The Experience Designers

The Atomic Unit of Immersive Experiences: Why Presence is Everything

In this episode, we sit down with immersive experience designer Frances Vieras Blanc in the heart of Paris to explore the "atomic unit" of human connection: presence. Dressed in Marie Antoinette-era attire to embody the power of anchoring and immersion (whilst in Paris!), Frances shares her journey from politics to creating the Oracle of Immersion, a tool designed to help brands move beyond the "Instagrammable" into the transformation economy. They discuss the five pillars of immersive design—multi-sensory engagement, agency, story, space, and feeling—and how theatrical techniques like "Yes, and" can bridge the gap between creative art and corporate impact. It is a grounded conversation on how intentionality and "micro-magic" can foster genuine human transformation.Episode Chapters0:00 – The Atomic Unit of Experience: Presence: Exploring how being fully present with others forms the foundation of all immersive design.8:50 – Defining Immersion: The Five Pillars: Introducing the Oracle of Immersion as a framework for building multi-sensory and participatory worlds.16:35 – Designing for Feeling and Impact: Why starting with the desired emotional "peak" is essential for both creative and business success.19:10 – Navigating the Transformation Economy: How experiences are moving beyond mere entertainment toward deep, meaningful personal shifts.23:43 – Thinking Outside the Booth: Brand Immersion: Reimagining trade shows and retail spaces by replacing functional design with lived storytelling.31:35 – The "Yes, And" of Collaborative Growth: How theatrical improv skills and adaptability can unlock innovation within corporate cultures.Frances biographyFrances Vieras Blanc is a creative director and immersive strategist with over 30 years of experience in entertainment. Founder of Eat the Cake Studio, an immersive entertainment studio based in France, she crafts and curates immersive experiences—from bold brand activations to original narrative worlds—helping audiences connect deeply while making brands impossible to ignore.A recognized leader in the immersive space, Frances is a founding member of the World Experience Organization (WXO) and its Global Experience Council, a contributing alumna of The College of Extraordinary Experiences, and co-founder of JeDI Immersive, a non-profit advancing the immersive industry in France, and Les Journées de l’Immersif, France’s largest immersive industry gathering.Rooted in a lifelong love of storytelling—spanning stage, film, screenwriting, and video games—she brings human-centered stories to life, transforming messages into emotions and brands into living worlds. Her mission: to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary through emotion, story, and creative impact.Connecthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/francesvierasblanc-immersive-entertainment/ ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Death of Vanilla: Why Physical Retail Experiences are Failing

We speak with retail experience expert Ghalia at 104.fr in Paris to explore the evolving landscape of physical commerce. As the pendulum swings back from ultra-digital to physical, Ghalia shares her deep insights into why brands must move beyond transactional efficiency to embrace "story living". They discuss the strategic value of pop-up stores as experimental tools to test location and product novelty, and the need to blend high-tech with a high-touch human connection. It's a thoughtful, deep dive for experience makers and leaders into how purposeful design and local authenticity can create meaningful, destination-worthy retail experiences that resonate on a cultural and social level.#RetailInnovation #StoryLiving #TheExperienceDesigners #ExperienceDesign #HumanCentredDesignEpisode Chapters0:00 – Reimagining the Purpose of Physical Retail:Exploring why customers leave the house for meaningful destinations rather than just basic transactions.5:20 – Beyond the Wow Factor: Utilitarian vs. Holistic Design: Understanding the balance between functional, grab-and-go convenience and immersive, time-stretching experiences.11:52 – From Storytelling to Story Living: How brands provide authentic proof of their heritage and "know-how" through museums and interactive flagships.26:00 – Pop-ups as a Strategic Tool for Experimentation: Ghalia shares insights from her PhD on using ephemeral spaces to test locations, products, and customer reactions.40:47 – Human-Centric Design and Holistic Management: Breaking down internal silos to integrate retail design into the heart of the customer journey.49:40 – The Future of Retail: Social and Cultural Commerce:Looking toward 2025, the next era of commerce must prioritise human connection over mere profit.Ghalia's bioGhalia is a multifaceted retail expert whose work spans consultancy, insight curation, speaking, authorship, and podcast hosting. She began her career in the fashion industry in 2005 and has since collaborated closely with numerous fashion brands at both retail and management levels. Her expertise lies in ephemeral retail formats, the creation of engaging physical store atmospheres, and the analysis of consumer behavior within omnichannel environments. At a strategic level, Ghalia supports brands through transformation processes and the evolution of their development strategies. Operationally, she contributes to procedure design, training manual development, and team training programs. She holds a PhD from École Supérieure des Affaires in Lebanon, a Master’s degree from the London College of Fashion, and a BA (Hons) from Notre Dame University. Ghalia teaches marketing and retail internationally and is a frequent speaker at leading retail conferences, sharing insights that help shape the future of retail.Connect with Ghaliahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ghaliaboustani/CreditsVenue - Centquatre-Paris, 5 rue Curial - 75019 Paris www.104.frFrancois Arrivae from IO Studio -  A creative technology laboratory specializing in immersive experiencesLinks to Francois https://www.linkedin.com/in/fran%C3%A7ois-arrive/https://io-stud.io ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Inside The Traitors Live Experience: From TV Hit to Living World with Neil Connolly

A rare behind-the-scenes look inside The Traitors Live Experience in London.Creative Director Neil Connolly at Immersive Experience reveals what it really takes to turn a hit TV show into a living, breathing world, from designing a game with 475 possible outcomes, to building a four-storey immersive venue in just four months.This episode explores how the live experience extends the Traitors universe, how emotion and tension are designed into every moment, and why the audience always comes first. Whether you’re a fan of the show or fascinated by immersive experiences, this gives you a whole new appreciation of what’s really going on behind the roundtable.00:00 – Welcome to The Traitors Live | What this experience is and why it’s unlike anything else04:00 – From TV Show to Living World | How the Traitors universe was extended, not copied10:00 – Designing the Game & the Tension | Turning the TV format into a live, emotional experience18:30 – 475 Possible Outcomes | Why no two games are ever the same25:00 – Inside the Machine | The building, technology, and operational scale behind the scenes46:30 – Emotion First, Business Second (But Both Matter) | Why audience feeling, design, and commercial reality must work togetherImmersive Everywhere Company BioAn award-winning live entertainment producer on a mission to transform the world’s biggest entertainment brands into extraordinary immersive experiences. They specialise in bringing storytelling to life through interactive, play-based theatrical events that allow audiences to step directly into the worlds they love. The company has produced critically acclaimed experiences, including Doctor Who: Time Fracture, Peaky Blinders: The Rise, and The Great Gatsby — one of the longest-running immersive shows in the world. Immersive Everywhere is behind The Traitors: Live Experience in London’s West End, a fully playable adaptation of the hit TV series created under licence from All3Media International. The company’s vertically integrated model spans creative development, production, ticketing, marketing, and operations, enabling cohesive execution of complex, large-scale experiences that blur the line between spectator and participant. More information - https://www.immersiveeverywhere.comNeil Connolly - Guest & Creative DirectorCreative Director at Immersive Everywhere and the visionary behind some of the company’s most ambitious IP-based experiences. With a prolific career in immersive design, Neil has led creative work on live attractions such as The Crystal Maze Live, The Tomb Raider Live Experience, and other major branded events. In his work, Neil focuses on extending beloved universes into physical, interactive experiences — always with the audience front of mind. His role on The Traitors: Live Experience involved shaping a dynamic, player-driven adventure that honours the essence of the TV format while adding depth, narrative, and emotional engagement for participants.Connect with Neilhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-connolly-499054110/ ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Donnacadh O'Briain: Why Immersive Theatre Is the Next Evolution of Organisational Training

What happens when leadership training stops being something you sit through and becomes something you step inside?In this episode, theatre director and experience designer Donnacadh O’Briain shares the story of a bold leadership programme that replaced slides, frameworks, and role-play with a fully immersive live theatre experience. Set inside a 1930s dockyard, leaders became participants in an unfolding story forced to navigate complex conversations, power dynamics, trust, and decision-making in real time.Together, Steve and Donnacadh explore why theatre creates deeper learning, how immersion accelerates behavioural change, and what organisations can learn from rehearsal rooms about leadership, presence, and human connection.Chapters00:00 – From Theatre to Leadership Learning07:10 – Why Traditional Leadership Training Falls Short14:30 – Inside the Live Theatre Leadership Experiment24:40 – Freezing Time: Learning Through Real Decisions34:50 – The Impact on Leaders and Organisational Culture44:10 – What Theatre Teaches Us About Leading Humans51:00 – The Future of Experiential Leadership DevelopmentBio:Donnacadh is an Olivier and Offie Award-winning Director, Experience Designer and Story Architect specialising in live theatre, immersive experiences and experiential learning. He is a cross-industry expert in story and narrative. His wide-ranging career has seen him working on everything from musicals, Shakespeare, West End comedies, and large-scale immersive LBE's, to consulting on story and branding and creating innovative learning projects for major companies in the US and Europe.Recent clients have ranged from entertainment IP giants to Fortune 500 finance and tech companies and Hollywood production houses. He is a TEDx speaker, has given lectures and mentored at institutions such as Cambridge University & RADA, and spent a year as an Associate Fellow of Creativity at Warwick University.Connect with Donnacadhhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/donnacadh-o-briain-35788837/ ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Inside Marshmallow Laser Feast: The artistry and science behind perception-shifting experiences

Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) is an experiential artist collective that believes in the power of storytelling to spark the senses and shift perception. Their work guides audiences through multisensory journeys where imagination and information collide.Bringing together coders, poets, chemists, ventriloquists, brands and institutions, MLF collaborates across disciplines to explore new cultural forms, question our relationship with the world, and leave a characteristically playful trail as they move through the cosmos.They create stories that untangle, entangle and flavour reality, blurring the boundaries between art, immersive experiences, XR and film.Their work lives in public spaces, galleries, museums, parks, nature reserves and the metaverse. Everything they produce is grounded in research and designed to carve out space for people to expose, explore and expand their relationship with the living world.MLF has exhibited internationally at institutions including ACMI, Aviva Studios, the Barbican Centre, DDB Seoul, Fundación Telefónica, Museum of the Future, Phi Centre, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, Sundance Film Festival and SXSW.Their work has been featured in publications such as The Guardian, New Scientist, Wired, The Independent, Creative Review, The Times and more.Website: https://marshmallowlaserfeast.comBarnaby Steel bioBarnaby Steel is an artist and creative director of London-based experiential art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast. His practice centres on the senses; enticing audiences into states of expanded perception, a space where the boundaries between bodies blur. His work is deeply rooted in scientific observation as a window to look through and beyond our own experience.Connect with Barney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barneysteel/ ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★