During the Innovation in Themed Retail Environments session at blooloop’s 2025 Festival of Innovation, an expert panel discussed extending the visitor experience all the way through to the gift shop, as well as current trends in immersive experiences, challenges associated with creating a themed retail outlet, and new technologies.
On the panel was Erik Burdock, who serves as senior director of experience design at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI). He spoke about how COSI’s gift shop was updated to continue the guest experience, and discussed a growing demand for customised experiences.
Burdock was joined by Arik Lubkin, chief creative officer at Camp, who talked about Camp’s unique retail concept, the evolution of immersive experiences, and durability when it comes to designing spaces for children.
Lubkin and Burdock were joined on the panel by Jacki Sorvillo, SSA Group’s chief retail officer. She discussed reimagining retail spaces, a rising trend for food and retail integration, and modular retail design.
Innovation in themed retail: meet the experts
Erik Burdock
Burdock is senior director of experience design at COSI in Columbus, Ohio, a nationally renowned science centre. Across COSI’s nine galleries, there are more than 300 hands-on STEM learning experiences for visitors of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
Burdock has over 30 years of experience in designing and delivering innovative, award-winning exhibitions. He leads the strategic evolution of COSI’s permanent exhibits, ensuring they align with the institution’s values and provide engaging, impactful experiences for guests.
Jacki Sorvillo
Sorvillo is chief retail officer at SSA Group, a best-in-class provider of integrated guest services. Dedicated to enhancing the guest experience, Sorvillo started her career as a buyer in mass retail and later transitioned to cultural attractions at Smithsonian museums.
At SSA, Sorvillo leads the creation of products that reflect each partner’s unique story while delivering memorable experiences for guests. Her favourite part of the role is supporting SSA’s partners with thoughtful, mission-aligned merchandise. Through her leadership, Sorvillo continues to bridge commerce and culture to elevate SSA’s retail impact.
Arik Lubkin
Lubkin, chief creative officer at Camp, is an award-winning architect and designer. Through his work at Camp, Lubkin hopes to bring imagination to life and make magic real for his two daughters and families everywhere. Prior to Camp, he led experiential design teams at the Museum of Ice Cream and Meow Wolf.
Camp’s play/product hybrid concept
The Festival of Innovation’s themed retail environments session began with an examination of the Camp concept. Camp is a family experience company with a play/product hybrid model. Its venues serve as toy stores, party venues and immersive theatre spaces. Behind Camp’s signature Magic Door, guests have discovered experiences based on brands like Trolls, Bluey, The Little Mermaid, and Encanto.
“We are currently rolling out a bunch of new, exciting ways to play,” Lubkin said.
“We’ve got a Little Buddies programme that is geared specifically towards toddlers and is focused around playful, bouncy fun. We’ve got our Camp Club rolling out in Marriott, so that when you’re on vacation you’ll be able to have the same kind of Camp fun around the world. One is already open in Cancun. We’re opening new stores, new shows, and expanding our current IP partners.”
He added, “Meeting kids where they are is really important. That means in terms of interests [and] abilities. For instance, [in] our Encanto experience, we have Mirabel’s room where you might go for storytime, but we also have Antonio’s room, which is literally a rainforest gym where you can run around, go nuts and play.
“The same with our Bluey experience. There are storytimes [and] there are more run-around and wild moments, and everything in between.
“It’s an amazing thing, [for kids] to be able to engage with these [intellectual properties] that as kids we never got the opportunity to.”
SSA’s interactive science-themed store at COSI
As for SSA Group and COSI’s recent projects, these include a recent renovation of the gift shop at the Center of Science and Industry. The interactive science-themed store has been remodelled with upgraded lighting and specially-made sustainable fixtures and graphics. A multi-layered window vignette with LED colour-changing lights and a dinosaur theme was added to greet customers as they enter the shop.
Highlights in the new shop include an eight-foot-tall T-Rex that roars, interactive elements such as an AR sandbox, a space mission, and a nitrogen ice cream bar.
“The concept was really inspired by SSA. They came to us with the detailed design needs and fabrication needs. They’ve been great. Our mission is to engage, inspire and transform lives in the communities by being the best partner in science, technology and industry learning,” Burdock said.
“Being that partner with SSA, to engage our guests, was critically important.”
He added, “It was a lot of fun. We probably took it too far in a couple of cases. Whenever we create an experience, we’re always trying to think about how to engage the senses.”
SSA’s dinosaur sculpture concept, for example, was enhanced with the roar sound, Burdock said. This is controlled via remote controls.
“The important part of all of this is that these experiences engage the guests. It pulls them in,” he said.
Extending the guest experience in themed retail
Sorvillo added, “Our work with COSI is a perfect example of how we have combined technology, creativity and guest-focused design to create a reimagined retail space. We completely transformed the COSI store. We upgraded the lighting, sustainable fixtures and interactive elements.
“Our goal with that was to create a store that was an extension of the COSI experience. We wanted to inspire that curiosity and passion for science. The whole focus was to go ahead and make sure that the store was an interactive experience that reflected and furthered the mission of COSI.”
At COSI’s new store, kids can dig and play in a virtual AR sandbox while learning about dinosaurs. Via interactive screens and gadgets, young guests can also take part in their own space mission. The most significant update to the store is the addition of the Absolute Zero nitrogen ice cream bar.
Dinosaurs, space and food integration are all trends at COSI currently, Sorvillo said.
“Combining food and retail [is] a growing trend, not just in the cultural attraction world, but in retail in general,” she said.
“In the store in COSI, we introduced the Absolute Zero ice cream shop, a nitrogen-based ice cream shop, so we’re not only teaching about STEM concepts, but kids are learning about science. It’s an exciting in-store experience. We’re seeing a lot more of that.”
Standalone attractions
During the Innovation in Themed Retail Environments session, Lubkin discussed a trend of immersive experiences becoming standalone attractions.
Jacki SorvilloWhen designing spaces like this, we dream really big
“They get to stand alone and extend through the gift shop. We’ve responded to this by introducing things like craft passes, and so you come to a Camp store for the show, and you’re not just coming for the show. You might be coming and doing slime and splatter, or the Little Buddies programme, and any number of crafts, as well as the Magic Door experience,” he said.
“Experiential retail and immersive experiences have evolved to the point that they get to be their own thing now.”
One trend Sorvillo spoke about is modular retail design, “so taking temporary spaces and changing them for exhibits and seasonal events”.
AI-driven customised experiences
She said, “We do a lot of this with COSI currently, and keep the experience fresh for returning guests. We’re looking at pop-ups and weird, unique little spaces.”
And a trend that shows no signs of slowing down is the use of new technologies to enhance the visitor experience. These include tools such as AR, holograms, AI, LED screens, AV media, and more.
“The integration of different types of technology; I don’t see that stopping. I think we’re going to see a lot of people trying to figure out what’s working and what doesn’t work,” Burdock said.
“There’s also a desire for database-informed experiences, customised to our guests. With AI development, I think that will inform what the experience might be. Guests in the future might come in and they’ll have an experience that’s catered towards them. Someone else who comes in may get a totally different experience.
“It’s a little frightening and exciting all at the same time.”
“There’s a lot of anxiety in the industry around AI, and there’s a lot of opportunity in the industry around it,” Lubkin added.
Sorvillo said: “In the near future, I’m seeing a lot of AR and VR technology [to] enable us to tell more product stories and extend that experience.
“Also, interacting with the guests when they leave the attraction – continuing the learning, experience and interaction with the exhibits. We’re on the cusp of that. I think it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.”
Focusing on quality in themed retail experiences
A focus on quality, also spoken about in the immersive attractions session, is becoming more important, Lubkin said:
“I would like to see a continual move towards higher quality, moving away from pure novelty to a more genuine, intentional, story-driven experience. We are heading in that direction. I think the days of the Instagram palace are fading a little bit.
“The success of places like Area15 and other larger immersive experiences is showing that people are happy to hear a story. In museums, we’re seeing narrative-driven experiences as guests are walking through. The historical narrative was always there, but [we’re seeing] new ways of engaging with that.”
Towards the end of the session on Innovation in Themed Retail Environments, our panel explored some of the challenges they have faced in design and operations.
“We’re trying to balance creativity with practicality,” Burdock said. “We want to take chances, but sometimes those chances take a lot of investment. That’s where you try to do as much homework as you can to make sure you’re going down the right path, but at some point you just have to take the chance.”
He added: “That’s what’s nice about partnering with SSA, who are willing to go down that journey with us together, to make sure that we’re in it together, and hopefully we’re on the right path.”
Creating unique spaces with SSA Group
On SSA’s work at COSI and with other partners, Sorvillo said: “When designing spaces like this, we dream really big. We’ve set the bar really, really high. We have a lot of unique features that are specific to COSI.”
“With our partners, we have to figure out how we can achieve that same level of uniqueness at multiple different properties that all have different stories to tell. That takes a lot of investment, a lot of collaboration, and meticulous execution.”
“All of those things together, when they work like they did at COSI, it’s magical, but it’s something that we constantly have to think about.”
She added, “We can [learn] from experiences like COSI and use [them] to help us develop something unique for the next partner.”
“For us, the blueprint is, How do we engage the guests? How do we get them to feel like it’s an extension [of the experience]? Those are the pieces that we take with us to every single project that we do.”
Challenges in design and operations
As well as immersive experiences, Camp offers interactive activities and crafts, and themed play areas. These include attractions like tunnels, slides, fluffy clouds, arcade games, and synth noisemakers.
Lubkin added: “[With] durability, we are in a special sort of category. I was the design lead for Meow Wolf in Las Vegas, [where adults are] going nuts in a space, but the kids who come to our experiences do way more damage than the adults ever did in Vegas.
“When you say, This is a space to go nuts, to explore, to be a kid, and to have fun… we have to adapt to that. Over the years, we’ve developed really durable building methods and we’ve learned that just hard coating something isn’t enough because a kid will gnaw right through that hard coat. If it looks like giant popcorn, they will gnaw right through it.”
Camp is spoiled for choice, he said:
“I think the biggest challenge that we as a company face is prioritisation. Camp has grown so much over the past several years. I’ve talked about all of these different things that we’re doing, and there are so many more to be done [due to] the amount of opportunity that’s there.”
