After an unprecedented application period in terms of quality and quality, we are delighted to announce the shortlists for London Experience Week 2026.

Voting is now officially open. You have until Monday, 23 February 2026 to get your colleagues and peers to support your application.

Your votes count. It enables us to see what’s popular, what’s trending, what resonating with the experiential community today. It’s a process that shines a new and valuable perspective on the shortlisted applications, enabling us to take the pulse of the Experience Economy today.

We then apply our own lens, looking at the votes but also reviewing applications against our own audience data as well as our standards and requirements (duplication, representation, relevancy, expertise level).

What comes out is a fully curated content programme guaranteed to delight, provoke and inform even the most hardened eventgoer.

How to vote:

• Read all the session descriptions before you vote
• Open the form at the bottom of this page – scroll down or click one of the black ‘Ready to vote? Click here’ buttons
• Indicate your level of interest on all the entries
• Make sure to visit the other pages with separate voting forms for the other sessions – links to come below
• Anyone can vote. All we ask for is name and email so we can check for multiple entries and legitimate votes

Here are the first set of 25 – we hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have.

• Line-up #1: Sessions 1-25 on this page
• Line-up #2: Descriptions and link to come
• Line-up #3: Descriptions and link to come
• Line-up #4: Descriptions and link to come

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Speakers:

Francine Boon & Victor van Doorn (Co-Directors, Sherlocked)

What it’s about:

“For four years, Francine and Victor worked on what is now one of the most celebrated immersive live games in the world, as well one of the top escape rooms out there. Together with 38 designers, artists and engineers, they attempted to create real magic in a 90 minute production that cost them more than they care to count.

“They’ll share their most practical learnings from this ambitious project, ranging from the way they designed and prototyped every element of the experience, to the managing of a team of 40 makers, and their challenge to finance it all during covid times.”

Session takeaways:

• How to make sure a large, diverse team sees the same picture
• How best to raise money through pre-sales (there’s a formula)
• How to build something with love, care and for the long run

Speakers:

Jooseok Oh (Founder and CEO, BARAM Experience Co., Ltd)

What it’s about:

“On 3 December 2024, South Korea lived through a surreal day: martial law declared, then overturned within hours. Fear and old memories of violence surfaced – but what appeared in the streets was different: K-pop lightsticks instead of weapons, hand-drawn meme flags (“I want to go home”, “National Lying Down Association”), and prepaid cups of warm coffee waiting for strangers. In this session I share these fragile, powerful “human technologies” and explore what they teach us about designing experiences, democracy, and sustainable coexistence – not as the organiser, but as a Korean experience researcher and storyteller.”

Session takeaways:

• This session gives you a set of lenses and prompts to design with the human technologies your audiences invent for themselves – not just with the tools you buy or build
• A backstage context-mapping method for any audience – A reusable way to map the “hidden layers” behind behaviour – from 1980–90s democracy movements to 2002 World Cup streets, 2016 candlelight protests and the 2024–25 “revolution of light”. You’ll leave with questions you can use to surface your own city’s historical layers before you design
• A lens for reading symbols as human tech, not props – How to treat K-pop lightsticks, meme flags and prepaid warm coffee as serious interfaces for emotion, identity and care – and how to run the same analysis on the objects, memes and habits your audiences already bring from home
• Design prompts for when people refuse to follow the script – Concrete prompts to redesign one current project so it anticipates where people will really move: from staying home to coming out, from standing still to studying under streetlights, from consuming to organising heated buses and late-night snacks for strangers
• A pattern library for bottom-up solidarity hacks – Transferable patterns from Korea’s winter nights – from foil-blanket “Kisses” cheering squads to anonymous donors sending heated buses – that you can adapt to festivals, museums, cities and brands without copying the politics
• A sharper definition of “human tech” for experience makers – A way to distinguish between digital tools and the human technologies of time, risk and shared belief – plus a closing question set you can use with your team: “Where will we let people become the protagonists here?”

Speakers:

Nathan Adkisson (Creative Director, Local Projects)

What it’s about:

“Camouflage: Designed to Deceive is a ticketed experience opening at Washington, DC’s SPY Museum in March 2026. From nature to fashion, art, military strategy, and espionage, camouflage becomes hands-on, immersive, and unforgettable. This session unpacks how a familiar idea turned into must-see experiential IP for the museum – driving repeat visits, memberships, and brand momentum while staying tightly aligned with SPY’s mission.”

Session takeaways:

• Data can be creative fuel, not a constraint. Visitor surveys, Net Promoter Scores, and past performance were used to unlock bolder ideas, not water them down
• Ticketed exhibitions work best when they feel essential. By tying camouflage directly to the SPY Museum’s core theme of deception, the experience felt mission-critical, not an add-on. Broad topics become strong IP when they’re made personal and interactive
• A universal subject (camouflage) became “ownable” through immersive design, participation, and self-recognition.
• Timing matters as much as content. Aligning the exhibition with the U.S. Semiquincentennial and peak tourism maximized impact, revenue, and visibility. Temporary experiences can drive long-term values
• We’ll show how limited-run exhibitions can boost repeat visitation, membership growth, and brand momentum beyond their lifespan

Speakers:

James Allsopp (Creative Technology Director, PRELOADED)

What it’s about:

“We are on the brink of a fundamental shift in where experiences live. As technology moves from our pockets to our eyes, wrists, and ears, we are leaving the screen-first era and entering a world-first one. Digital no longer needs to pull us away from reality, but live within it, alongside us – shaped by context, intent and movement. Drawing on PRELOADED’s Wearable Play framework, this session explores a new design philosophy for creating play that integrates with everyday life and respects human attention rather than competing for it.”

Session takeaways:

• The “World-First” Framework: Transition from designing for 4-inch glass to designing for physical presence, movement, and environmental context
• Play as the Strategic Unlock: Discover how play turns technical constraints and new hardware form factors into intuitive, socially acceptable behaviours
• Moving Beyond the UI: Learn to replace menus and attention traps with “Intent-Aware Interactions” and “Shared-World Companions”
• The Grammar of World-First Design: Master the six affordances of wearable play that allow technology to support an experience without dominating it

Speakers:

Richard Winter (Creative Director, PRELOADED)

What it’s about:

“In the modern Experience Economy, passive entertainment is a wall. Modern “Play Native” audiences want to break through that barrier to inhabit “playable worlds” where their presence matters. This session is an authorised deep dive into PRELOADED’s “7 Principles for Bringing Play to Attractions.”

“Using the Playful Experience Design (PXD) framework, we explore how to move from “showing” a story to “hosting” an ecosystem. Learn how to transform static attractions into living environments where guests aren’t just visitors, they are protagonists of a world built for play, agency, and human connection.”

Session takeaways:

• Dismantling the Barrier: Master the “Low Thresholds, Wide Walls, High Ceilings” model to invite everyone in while providing infinite depth for the most curious players
• Narrative as Instruction: Shift from reading rules to discovering the world: replace traditional manuals with diegetic instruction. By leveraging environmental storytelling instead of intrusive tutorials, the game uses the world itself to signal mechanics and guide player progression
• Engineering Social Connectivity: Leverage the “Eyes-Up Play” principle to prioritise physical, human-to-human interaction over digital screen distraction
• The invisible tech filter: Learn to apply a narrative filter to technology and sets, ensuring every element reinforces the world’s internal logic rather than breaking the spell

Speakers:

Rory McCloskey (Business Dev of Smartech, Funder, and CEO of Sound Tech Connect Corp, The HUM)

What it’s about:

“Rory McCloskey, Business Development Director at Smartech, takes the stage to present a case study drawn from the success of Smartech’s retail destinations, including TM:RW stores in London, Berlin, Rome, and most recently New York City. He shares how integrating authentic, innovative experiences such as The HUM has enabled Smartech to connect with customers on a deeper emotional level, reach a new generation, and respond to changing consumer behaviors. As retail evolves, customers no longer want to simply purchase products, they want to experience, feel, and connect with products first.

“Gen Cleary, creator of The HUM, joins Rory on stage to discuss how collaborating directly with a forward-thinking retail partner has expanded the model beyond traditional location-based entertainment. Together, they explore how this partnership has unlocked a new pathway for experiential installations to live within retail environments, creating meaningful in-store experiences that not only drive engagement on site, but also open opportunities for customers to continue the experience at home.”

Session takeaways:

• Transform retail from a point of sale into a point of experience Retail brands can break the mold by collaborating directly with content and experience creators, turning stores into destinations where customers feel before they buy
• Rewrite the immersive retail playbook through direct creator partnerships Working directly with authentic, innovative creators allows brands and retail stores to launch experiences faster, more organically, and with greater cultural relevance than traditional agency-led models
• Use live experiences as a bridge, not a gimmick Immersive installations should deepen emotional connection and discovery, not distract from the brand. When done right, they naturally lead customers from experience to product
• Design for emotional engagement first, conversion second. Today’s customers want to connect with meaning, values, and sensation before making a purchase. Emotional resonance drives trust, loyalty, and long-term value
• Create pathways from in-store experience to at-home engagement
• Retail experiences can extend beyond the store, opening new opportunities for products, content, and experiences that customers can bring home and continue living with

Speakers:

Gen Cleary (Founder and CEO, Sound Tech Connect Corp / The HUM)

What it’s about:

“Experiences today are often overloaded in an effort to engage every sense, leaving audiences overstimulated rather than deeply connected. This talk places renewed emphasis on reintroducing music and sound as foundational forces in experience design, not secondary layers. Drawing from real-world productions and experiences, music therapy studies, and ancestral sound practices, Gen Cleary shares how a pivotal realization in her own work reshaped her approach.

“She introduces a practical framework and clear protocols for using music, sound, haptics, and spatial environments with intention, so experiences can entertain while also helping audiences heal, unite, and transform, creating deeper impact without compromising well-being.”

Session takeaways:

• Exploration of protocol for using music and sound with intention
• A dosage checklist to avoid overstimulation
• A body-first approach to music and sound design
• We can hear but are we listening
• Yes to introducing haptics into our experiences, but only with a clear safety playbook in place

Speakers:

Gabrielle Senza (Social Practice Artist and Experience Designer, Studio Lab Eleven)

What it’s about:

“What does it mean to be invisible – and why do some people long for it? I Must Be Invisible is a performance lecture drawn from the long-running In/Visibility Lab, combining storytelling, music, audience reflection, and participatory elements to explore how invisibility operates in personal, social, and institutional contexts. Grounded in real responses from thousands of anonymous participants, this experience invites audiences to notice where visibility feels empowering, where it feels risky, and how being seen – or unseen – shapes behavior, belonging, and choice.”

Session takeaways:

• Participants will leave with: A deeper, embodied understanding of invisibility as a lived experience
• Greater awareness of how visibility and power intersect
• Insight into why people sometimes choose invisibility
• Language for talking about visibility without oversimplifying it

Speakers:

Val Syganevich (President, CEO, Co-Founder, Freckled Sky)

What it’s about:

“Across immersive entertainment, brand spaces, hospitality, and museums, creating a destination or experience is a long and complex journey – often taking years to design, build, and launch. Yet audience expectations, digital behavior, and modes of engagement evolve far faster. By the time an experience opens, it risks feeling static in a world shaped by constantly updating digital environments.

“We see a new mindset: experiences are not finished objects, but evolving worlds. Mixed-reality enables this shift. By combining real space with digital layers, interactive storytelling, and participatory design, experiences can remain fresh, surprising, and personally meaningful across repeat visits.

“The keynote explores how these principles are already appearing across sectors and how they can be applied intentionally when designing future destinations.”

Session takeaways:

• Adaptable: Infrastructure stays; the story grows
• Dynamic: Always adding, always surprising
• Interactive: Guests become part of the plot
• Personalized: Every journey is unique
• Hyperreal: Reality and digital illusion fuse as one

Speakers:

Donnacadh O’Briain (Director, Experience Designer & Story Architect)

What it’s about:

“At a certain level of experience it can be hard to explain what you do…

“In this session Donnacadh will break down the fundamentals of his process across 20 years as a Stage Director, making new work for live audiences, and will – through examples from his recent projects – show how those same fundamentals can be put to use in events and experiences across a range of industries, from Corporate Events to L&D to LBE and Attractions.

Session takeaways:

• The session is about the power of understanding your skill set and what it is you actually do
• The importance of understanding the transferability of those skills, and how both your skills and your naivety can enhance projects where you traditionally might not tread
• Breaking down what a director actually does. #Spoiler, it’s not all about having a genius idea and then holding tight to it
• Demonstrating the portfolio-career skill of taking your core skills and utilising them in spaces outside of your comfort zone

Speakers:

Sarah Morris (Founder and Creative Director, Immersive Ideas Ltd)

What it’s about:

“Zombies are where immersive went mainstream, and where I cut my teeth (sometimes literally). Those early experiences succeeded because audiences already knew the rules of the world they were stepping into. This session breaks open why that mattered then, and why the same cultural mechanics still drive today’s most successful immersive work.

“Drawing on gaming, film, and popular culture, I will share a practical framework for designing experiences audiences instantly get, alongside how we make them viable. A survival guide for immersive designers, built on lessons that keep coming back from the dead, and still have real bite!”

Session takeaways:

• A repeatable cultural design framework for building immersive experiences audiences instantly understand
• A practical checklist for drawing inspiration from gaming, film, and popular culture while avoiding copycat design and IP risk
• Clear signals for when cultural references strengthen immersion, and when they weaken clarity or originality
• Experience KPIs that go beyond ticket sales, including emotional recall, dwell time, and word of mouth
• Hard won lessons from early mainstream immersive projects, including mistakes, trade offs, and course corrections

Speakers:

Sherri Nevins (Snr. Manager Gallery Programs, Autodesk)

What it’s about:

“Immersive Producers: The Secret Sauce pulls back the curtain on the people who make the impossible happen. Immersive producers work without a playbook—navigating ambiguity, first-of-their-kind challenges, and high-stakes decisions where creativity, budgets, timelines, and personalities collide. Through candid stories and interactive formats like Would You Rather, Hot Ones–style challenges, and The Producer’s Line, seasoned producers reveal how they manage risk, tame scope creep, and lead when there’s no precedent. Attendees will leave with practical tools, hard-earned insights, and a deeper respect for the producer as the strategic force behind immersive experiences.”

Session takeaways:

• How to make confident decisions when there is no precedent
• Practical frameworks for leading immersive projects where the work, tools, and outcomes don’t yet exist.
• How to spot risk and stop scope creep before it becomes a crisis
• Real-world signals, boundary-setting tactics, and communication moves producers use to protect teams, budgets, and timelines.
• How to translate across creatives, clients, and makers under pressure
• Proven approaches for navigating personalities, conflict, and complexity while keeping ambitious work moving forward.

Speakers:

Gerred Blyth (Creative Director and Producer, Department of Brilliant and Public Service Broadcasting)

What it’s about:

“For 12 years I have led a Bruce Wayne / Batman tandem career of UX / product direction by day and show design by night. By Day: Head of Product Design for ASOS, Product Director for the biggest pan African eCom platform and most recently C-Suite for the US’s leading Experience Gift provider. By Night: Show Designer for Public Service Broadcasting and the holographic Supernova Spectaculars project.

“In this session, I ask: What can we learn from crafted user experience journeys, that applies to the design of immersive spectacles? And what can show design teach us about large reach interactive product design? The answer will show a new way of thinking about your experience.”

Session takeaways:

• A checklist of six principles of stage design that apply to your app
• A checklist of 10 principles of product leadership that can apply to your show
• A template for how to reframe the design of your experience

Speakers:

Scott Schoeneberger (Managing Partner, Bluewater)

What it’s about:

“In a world full of noise, attention is earned – not by shouting, but through immersion. This energizing session explores how immersive intent can cut through the clutter in any context. Discover the key principles that turn moments into movements, so you can ditch the throwaway touchpoints and create experiences that stick, spread, and spark action. Walk away with a flexible framework for forging deeper connections in an age of constant distraction. After all, if it’s not an experience… what is it?”

Session takeaways:

• A proven framework for designing more memorable experiences The Experience Amplifier™ – five pillars to consistently create moments that stick, scale, and spread
• A deeper understanding of what makes an experience “work” Why some moments fade instantly… and others become stories people tell for years
• Tools to hack human psychology (ethically) Learn how emotion, surprise, and agency drive engagement, and how to design for them with intent
• A method to turn everyday interactions into unforgettable experiences Whether it’s an email, a pitch, or a product launch—learn how to layer emotion, surprise, and momentum into your work
• The tools to capture attention and spark word of mouth Build moments worth sharing and ensure your audience doesn’t just listen, they lean in

Speakers:

Brooke Viegut (Experience Designer / Creative Director / Producer, Odyssey Works / for.play / Invisible North)

What it’s about:

“Unfinished Endings is a living archive of love and loss. Visitors are invited to listen, record, and reflect on heartaches in a cardboard fortress. Once contributed to the public archive, each story is then offered back for collective witnessing as an audio + visual experience. Using creative technology, artificial intelligence, and mixed media, this co-created community installation creates an opportunity for gestures of care in an experiment to deepen our social and personal relationship to the scales of losses that make us human.”

Session takeaways:

• A deeper understanding of levels of engagement in experience surrounding more difficult topics
• Tools for exploring grief and loss in experience design, including a physical takeaway guide with micro-experiences for connection
• An understanding of low-cost experiences and impact (materials are salvaged cardboard and minimal tech in phones + iPads)

Speakers:

Alexandra Robinson (Founder, CarbonBlack Technology)

What it’s about:

“As audiences become increasingly saturated with visual content, the challenge of experiential design shifts from capturing attention to creating resonance. This session examines how holographic media and dark projection surfaces shape perception by manipulating light, contrast, and spatial depth.

“Rather than focusing on spectacle, it explores how material and environmental choices influence emotional response, memory formation, and narrative clarity. Through case studies and design principles, the talk considers how immersive environments can be intentionally engineered to support meaning, reduce visual noise, and create experiences that linger long after the moment has passed.”

Session takeaways:

• Material choices shape emotion: The physical and optical properties of holographic and dark projection surfaces directly influence how audiences feel, focus, and emotionally engage with an experience
• Contrast creates clarity: Controlling light absorption and reflection reduces visual noise, allowing stories and moments to register more clearly and remain memorable
• Depth drives presence: Perceived spatial depth – whether physical or optical – enhances a sense of presence and immersion, strengthening emotional and cognitive impact
• Memory is designed, not accidental: Experiences that are intentionally paced and visually restrained are more likely to be remembered than those relying on constant stimulation
• Meaning emerges from restraint: The most impactful immersive environments often say less visually, using darkness, absence, and space as active design elements rather than fillers

Speakers:

Tommy Lexen (Strategic Innovation Consultant, Frank Kelly Consultancy)

What it’s about:

“Most organisations don’t fail at innovation because they lack ideas – they fail because nobody says what everyone’s thinking. I’ve watched it for two decades: ambitious brief, innovation lab, impressive decks, then nothing ships that matters. The future belongs to organisations brave enough to admit when they’re “performing” innovation instead of creating it.

“This talk is about why honesty accelerates ambition, how to kill bad ideas fast so you can back the right ones harder, and what separates experiences that compound from expensive theatre that evaporates. This is the conversation nobody wants to have. Let’s have it anyway.”

Session takeaways:

• The Four Honest Questions Framework – The specific questions that expose weak concepts before you commit resources
• Purpose/Passion/Impact Assessment Tool – A practical checklist for evaluating whether a project deserves to exist, applicable across entertainment, culture, and brand experiences
• Early Kill Indicators – The specific patterns that predict when a pilot won’t scale to a platform (so you can redirect energy before wasting six months)
• Impact Definition Template – How to define measurable change (behaviour, revenue, retention, reputation) before you build, not after you launch
• The Honest Pitch Structure – How to present uncertainty while maintaining stakeholder confidence (because admitting “we don’t know” is a strength when paired with clear direction)

Speakers:

Kris Nalla (Director of Finance and Strategy, DreamCrew Entertainment, Luna Luna)

What it’s about:

“What if most experiential projects don’t fail because of bad ideas – but because teams commit too early? This case study breaks down two real Luna Luna outcomes.

“First, a win: six months spent learning how to speak to an audience – tone, references, cultural signals – while raising interest from partners and capital, all on a five-figure budget and before a venue or show design existed.

” Then, a loss: a high-volume show launch where guest flow decisions were locked before insight, forcing expensive mid-run fixes. Using real numbers, timelines, and trade-offs, this session shows how sequencing audience learning, capital, and commitment directly determines ROI and ROX. TLDR; Most experiential pain is self-inflicted. This is how to delay the pain until it actually matters.”

Session takeaways:

• Test demand before belief hardens Learn how to validate interest and audience resonance before locking venues, designs, or major spend – using lightweight signals rather than polished launches
• Read pricing through time, not averages Use day- and hour-level sales patterns to identify pricing gaps, demand cliffs, and elasticity early, instead of relying on blended metrics that hide opportunity
• Borrow communities before buying attention Activate bands, artisans, creators, and local partners as built-in distribution to reduce CAC and deepen emotional engagement without increasing media spend
• Learn at checkout, not after the run Capture real customer intent in the moment of purchase to improve marketing, programming, and sponsorship decisions while the experience is still live
• Spend only where impact clears breakeven Apply a simple breakeven test to creative and operational decisions to avoid overhiring, overdesigning, and last-minute additions that audiences won’t materially notice. (this is where the love triangle really comes in)

Speakers:

Steve Tiseo (CEO and Creative Director, Friendly Vengeance)

What it’s about:

“An open discussion about creating a fun, educational, interactive experience for a traveling exhibition focused on cancer – just a couple years after losing my mom to cancer. This session explores how to bridge personal scars / feelings while trying to make memorable experiences for a variety of audiences (mostly focusing on kids). And celebrating the partners who made the creation all the more memorable.”

Session takeaways:

• How do you use your personal experiences (especially the negative ones) to fuel your creations?
• Have you ever had a personal item / feeling affect your willingness to take on a project?
• How do you use experiences to cope or confront grief or other negative experiences?

Speakers:

Martin Taylor (Experiential Designer and Director, flux.space)

What it’s about:

“Immersive experiences operate less like cinema and more like dreams – guided by presence, attention, memory, and embodied logic rather than traditional screen grammar. This session introduces a novel framework developed and rigorously trialled over the past decade of immersive production across VR, AR, mixed reality, and live experiential work.

“Drawing from real-world experiments and audience-tested outcomes, the talk reframes immersive design as the choreography of perception itself. Attendees will be introduced to a practical grammar for working with dream-like logic in synthetic realities, offering new tools for shaping emotion, meaning, and narrative when the audience is no longer watching the experience, but inhabiting it.”

Session takeaways:

• Dream-Logic Navigation A practical tool for designing movement between moments in immersive experiences. Instead of cuts or scenes, this model uses metaphor, emotional continuity, and perceptual momentum to guide users – much like transitions in dreams – without breaking presence
• The Perception Stack A layered design diagram that maps an experience from the inside out: attention → embodiment → spatial orientation → interaction → meaning. Use it as a template to diagnose immersion issues or to design XR experiences that feel coherent rather than fragmented
• Metaphor as Navigation A replacement for UI-led guidance. This framework shows how environmental metaphor (light, scale, sound, proximity) can direct attention and intent intuitively, allowing users to feel where to go rather than being told

Speakers:

Ashley Wagner (Head of Live Experiences, Supercell)

What it’s about:

“Today’s guests don’t just want to be entertained – they want to play with the worlds they love. From Netflix House to year-round horror attractions, the most talked‑about brands are borrowing straight from gaming: multi-level engagement, shared missions, and communities that feel more like squads than audiences. In this session, we’ll show how gaming principles – honed in live experiences like Brawl Stars: Welcome To Starr Par – can transform any attraction, pop‑up, or touring experience into a living fandom engine. You’ll learn how to design moments that invite guests to play together, not just pass through, and how to measure success in terms of belonging, not just bodies through the door. Come ready to steal from gaming in the best way possible.”

Session takeaways:

• A Multi‑Level Engagement Map – A plug‑and‑play framework to design for casual guests, engaged fans, and super-fans in the same experience—so there’s always a next level to climb.
• A Shared Experiences Toolkit Practical prompts to answer “What do our guests actually do together?” and turn passive scenes into memorable, co-created moments people talk about later.
• An Actionable Pilot Plan A clear first step for testing these ideas in your next event, pop‑up, or touring experience—without needing a blockbuster budget or a total redesign.

Speakers:

Jasmine Bina (Brand Strategist and Cultural Futurist, Concept Bureau)

What it’s about:

“Brand strategy has been reduced to reaction. We’ve mistaken trends for truths, and every trend demands an immediate response. AI, robotics, and ‘the algorithm’ mean signals are crossing everywhere and it’s making the future feel impossible to predict. But it’s not technology that will decide the future. It’s psychotechnology.

“This is a presentation discusses shaping the future by rewriting the code underneath surface-level trends. Despite what the headlines say, the future doesn’t emerge from technology alone. It emerges from psychotechnology: the invisible mental models, meaning systems, and narratives that determine how we perceive reality. If you want to shape markets, beliefs, and behaviors, you need to master three cultural tools: – Big Ideas – Market Conditioning – Units of Culture They are the tools of reality design.

“That might sound exciting or sinister depending on who you are, but either way, it’s already happening. Whether you choose to participate or not, someone is shaping the frameworks people use to think, feel, and act. This talk is your toolkit for doing it with intention.”

Session takeaways:

• Big Ideas: These reveal the values people unconsciously organize their lives around, and tell us where we can create new values that people will actually adopt. Big Ideas don’t stay in their lanes. They go broad across culture in unexpected ways, and the new big ideas that are emerging are especially provocative
• Market Conditioning: This shows how those values are normalized and scaled, and how to place your brand on the critical path while your competitors fall off. If you’re not bending the will of the market toward your brand, you’re paving the path of the market toward your competitor. Bending the market is an incredible ability – almost like a strategic magic trick – and you have to learn how to see it happening
• Units of Culture: These expose the outdated frameworks still shaping our experiences, and the latent demand you can tap into with your brand. There have never been so many outdated units of culture at the same time, and there is a lot of value to be captured right now. People are literally waiting to live their lives differently

Speakers:

George Berlin and Jeena Earthiva (Experience Designers)

What it’s about:

“What if we could design for that raw, wild and lingering sensation that effortlessly stays with you? Designing the Arc of Emotion takes you on a wild journey of original music and visual storytelling where the seeds of emotional arcs are planted, nurtured and grown into vibrant experiences. We explore frameworks to travel across the emotional spectrum, embracing both light and darkness, tension and release, movement and stillness – leading to an inner shift that connects on a primal level.

“Immerse yourself to feel, experience, and also learn actionable ideas drawn from synesthesia, narrative design, and sensory psychology, and actively map an emotional arc they can apply. Perfect for Creative Directors, Writers, Experience Designers, Brand Managers and anyone who wants to bring more raw energy to what they do.”

Session takeaways:

• How the Emotional Arc is born? What’s the Story? How do we feel about it?
• Music as the main character: The starting point – Treating music like the ‘main character’. Putting emotion into physical form (live demonstration)
• The Key Change – Inner shift. How to engineer a transformation: When people feel a shift in the music, they then feel it within themselves.
• Making it Real: Shadow & Light Using darkness & silence – the dance & the stillness. Create beauty – Take away the reward to value what was there (Game Theory)”
• Live Experience: Music & Visuals

Speakers:

TJ Schier (CEO & Founder, SmashSwing)

What it’s about:

“As competitive socializing continues to evolve, today’s technology allows for even more experiences in a flexible footprint. Too often, year 1 is the busiest and concepts deal with low repeat visits and declining year over year sales. Learn how forward-thinking facilities are solving these issues so you can thrive EVERY year!”

“TJ Schier spent 18 years at Chuck E Cheese’s, 2 decades consulting in this space, 2.5 years growing BigShots Golf into the #2 golf entertainment concept prior to it being sold to the largest one and now developing attractions and consulting with concepts to avoid the pitfalls of most competitive socializing venues.”

Session takeaways:

• Key pillars in concept development to driver repeat traffic
• Pitfalls to avoid the year 2 sales nosedive
• Tactics to leverage your team to help ensure amazing experiences

Speakers:

Ramy Elnagar (Founder, White Mirror)

What it’s about:

“Intentional Experiences in the Transformation Economy is a 15–20 minute keynote on why the next era of guest engagement will be defined by transformation, not amenities. Ramy Elnagar argues that, as Joseph Pine states, we are moving beyond the Experience Economy, where hotels compete on moments and memories, into the Transformation Economy, where the real value is helping guests change in lasting ways: sleeping better, regulating stress, restoring attention, reconnecting to meaning, and returning home with new habits.

“Drawing from wellness innovation strategy, neuroaesthetics / sensory science, and real-world case studies, he introduces a simple framework for “spaces that get closer” to us: environments designed from the inside out, tuned to the nervous system, ritual and habit formation, identity and meaning, and increasingly adaptive through technology. The talk reframes hospitality, automotive, cultural spaces, spas, and other spaces as wellness as infrastructure and positions intentional design as a measurable engine for loyalty, wellbeing, and long-term brand value.”

Session takeaways:

• Transformation beats amenities: the real value of a space is the lasting change it creates in how people sleep, regulate stress, and live afterward
• Design from the nervous system out: spaces that “get closer” are tuned to regulation, rhythm, and recovery before aesthetics or programming
• Wellbeing is infrastructure, not a feature: when designed intentionally, environments become repeatable engines for health, loyalty, and trust
• Ritual creates retention: the strongest brands don’t entertain guests, they help them form habits they want to return to
• Measure change, not delight: success moves beyond satisfaction scores to behavioural and physiological outcomes that matter over time

London Experience Week 2026: Line-up #1