BOND Five Star USA 2019

Synopsis

This session will look at how the community of architects, interior designers, builders, manufacturers and suppliers have long believed that ‘customer experience’ is ‘out there’ in the environments we design and build, but in fact, it is in our heads created by the magnificent and mysterious machine that is our brain. Today, an understanding of neuroscience is a prerequisite to appreciating what truly motivates the behaviors of all of us who, more than ever before, are ‘consumers’ at almost every waking moment in our digitally connected world.

The pervasiveness of digital media and its integration to our lives is influencing the structure of our brains as well as our physical environments. Digital place-based media, handheld devices and emerging technologies are changing the way retailers, restaurateurs, hoteliers and myriad other businesses, need to communicate with their customers.

While Millennials have been the focus of many businesses trying to capture this market of consumers, there is a generation of emerging guests for whom expectations about how brand experiences should unfold are changing the paradigm of what a branded experience will be in a digitally mediated future. This generation of shoppers sits at the transition between what we know as traditional brand experience places and those we see in science fiction movies. Understanding the influence of our digital culture on young brains is a must when providing experiences that matter.

The session will also address why the evolution of digital technologies will promote a move in the creation of experience from the hands of the designer to those of the consumer enabled with mobile digital devices. In a digitally distracted world, the relevancy of a ‘place’ will reside with the customer, because they will actively participate in modifying their experience because they participate in making it themselves.

Synopsis

Nanotechnology, the design of materials at the molecular scale, is changing the face of architecture and custom homes. Already, luminous nanofilms are turning entire walls and ceilings into sources of light, nanoparticle coatings are making buildings self-cleaning and VOC-eating, and nanofilm solar panels are turning entire buildings into solar collectors. Join George Elvin, PhD, LEED AP, for a glimpse of some of the hundreds of building products currently using nanotechnology and a look ahead at next generation nanotechnologies. Together you’ll explore the technology behind the nano-revolution, what risks it may bring, and what it means for the future of building.

Synopsis

Gail McCleese and Hogan Chun from Gensler will speak about the latest hospitality trends with a focus on the key drivers of a great hotel experience and the factors that matter most – from design features to elements of service, technology and marketing. Using the culmination of a multi-year, mixed-methods research effort of the Gensler Experience IndexSM, Tom will explain the insights discovered to better understand the nature of the human experience and how we interact with physical space.