Futures Forum

In this episode of the Futures Forum, we hear from Justin Boone, Opus Agency, Denise Cintron of Intel and Kim Gishler as they find inspiration from examples of Phygital design for XM, in particular the example of Tim the Security Guard at the Museum of the Cowboy and Western Heritage. We also hear from Natalie Fulgencio-Turner of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Rachel Matthews of George P Johnson, along with Allie Magyar of Hubb and Gary Gonzalez of Convoke + Catchy as they find inspiration for Phygital applications from the world of Art and Immersive Museum Exhibits. 

Let's Get Phygital! looks at examples of Physical x Digital interaction designs and asks what we might learn and apply to the Hybrid experience journeys we create. In this episode we discuss Phygital Tech and XM applications and look at examples of work from Left Field Labs, Blue Cadet, Microsoft. We hear from Allie Magyar (Hubb), Neal Thompson (AWS), Gary Gonzalez (Convoke), Julie Lynch (Lynchpin Ex) who discuss applications for audience engagement, dialogue and the potential of Machine Learning for elevating virtual networking. 

In this episode we ask the forum to reflect on what they are seeing and experiencing as strategists and planners. And we ask - what do you need to know about Hybrid? 

In this podcast - part two of two - we hear from Mahoganey Jones (EventPreneur), Julie Lynch (Lynchpin Events), Kim Gishler (CEMA), Justin Boone (Opus Agency), and Sarah Bondar (The Charles Group). 

In this episode we ask the forum to reflect on what they are seeing and experiencing as strategists and planners. And we ask - what do you need to know about Hybrid? 

In this podcast - part one of two - we hear from Allie Magyar (Hubb), Gary Gonzalez (Convoke), Kimberley Gishler (CEMA), Julie Lynch (Lynchpin Ex) and Sara Smith (Microsoft Research).

In this week's episode, "May The Fourth Be With You," we talk about epic tales of adversity and triumph. What Star Wars character do you represent today, and how did they overcome challenges they faced? 

The panelists assess the unique qualities of Star Wars characters, revealing themes such as emotional intelligence, balance, and adaptability, as it aptly relates to the challenges we're facing in our own personal and professional lives today. 

In this week's episode we talk about Virtual Adaptations. What trends in live experiences will need to be adapted for virtual engagement, and what opportunities for innovation can we uncover?

We heard about themes such as the importance of empathy, how virtual can support shared human experience and community, how we might connect experience with the greater good, and the unique opportunities that virtual platforms open up. 

The Storycraft Lab team gathered to review this conversation and share some of the key insights provided by:

Justin Boone, Opus Agency
Neal Thompson, Amazon
Usha Chaziyat, Intel 
Meghan Schofield, Google

In this week's episode we talk about Virtual Meaning. How might experiential learning approaches make virtual content engaging and meaningful? 

The conversation was organized around 3 talking points:

Content Engagement Stories
Participants: the whole group
Share a short story about your most memorable content engagement:
What happened? What is your lasting memory of the experience? What messages resonated and why do you think they impacted you? 

From Engagement to Activation
Participants: Bret Freedman, Jason Ulaszek, Ronni Kim
What moves the needle on the dial of activation?

Microsoft Hackathon Pivot to Virtual
Participants: Susie Kandzor, Jonathan Healey, Jason Ulaszek, Naomi Clare
What innovations and insights have you discovered through the Microsoft Hackathon pivot to virtual? How might these insights be applied to other learning formats 

A weekly mindshare on innovations, ideas and best practices for the experiential industry. In this week's episode we talk about Virtual Spaces. How do we connect, navigate and experience Virtual Spaces?

The conversation was organized around 4 talking points:

Audience Journeys - Howard P. Stern, Naomi Clare
How do we help attendees to connect, navigate and experience Virtual spaces? How does site/venue and setting influence the conference experience? How do the principles of Interior Architecture apply to Virtual Spaces?

Experience Planning –Meghan Schofield, Denise Cintron, Meredith Rollins
What best practices can we apply F2F event design and what are the entirely unique considerations for Virtual? What can we understand from working styles, preferences and environments to apply to virtual connectivity? How do we think about branding in live events and what does this mean for the virtual experiences we create?

Future Scenarios –Meredith Rollins
How do we support the re-skilling of the industry? How might we enable shared –integrated -spatial experiences in future hybrid events? What does this mean when we think about “Future as a process, not a place” (Ronni Kimm) ?

Physicality and Technology –Howard P. Stern, Amy Blackman, Naomi Clare
How might physical exhibits be made virtually accessible –and virtually inclusive? How do AR and VR tools provide meaningful shared experiences? What is Mixed Reality and what are best practices for meaningful content engagement in MR space?

A weekly mindshare on innovations, ideas and best practices for the experiential industry.
In this week's episode we talk about Gamification of Content. What we can learn from F2F to apply to Virtual,  and vice versa? How can the current virtual necessity be used for future,  possibly more hybrid,  event scenarios and applications? 

The conversation was organized around 4 talking points:

Naomi Clare, Allie Magyar, Mark Dominguez, Ronni Kimm: Let’s talk about the lens of RN vs. Future. How have you been balancing those perspectives? How has this driven why we are gathering in this Forum?  How do innovations and frameworks shift in response to unprecedented challenges and why should we be hopeful about the future?

Gary Gonzalez, Amy Blackman, Mark Dominguez, Katy Mull: Esports events are this really unique blend of the live and virtual. How have you seen Esports brands bridge the spatial ‘distribution’ of attendees so that both types of participation are integrated and inclusive?  

Clare Brown, Michael Lewis, Justin Boone, Amelie Bahlsen: What are some best practices for Gamification in immersive interpretive environments that you have seen? How are the physical and digital experiences integrated – and how might that be extended to virtual participation? 

Denise Cintron, Allie Magyar, Justin Boone, Naomi Clare – What are the best practices for Gamification at conventions, conferences or activations? How have you approached the Virtual participant in past events, and how might that change in the future given our current virtual pivot?

Futures Forum:
Mindsharing Ideas, Innovations, and Best Practices for the Experiential Industry.
This week we are talking about Learning from Experience - how approaches to measurement and assessment in the future may be impacted by our current virtual pivot. 
At the table are Hubb, Intel, Fruition, NASA, PCMA and OPUS Agency and Storycraft Lab.