission Paradox and the Afterglow Effect. \nThis session will take that thinking further and turn it into a practical framework experience designers can apply to their own work. \nWhat you’ll leave with\n\nA new way of thinking about what experiences actually do at a psychological level – and why this matters when designing them\nThe Identity Editing framework: who arrives versus who leaves\, and how to design that gap deliberately\nPractical questions you can apply when designing experiences at any scale\nA clearer perspective on transformation: what it means in an experiential context\, and why a single moment rather than an entire programme may be where the real change happens\nA little audience participation along the way\n\nAfter seeing the original talk\, Joe Pine responded: “This is something I should have said in the book.” \nWXO’s Darren Kerr described the idea as creating: “Places to rehearse new selves\, reclaim imagination\, and step back into a main-character feeling that everyday life flattens.” \nWho is it for?\n\nExperience designers looking to create deeper participation and impact\nImmersive and theatrical creators building participatory worlds\nBrand experience and experiential marketing teams interested in changing more than awareness\nAttraction\, entertainment and cultural teams thinking about transformation and behaviour\nStrategists interested in the psychology behind memorable experiences\nAnyone asking what we really mean when we describe an experience as transformative\n\nAbout Raj Samuel\nRaj Samuel is the founder of Malice Arts. \nHe began his career in global advertising agencies including AMV/BBDO and Ogilvy\, working with brands including Cadbury\, BT and Mercedes\, before moving into immersive experiences. \nOver the past decade\, he has created underground\, story-driven participatory worlds through Malice Arts. His London Experience Week talk drew on ten immersive music events and thousands of participants to examine how experiences can influence the way people see themselves. \nToday his work combines brand strategy\, venture building and experiential worlds\, and he is writing We Are The Story\, exploring why experience can function as a business strategy. \n\n \n\n  \nHow to watch this Experience Briefing:\n\nExperience Briefings are available for WXO members only\nTo join the WXO\, please head to our Application page\nThe WXO is a global home for the leaders\, shapers and doers in the Experience Economy\nAs a member\, you’ll get live access to Experience Briefings like this one plus unlock an on demand library of over 100 recordings\n\n  \n\n  \nTimings:\nSession #2 is suitable for those in the US or Europe\, but everyone is welcome! Here’s when we kick off in your time zone: \n\nLondon: 17:55 – 19:00\nParis: 18:55 – 20:00\nLos Angeles: 09:55 – 11:00\nSanta Fe: 10:55 – 12:00\nChicago: 11:55 – 13:00\nNew York: 12:55 – 14:00\nSão Paulo\, Santiago & Buenos Aires: 13:55 – 15:00
URL:https://worldxo.org/event/we-are-the-story-late/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:WXO Campfire
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://worldxo.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Raj-Samuel.png
END:VEVENT
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