Written by Patrice Speed

I’m the executive creative director at Britelite Immersive and I oversee the creative team from our strategy to UX to design. Recently I had the chance to speak on stage at the TIDE conference in Orlando and share a bit of our work process with an audience from all over the world.

TIDE - what is it?

TIDE was co-located within Infocomm and stands for Technology, Innovation, Design and Experience. The TIDE conference brought together the best of the AV industry with the best of the experience design industry to talk about the work we’re doing, the innovation that’s happening, and get inspired for the future of experiential design. There was showcasing of projects, there was knowledge sharing and there were personal stories that inspired. I came away motivated by all of the other speakers and where we are all collectively pushing the industry.

Who is TIDE for?

Anyone who works in the audiovisual, technology or experience design fields should attend TIDE. It’s an inspiring day to see real life projects showcased and hear from the experts who are doing this work. The interactive way breaks are set up allows for organic conversation between peers as well as facilitated conversation that sparked deeper insights.

I was excited to join the speakers at TIDE this year because it’s the first conference I’ve seen really dig so deeply into the types of work that we do at Britelite. Celebrating the innovation happening at the intersection of technology and creative storytelling was fertile ground for speaker topics. The multi-disciplinary backgrounds of attendees meant that in addition to being a speaker I had the chance to mingle and connect with people from different industries from event to product design to hospitality and more. If you have the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it.

Key Moments

TIDE was a single day conference and it was jam packed. Srinivas Rao kicked it off with a keynote on the art of being unmistakable, which delved into how to create unique and ownable experiences for brands. Mary Franck shared an approach to using data-driven design for infinite content creation. Miral Kotb inter-wove a deeply personal and moving story with a presentation about how her company iLuminate enables visually stunning and technology driven live performances. Throughout it all there were opportunities for the audience to engage, including audience spotlights after breaks. Breakout sessions allowed for hands on experiences with different speakers and technology.

The Power of Interactivity

The panel I spoke on was titled The Power of Interactivity and I shared the stage with Ryan Edwards of Masary Studios and Julio Obelleiro of Wildebytes with moderator Jeff Day, President of North of 10 Advisors. Each of us shared projects we’ve worked on with insights into how we approach leveraging interactivity in specific ways to make more powerful immersive experiences. Ryan shared his approach to giving users agency over an installation, while Julio dove into the concept of Return on Emotion or ROE. I shared how we use timing and cues to help people understand what is expected of them in immersive experiences when they may not have encountered a particular technology before. Together we outlined a set of loose best practices for designing and building compelling experiential activations. Jeff was a spirited moderator, diving deep into how to bring clients and audiences along as we chart these waters.

Highlights

The biggest takeaway I got from TIDE was that in the age of technology and immersive experiences storytelling is still king. From being unmistakable to engaging in return on emotion, everyone had thoughts on how to connect with audiences better and design memorable moments.

I came away inspired by all of the other speakers and where we are all collectively pushing experience design.

Thanks to Annette Robertson from Avixa for inviting me to speak and thanks to Ryan Masary, Julio Obelleiro, and Jeff Day for sharing the stage with me during our panel.

Now we’re trying to bring our panel on the Power of Interactivity back for a reunion at SXSW 2020. As one of the biggest hubs for bringing together people focused on innovation, it’s the perfect stage to continue this conversation.

If you’d like the chance to hear us please vote on our panel so we make it part of the event.

Vote for our panel here!