Among almost 300 experience designers, producers, and investors gathered at the second annual World Experience Summit, two students and several faculty from the Department of Experience Design and Management (ExDM) at the BYU Marriott School of Business stood out for their research-driven understanding of experience design theory.
During the three-day summit in New York, ExDM faculty and students rubbed elbows with Walt Disney Imagineers, the creator of LEGO House, and other celebrated industry names to explore the advancing experience industry.
Kendall Jones, an ExDM senior from Williamsburg, Virginia, best described the summit as “not your average business conference.” Jones and Hailey Smedley, a senior from Sacramento, California, attended as World Experience Organization (WXO) scholarship recipients and ExDM department grantees. Mat Duerden, Camilla Hodge, and Brian Hill—ExDM faculty and members of WXO—were invited to present their research findings and experience design frameworks.
Smedley shared that the frameworks presented by the BYU Marriott faculty seemed to excite seasoned experience design professionals, but for Smedley, the concepts were a review of her earliest junior core classes. “I didn’t realize how forthcoming BYU Marriott is in the experience industry,” she says. “I am being taught by some of the top professionals, researchers, and pioneers in the experience economy. I feel overwhelmingly blessed.”
Conference organizers appreciated BYU Marriott’s participation in the summit. “The research conducted by BYU Marriott professors has really impacted the wider experience community,” says James Wallman, founder of WXO. “As one of the pioneering experience design schools globally, BYU’s involvement in the WXO has been crucial for our birth and growth. It’s a privilege to have BYU students and alumni be part of the team that delivers the Summit.”
Several industry professionals complimented Duerden on the ExDM students’ composure, professionalism, and knowledge of the field. In BYU Marriott’s ExDM program, students learn how to optimize human-centric business practices through design thinking, positive psychology, and business management. Duerden remarks, “I am always excited for professionals to meet and work with our students because even experts in the field universally come away impressed.”
Jones and Smedley see bright futures for themselves in experience design. “Even after graduating, I get to continue pioneering the experience economy as businesses move into the experience revolution,” says Smedley, who is now the chief experience officer for Eight Cow Creamery in Ridgefield, Washington, and a freelance wedding planner.
“I realized there are so many people and companies that value what I do,” says Jones, who is wrapping up her degree with an ExDM study abroad on the Adriatic coast before volunteering at the Paralympic Games. She continues, “It really helps having people in your corner who are willing to connect and share their expertise.”
The two budding experience designers describe the World Experience Summit as life-changing not just for expanding their professional networks and experience design frameworks—the conference also affirmed to Smedley and Jones that experience designers hold an important place in the future of business. Smedley explains, “I walked away with a very strong confirmation that what I’m doing is legitimate, it’s important, and I can succeed.”
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Written by Kathryn Cragun