Name: Festival of Innovation 2023
Start: 06/12/2023 09:00 AM +00:00
End: 08/12/2023 06:00 PM +00:00

Erica McCay, creative director at Valtech, hosts discussions with Deana Taylor, general manager of Ferrari World Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and Dan Pelson, chief operating officer of AREA15.
They look at what makes a good immersive attraction, from the staff members to the attraction itself. They all talk about how the story has to be the heart of the attraction, whether that&rsquo;s a personalised story for the visitor or someone else&rsquo;s story that the visitor follows.
We also reveal the winners of the Immersive Attraction Innovation Awards 2023, sponsored by Valtech.

Erica McCay

Dan Pelson

Deana Taylor

Immersive Attraction Innovation

Nick Dimatteo, founder of Fortyfivegames, Craig Buster, general manager of Wild Island&rsquo;s Coconut Island and Dennie Renessis from FunLab are speaking on our Game On panel.
They will explore trends within competitive socialising and FECS as well as the future of how visitors engage with these shared gaming experiences.
We also reveal the winners of the Game On Innovation Awards 2023.

Game On Innovation

View Innovation Award Entries and Network

Megan Wastell, global creative director at Merlin Entertainments and Christine Wacker, director, business development experiences at Netflix discuss how to turn an IP into an experience.
They explore trends that they are seeing as well as how to translate an IP into different geographical markets. They also look at the future of branded experiences.
We also reveal the winners of the Brand Realisation Innovation Awards 2023.

Megan Wastell

Christine Wacker

Brand Realisation Innovation

Vince Kadlubek, founder &amp; director of Meow Wolf, Neil Connolly, creative director at The Everywhere Group and Kirin Sinha, founder &amp; CEO of Illumix talk about immersive experiences.
They discuss how the idea of an immersive experience is expanding into different areas of the industry as people try to tell a story in the most engaging way possible. They also looked at trends and the future of immersive experiences, as well as potential pitfalls.
Plus, we announce the winners of the Immersive Experience Innovation Awards 2023.

Vince Kadlubek

Kirin Sinha

Neil Connolly

Immersive Experience Innovation

Kim Beneville, co-founder of Beneville Studios and head of experiences at AREA15, Justin East, senior creative director, research &amp; development, Merlin Entertainments and Felix Heuberger, head of marketing at Eatrenalin discuss Blue Sky innovations.
They talk about why the business case is so important for any blue sky ideas in order for it to be a viable product and investment. They also look at the process of finding new innovations, part of which is the content refresh of an idea and also how important it is to believe in the idea. They then look at the future and what trends they are seeing.
And we reveal the winners of the Blue Sky Innovation Awards 2023, sponsored by Assetnest.

Justin East

Kimberly Beneville

Felix Heuberger

Blue Sky Innovation

Winston Fisher, CEO of AREA15 joins Charles Read, MD of blooloop, to discuss trends from the 2023 Innovation Awards as well as announce the Best in Show winner and the Public Vote winner.

Agenda

Speakers.css-1f6omqm{margin:0;font-size:1.4rem;font-weight:500;line-height:1.5;color:#5d5d5d;font-family:'Poppins',sans-serif;margin-left:0.8rem;}41 Speakers

Matt Quinn

Mark Stutzman

Chris Michaels

Meg Parker

Werner Dullmaier

Tara Morandi

Erica McCay

Dan Pelson

Vince Kadlubek

Neil Connolly

Kirin Sinha

Ty Granaroli

Genell Hoeschstetter

Geoff Spooner

James Dwyer

Michael Carpenter

Majed Almansoori

Sam Bompas

Jo Pike

Taylor Jeffs

Kimberly Beneville

Justin East

Felix Heuberger

Chip Cleary

Christine Wacker

Megan Wastell

Winston Fisher

Mark Brymer

Deana Taylor

Tom Kaferle

Rachel Read

Alice S

Ruth Read

Karl Svedung

Mathias Clasen

Chris Grap

Michael Collins

Amber Lepley

Etienne Sainton

Rich Hill

Lauren Etta

Speakers41 Speakers