The Immersive Experience Network (IEN) promotes growth within the live immersive industry by building a collaborative community of creators, producers, and innovators.
The network’s mission is to support the emergence of new ideas and initiatives, foster connections, and encourage growth in the rapidly evolving field of live immersive experiences. It emphasises creating opportunities for networking, knowledge exchange, and skill development through events like summits, symposiums, and workshops.
These events gather industry professionals from various regions to explore the creative, operational, and business aspects of immersive projects.
Expert speakers at the Immersive Experience Network Summit
Immersive creators, producers, and innovators met in London on Monday 21 October for the Immersive Experience Network Summit 2024.
This focused on driving growth in the live immersive industry. It built on the success of the previous Immersive Design Symposium. It also expanded to a larger venue to accommodate more immersive professionals. Attendees had access to over 35 speakers across four content streams. Sessions explored the creative, operational, and commercial facets of immersive experiences.
The Immersive Experience Network Summit featured keynote speakers from the UK, Europe, and the US. Many sessions were also recorded and offered to participants for post-event viewing.
One of the first sessions was from Walt Disney Imagineering’s executive creative director, Sara Thacher. Thatcher discussed honest magic and how subversion and misdirection can produce large-scale, high-throughput immersive experiences.
Using Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana as examples, she highlighted the importance of giving guests both tools to pretend and reasons to believe. These can serve as important touchpoints with guests when moving through a busy attraction. Thacher also highlighted the importance of immersive experiences being an ‘invitation to play’, with differing levels of interaction for guests to choose from.
Developing creative ideas
Then SWAMP’s Ollie Jones and Les Enfants Terribles’ James Seager reflected on their journey from entertainment providers to established brand collaborators. They described how they successfully made the transition and what they wished they had known starting. They also explored the benefits, opportunities, and challenges they encountered as brand engagement merged with immersive entertainment.
In an open Q&A session at the Immersive Experience Network Summit, attendees sought advice from panellists Mark Sarfo-Kantanka and Farouk Deen (NEXUS), Tom Lionetti-Maguire (Little Lion Entertainment) and award-winning puzzle game designer Mairi Nolan. Topics included funding, IP, media relations, and well-being, and moderator Andy Barnes (Entourage) guided audience questions. The panellists discussed tips and tricks for developing a creative idea into a sustainable business.
Speakers from Illusion, Clockwork Dog, Entourage, and Parabolic Theatre discussed how combining their technical and creative expertise led to the creation of Bridge Command. This interactive starship experience based in London rewards repeat visitors with new missions.
Megan Clifton, head of narrative at Boomtown, also spoke about the importance of creating a truly immersive narrative for collaboration and growing a sense of community. This theme was present throughout the entire Immersive Experience Summit 2024.
