WXO

Campfires 63 & 64: Curb Experience Enthusiasm
2022-06-08 17:55 - 19:25 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Overly perfectionist or passionate clients can have us all quaking in our boots. Not to mention that sometimes our own passion can be a blocker. How many times have you struggled to let creative projects go, or broken your own boundaries when it comes to fees, deadlines and scope?But less is more. Completion is better than perfection. And killing your darlings isn’t just for novelists.So when passion threatens to get in the way, how can we manage our clients’ – and our own! – expectations to build engaging experiences that we can be proud of?Themed experience expert Cynthia Vergon may have the answer.
Vergon has worked with some of the most prestigious marketing and design firms in the themed experience industry. She was recently commissioned by experience design firm and lead creative designer Jora Vision to work on Quake, a new immersive experience at Lisbon Earthquake Centre that allows audiences to see, feel and understand the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 using a blend of narrative and technology.Based on her experiences, Vergon will tell you how to:

Work with passionate experts to find the balance between historical “fact” and storytelling
Navigate working with passionate clients, multiple changes and shifting deadlines
Manage your own passions to gracefully let go of projects that feel like your baby

To get in the zone, ask yourself:

Have you ever felt that your passion (or your client’s passion) was getting in the way of a project?
Is there a moment when a project no longer belongs to you? How do you know when that point is reached?
Is perfection possible? If not, how can you explain to your client that at some point, completion is better than perfection?

*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Campfire 61: Mind The Experience Design Gap
2022-05-25 17:55 - 19:25
Some of us are designers. Some of us are producers. Some of us even do both. Therefore, we all understand the value of what we do at each step of the experience creation process.However, the point at which experience designers hand over to operations is the part of this journey that often gets overlooked. And if you don’t know which questions you should be asking each other and which design elements are important for both teams to be involved in, you might be headed for disaster…Carolene Méli, Experience Strategist and Founder of Brands of the Med, will lead a discussion on how to build better relationships between creators and producers when designing new experiences, drawing on a recent VIP project for Cirque du Soleil.
To get in the zone, ask yourself:

If you’re a designer, what are three questions to ask the producer?
If you’re a producer, what are three questions to ask the designer?
What tools do you use to ensure everyone on your team is on the same page during the handover?

*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Campfyre 60: Top Flops & Epic Fails
2022-05-18 17:55 - 19:25
Bad experiences are bad for all of us.
When so many firms claim to offer ‘experiences’ today, how can consumers know what’s true and what isn’t? How can they choose between experiences that are really well designed and good, and those that aren’t?
And how can clients distinguish between firms who claim to create great experiences, and those who really deliver?
Friction like this is bad for consumer and client confidence. If a person or a firm is burned when they spend money and time in the Experience Economy, next time
they’re likely to hesitate, to choose an option that seems safer, and to spend somewhere else.
We need to find a way to make it easier for people and firms to avoid the ‘experience’
creators who cut corners on the experience, spend their money on hype, and so put people off from spending more on experiences in the future.
So for CampfYre 60, we’re on a mission to smoke out failure. Together, let’s figure out why bad experiences happen – and how we can make sure we don’t make the same mistake twice. If we don’t, we’ll only end up with more Fyre Festivals in all experience sectors.
In anticipation, think about:

What’s the worst experience you’ve ever attended?
What’s the worst experience you’ve ever designed?
What did you learn from both?

*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Campfire 59: The Expectation Effect
2022-05-18 09:55 - 11:55
Your last chance to catch award-winning science writer David Robson’s brilliant talk on The Startling Ways That Expectations Shape Experience, now at an APAC-friendly time.
It turns out, all sorts of expectations – what we think about ageing, what we think about the food we eat, if we think something will be easy or hard – have a significant impact on outcomes. Far more powerfully than most of us realise.
We think there’s many insights that experience designers can borrow from Robson’s research to craft customers’ / guests’ / visitors’ / employees’ / audience’s expectations and create better experiences.
Expect to hear radical, evidence-based discoveries on how expectation can have profound impacts on experience – and, together with the experience pioneers at the Campfire, figure out how to apply these in the experiences you create.
*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Campfire 58: The "New You" Business
2022-05-11 17:55 - 19:55
Our very own Experience Economy Godfather, Joe Pine, returns to share his latest thinking on how to design for the next revolution in our economy: transformations.
Transformation is what happens when companies use experiences as the raw material to guide people to change.
Many businesses are naturally already in the transformation business. Think fitness or healthcare centres, where you transform your body.
Universities or coaching sessions, where you transform your mind.
Or management consultants of all stripes, who transform companies.
However, most other businesses – particularly b2b ones, and including experience designers – could greatly benefit by thinking how they could elevate their offerings to the transformation level.
Enter Pine, and his revolutionary thinking on how to consider transformative experiences, design for aspirational jobs to be done, and stride into the “New You” business with confidence.
*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Campfire 57: Trojan Horses And Finding Meaning In Unlikely Places
2022-05-04 17:55 - 19:55
Frankfurt-based attractions designer Michael Badelt believes that there’s a huge amount of untapped potential to infuse attractions with an underlying narrative or meaning for the audience to discover – if they dare…
And whether you’re designing haunted houses, theme parks, or something entirely different, the ability to deliver meaningful thoughts that will *haunt* audiences long beyond your experience itself is a *frighteningly* relevant one.
This is the second of two daily sessions, at an Americas-friendly time. For APAC, see Campfire 56.
*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Campfire 56: Trojan Horses And Finding Meaning In Unlikely Places
2022-05-04 09:55 - 11:55
Frankfurt-based attractions designer Michael Badelt believes that there’s a huge amount of untapped potential to infuse attractions with an underlying narrative or meaning for the audience to discover – if they dare…
And whether you’re designing haunted houses, theme parks, or something entirely different, the ability to deliver meaningful thoughts that will *haunt* audiences long beyond your experience itself is a *frighteningly* relevant one.
This is the first of two daily sessions, at an APAC-friendly time. For the Americas, see Campfire 57.
*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Bonfire 1: The ERY Method (Part Two)
2022-04-26 16:55 - 18:30
Experience Economy expert Kevin Dulle gives 24 WXO members a guided tour through his ERY Method in the second of two exclusive, hands-on masterclasses.
For those who might have missed it, Dulle introduced the ERY Method back in Campfire 10 – the only one of our Campfires to date where every piece of feedback was a 10/10.
In this deep dive into Dulle’s self-styled “brilliantly stupid / stupidly brilliant” method, you’ll learn:

How the ERY Method liberates creative thinking for experience designers and non-designers alike.
How you can apply it to your own business ideas.
How to successfully present your evolved ideas to investors – with the chance to pitch to a surprise guest on the second session.

Places are limited to 24, for registered WXO members only, and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. And for this first Bonfire, they’re totally free.
*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*

Women in Experience (WiX): Session 1
2022-04-21 17:30 - 18:30
Founded by WXO Co-Founders Nasya Kamrat and Sheena Patel and Founding Member Kevi Louise Johnson, WiX is open to all female-identifying practitioners in the experience sector.
This first virtual gathering will explore:

Current practices or constructs in the world of work that are not best serving women’s ability to contribute to the Experience Economy
Challenges or roadblocks to professional development and opportunities
How we effectively ‘work’ and how those attributes can contribute to and inform the Experience Economy

Click here to register your interest in attending.

Campfire 54: Pics That Produce Happiness
2022-04-20 17:55 - 19:25
Selfies and snaps are essential parts of the VALUE equation of EXPERIENCES.

They give people experiential currency and that all important status, and they give experience creators an essential marketing tool.

But taking photos can take us out of flow. And social media can be bad – really bad – for our wellbeing.

How on earth can we square this circle?

Mandy Seligman, psychologist, may have the answer.

An expert in positive psychology since she studied with the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, Seligman will share her fascinating new project, and the ideas behind it, on how we can help people take pics that help, rather than hinder, their happiness.
*NB: This event is for WXO Members ONLY. To attend Campfires, click here to apply to join the WXO.*
