ABOUT MONTAHA HIDEFI:

Montaha’s LinkedIn Profile:

linkedin.com/in/montahahidefi

Website

• www.montahahidefi.ca
• www.colorlanding.com
• www.colorarchaeology.ca

Phone

• +1-519-760-5910

Email

montaha.hidefi@yahoo.com

Twitter

• colorfulmontaha

MONTAHA HIDEFI's Bio:

A world-renowned Color Archeologist™, Montaha Hidefi centers her consultancy services on developing color trends foresights and color forecast projections, portfolio ideation and customized color related insights to small, medium, and large organizations on a global basis.

In 2020, Montaha established the notion of Color Archaeology™, a trademark of her Color Landing Studio, to best define the practice of color forecasting and its intricacies. Color Archaeology incorporates the skills and expertise to track and observe societal trends, analyze how they are interpreted in current times, and predict how they will evolve into the future.

A public speaker, Montaha lectures and keynotes about color and trends virtually and in-person at international events and company settings. Her articles on the subject matter are published in countless trade publications.

Montaha serves at Color Marketing Group® (CMG) as Vice President of Color Forecasting, at the Executive Committee of the Colour Research Society of Canada (CRSC) and as Vice President of the Canadian Freelance Guild (CFG). She holds a comprehensive background in international marketing, color marketing and the coatings industry. Montaha was born and raised in South America, is an avid traveler and has lived and worked in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

She is the author of Giving Voice to My Silence, Dando voz a mi silencio, and Groping for Truth, and the co-author of Colour Design: Theories and Applications.

SHOW INTRO:
On my first day of the freehand drawing studio at McGill University School of Architecture, the teacher, Gerry Tondino, explained that he would not teach us how to draw. 

Instead, he said, we would learn how to see. To understand light. How without light nothing exists. How it created form, texture, and color.

I loved those classes where every week, for three hours, we would ‘learn to see.’ I took additional drawing classes in the evenings and Sketching School where we would travel to some location and spend a week drawing outdoors.

And learn to see I did.

Gerry Tondino fostered my love of drawing with his gentle teaching approach. He would walk the studio in his well-worn jean jacket saying “put a line at the top of the paper, now another one at the bottom, now draw the figure…” 30 seconds late he would say it again, and again, and again. The 3 hours studio seemed to go by in 30 second increments as we learned to see.

Mostly we worked in black and white. Charcoal on newsprint paper.

Color would come later. Color had its own challenges. Understanding color was tough. 

Understanding color was a process that went on for years. Even now in my recent paintings, color is a challenge but one I take on with enthusiasm. 

What color goes with what other color. How does one color seemingly change the hue of another simply because it is adjacent to or surrounding it? How is light reflected off of one object coloring another? Cool. Warm. Saturated. Transparent. Opaque.  

I love color. Fuchsia particularly. To me, it is vibrant and signals enthusiasm and creative innovation. 

And then there is understanding color from the neurobiological point of view. How our brain processes color is fascinating. The eyes take in wavelengths of light activating rods and cone in our eyes sending signals to the occipital lobe in the back of our head and the information is turned into our perception of color. And that is the simplest description that there ever likely was of how it works.

The other thing about color, especially when we think about objects ‘being colored’ is that isn’t actually what is happening. 

Our human eyes are actually able to only see a very small portion of the full light wavelength spectrum.  Some animals are actually better at seeing light in the infrared spectrum which we cannot see. These wavelengths still enter our eyes but our visual apparatus isn’t able to ‘see’ it.

So, when the full sunlight hits objects, a certain portion of the visual light spectrum is absorbed into the molecular structure of the object. The remaining wavelengths of light are reflected and are perceived by our eyes and decoded by our brain as color. What we see is the reflected wavelengths.  So, if you looking at a red shirt, all wavelengths of light except those that are perceived as red are absorbed by the fabric and pigments and the red wavelengths are bouncing off and entering our eyes and voila… red shirt.

But it is oh so much more complex than that…

And what about how certain colors make us feel? Colors affect our mood. Our neurology and colors are interconnected and there’s a heft of science that describes the very real relationship of color to our emotional state. Colors activate our neurobiology and can be calming, activating, agitating, and directly affect the way we feel in places we inhabit.

Next time you are anywhere, outside, at home, in a store, driving on the highway take notice of all of the colors. Everything is colored. Most everything we buy is colored and the shade of red, or yellow or blue really matters to our perception of the product, our willingness to buy it and the brand or store that sells it. Colors have become so connected to our consumer environments that we have come to attribute certain colors to certain brands. 

Tiffany … blue.

Red … Coke or Target

Yellow … McDonalds or Best Buy

And then there is the psychological connotations of colors. Red is a popular color in Chinese culture, symbolizing luck, joy, and happiness. Purple was been linked to royalty or the church.

What does color mean? What colors will be prevalent next year? How are colors tied to human experience, economics and political movements?

Color. More than we can unpack in this one podcast but worth understanding because so much of human experience is connected to it. To help us get there is Montaha Hidefi.

She is an internationally distinguished Color Archaeologist, who develops color trend concepts and color palettes for organizations around the world.

Montaha is the Vice President of Color Forecasting atColor Marketing Group® (CMG) and Vice President of theCanadian Freelance Guild(CFG). 

By creating a color forecasts designed specifically to company’s target markets, Montaha Hidefi helps organizations optimize their product portfolio and create color stories that brand’s target audiences can relate to.

The ideation of your color direction is done by examining your past and current colors, understanding the present trends, and setting new parameters based on research and a scientific forecasting process. 

She presented at conferences, color seminars, universities, and trade shows, all around the world.

She is the author of Groping For Truth - My Uphill Struggle for Respect, co-author of Color Design - Theories and Applications(1st and 2nd editions). 

From a young age growing up in Venezuela Montaha has had a love affair with all things colored. She feels so interconnected with color that she explains that color and her are like talking about the same thing. 

Welcome Montaha Hidefi….

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

************************************************************************************************************************************

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT GABRIELE CHIAVE:
Gabriele’s LinkedIN Profile: linkedin.com/in/gabriele-chiave-b1959022

Bio:
Gabriele Chiave knows no boundaries. 

As a lifelong observer of the world around him, Gabriele is driven by the comprehensive nature of design and a desire to ignite meaningful interaction between product and consumer. Born to diplomat parents in Metz in 1978, he has lived in France, Dakar, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Rome, Milano and now makes his home in Amsterdam. These diverse resident experiences enable him to bring a global perspective to design like no other.

Gabriele studied at the European Institute of Design in Milan, Industrial Design Academy, French Lycée Chateaubriand in Rome, French Lycée Emile Zola in Buenos Aires, Argentina and French Lycée Collegio Francia in Caracas, Venezuela. He holds a Baccalaureat in Economics and Society. 

In addition to spending five years at Marc Sadler Studio / IS European Design Center, he won competitions for Emergency, Rotari, Epson, Toshiba and Pirelli, and worked with prestigious Italian brands such as Alessi (organization of 7 Workshops held by LPWK/Alessi), Dainese, Foscarini and Serralunga. These experiences helped Gabriele master the subtle nuances and delightful balance between form and function, industry and art, structure and experimentation. 

Gabriele's ‘design upbringing’ was inspired by design masters Magistretti, Castiglioni, Branzi, Delucchi, Sotsass and Mari who made Italy the worldwide leader in industrial design. Gabriele exudes this foundation at Marcel Wanders, where he has worked 
since 2007. 
Evolving to become Creative Director, he now oversees all projects in product and interior design, and art direction for some of the most renowned international design brands such as Kartell, Poliform, Flos, Cappellini, B&B, Baccarat, KLM, Magis, MAC, Target, L&V, Alessi, Christofle, Marks&Spencer and many other international companies and hotels. 
Gabriele whole heartedly embraces the challenge of combining industry and the arts, blending Marcel's emotion with Italianindustrial tradition. 

His vision for the eclectic team at this ever-expanding creative hub is to freely make beauty and technical simplicity accessible to all in order to expand the human experience.

************************************************************************************************************************************

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “dialogues on DATA: design architecture technology and the arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too. 

And remember you'll always find more information with links to content that we've discussed, contact information to our guests and more in the show notes for each episode. 

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

************************************************************************************************************************************

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too. 

And remember you'll always find more information with links to content that we've discussed, contact information to our guests and more in the show notes for each episode. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT BRUCE MAU:

For press and event inquiries: info@massivechangenetwork.com   

INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS:

Bruce Mau - https://www.instagram.com/realbrucemau/#

Aiyemobisi Williams - https://www.instagram.com/aiyemobisi/

Massive Change Network -https://www.instagram.com/massivechangenetwork/  

LINKEDIN ACCOUNTS:

Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer Bruce Mau -https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-mau/

Co-founder, Chief Insights Officer Aiyemobisi “Bisi” Willia -https://www.linkedin.com/in/bisiwilliams/   

Company Page Massive Change Network -https://www.linkedin.com/company/massive-change-network/about/

WEBSITES:

Massive Change Network -https://www.massivechangenetwork.com

Health 2049 Podcast -https://www.health2049.com

MAILING LIST:

https://massivechangeworkshops.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=edecf2a3075fbcc167f6019ec&id=592db25fb8  

BRUCE'S BIO:

Bruce Mau is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Massive Change Network (MCN), a global design consultancy based in the Chicago area. Across more than thirty years of design innovation, Bruce has worked as a designer, innovator, educator, and author on a broad spectrum of projects in collaboration with the world’s leading brands, organizations, universities, governments, entrepreneurs, renowned artists, and fellow optimists. 

To create value and positive impact across global ecosystems and economies, Mau evolved a unique toolkit of 24 massive change design principles — MC24 — that can be applied in any field or environment at every scale. The MC24 principles underpin all Bruce’s work — from designing carpets to cities, books to new media, global brands to cultural institutions, and social movements to business transformation – and they are the subject of his book,“Mau: MC24, Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work.” 

Books are central to Bruce’s purpose of achieving and inspiring understanding, clarity, and alignment around visions of a better future. He is the author of“Massive Change”;“Life Style”; and“Mau: MC24: Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work”;– all published by Phaidon Press. Bruce’s“The Incomplete Manifesto for Growth,”a forty-three-point statement on sustaining a creative practice, has been translated into more than fifteen languages and has been shared widely on the Internet for nearly twenty-five years. 

Bruce is also co-author of several books, including the landmark architecture book“S, M, L, XL”with Rem Koolhaas;“Nexus: Augmented Thinking for a Complex World – The New Convergence of Art, Technology, and Science,”with Julio Ottino, dean of Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering;“The Third Teacher”with OWP/P Architects and VS Furniture; and“Spectacle”with David Rockwell.

Bruce has collaborated with clients on the development and design of more than 200 books, including Art Gallery of Ontario, Claes Oldenburg, Douglas Gordon, Frank Gehry, Gagosian, Getty Research Institute, James Lahey, Mark Francis, and Zone Books. 

In these times of complex, interrelated challenges that are unlike any we’ve faced before, Bruce believes life-centered design offers a clear path towards identifying the full context of our problems and developing innovative, sustainable, and holistic solutions. 

Bruce’s work and life story are the subject of the feature-length documentary, “MAU,” scheduled for North American theatrical release in May 2022.

EP. 43 BRUCE MAU - SHOW INTRO

When I was a kid, my parents used to load my four brothers and I, along with our dog, into a station wagon, hook up a trailer and travel on summer vacation from Montreal to Winnipeg, effectively halfway across Canada, to visit my father's family. 

The trek would take us along the Trans Canada highway following a route around Lake Superior and passing through cites like Wawa, which had an enormous Canada goose statue, Dryden with the monumental statue of Max the Moose, and Sudbury Ontario with the Big nickel.

The big nickel. It was enormous. This thing was a towering 30 feet tall and was said to be about 64 million times the size of the nickel you’d have in your pocket. 

In a time when penny candy stores were a big thing for a youngster in the late 60’s, how much that nickel could buy at Ed’s market, the candy store a walk from my parent’s house, was beyond imagination. 

Sudbury was also one of the largest nickel mining areas on the planet. My memory of Sudbury at that time was that it was desolate. For miles around the nickel mines, Sudbury was gray. The landscape was just gray. 

There were no trees. 

There was no grass. 

It was the closest thing my young mind could have imagined when thinking about what the surface of the moon would have looked like. 

In those seemingly dead zones, it was stark and infertile.

In 1971 and '72 NASA actually sent its astronauts to train there for the Apollo 16 and 17 missions, because it approximated what astronauts would encounter when they landed on the lunar surface.

While I passed through as a tourist on vacation, there was another boy who lived there in the house at the end of a street beyond which there was only 200 miles of Boreal Forest. 

As an adult the boy who lived at the end of the street before the forest started would describe those years as ‘lawless’ and like walking a Vaseline greased edge on which a misplaced step would send you careening into a chasm from which you would never climb out. 

Finding his way out of the Boreal Forest, it turns out, would also serve in later years as an apt metaphor for finding a way out of a childhood of adverse experiences to a career as one of the most successful designers of the last 50 years.  

The house of the end of the street was not the end of the road for Bruce Mau. At a young age, he had other plans to not slip and fall into the chasm, but to find his way out of the forest. To follow a path with an entrepreneurial spirit, of exploration and discovery, continually scanning the world for opportunity. 

Mau believes that “you need to be taught the entrepreneurial mindset of being lost in the forest and discovering a methodology for finding your way out. You need a compass. You need a way of actually navigating any forest not just the one in front of you.” That, he says, is a very different mindset and design is actually built to do it. That's what designers do…”

Looking back, Mau now deeply appreciates how those decisions that he made when he was twelve set that in motion and kind of created the space for him to do what he does and to be who he is.

Despite his extraordinary success, he understands that, whatever the kind of problem and no matter how right he believes his solution is, it is it's meaningless if he can't inspire people to do it.

He explains that “..I have to show them what that means. I have to show them the destination and I have to take them there in their imagination. I’ve got to say, ‘look I know we're here now but we're going to go over there. I'm telling you over there is awesome and here's what's going to happen…”

I was first exposed to Bruce’s creative thinking process through his landmark architectural book “S, M, L, XL”with the world renowned architect Rem Koolhaas. SML XL is not a book you read cover to cover. It is something that you live with, explore and reference over and over again. 

Bruce is a lover of books and has collaborated with clients on the development and design of more than 200 titles. He says “I consider myself a ‘biblio-naire.’ I'm not a billionaire but I am a biblio-naire.”

One of these books, that I have read cover to cover, is MC24  “Mau: MC24, Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work.” This volume is more a manifesto or a unique toolkit of 24 massive change design principles that can be applied in any field or environment at every scale. 

These 24 principles underpin all of Bruce’s work — from designing carpets to cities, books to new media, global brands to cultural institutions, and social movements to business transformation.

Today Bruce has navigated the slippery line of life a long way from his childhood years in the liminal space where the road ends and the forest begins. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Massive Change Network (MCN), a global design consultancy based in the Chicago area. 

Across more than thirty years of design innovation, Bruce has worked as a designer, innovator, educator, and author on a broad spectrum of projects with some of world’s leading brands, organizations, universities, governments, entrepreneurs, renowned artists, and fellow optimists. 

Bruce’s work and life story are the subject of the feature-length documentary, “MAU,” that was released to North American theatres in May 2022. It is a captivating  and candid look into Bruce Mau’s life of ideas. I encourage all to see it. 

************************************************************************************************************************************

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “dialogues on DATA: design architecture technology and the arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too. 

And remember you'll always find more information with links to content that we've discussed, contact information to our guests and more in the show notes for each episode. 

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT Kyle Bergman:
Kyle’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-bergman-629809131/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ADFILMFEST

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adfilmfest/

Websites:

Architecture and Design Film Festival: https://www.adfilmfest.com/

Pacific Rim Parks: https://pacificrimpark.org/

Kyle Bergman's Bio: 

Founder & Festival Director - Architecture & Design Film Festival / New York

Architect Kyle Bergman founded the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) in 2009 and serves as its festival director. He has always recognized the strong connection between architecture and film and ADFF provides a unique opportunity to educate, entertain and engage people who are passionate about the world of architecture and design. Now in its 14th season, ADFF has grown to become the largest film festival dedicated to the creative spirit of architecture and design.

Mr. Bergman also serves as president of Pacific Rim Park (PRP) whose mission is to use the process of designing and building parks as a tool to connect people and communities around the Pacific. Mr, Bergman has been involved with PRP since its first park built in Vladivostok, Russia in 1994.

Mr. Bergman has been involved with design/build education since 1992 when he created and moderated an architectural lecture series about the design/build process for the Smithsonian Institute. He has taught community design/build classes in the Dominican Republic for the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont, and served on their board of directors for 9 years.

An entrepreneur at heart, Mr. Bergman founded Alt Spec in 1999, a publishing company that produced a visual resource of unique and alternative products for architects and designers. He also produced a play, The Glass House, about the design and construction of two famous homes — Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and Phillip Johnson's Glass House.

SHOW INTRO:

When I was in college I took an elective in hypnosis and one of the few things that I learned during that course is that everyone can be hypnotized, to some degree. That degree has a lot to do with the individual’s ability to let themself go, to suspend disbelief, to have a strong imagination as well as the proclivity to get lost in story.

What I have always know about myself is that when I watch a movie, the outside world disappears. I am with Frodo on our way to Mordor, in a landing craft on the beach of Normandy on my way to Save Private Ryan, falling in love with the heroine, summiting the mountain… I could go on but you get the idea.

The same happens with great novels where I am fully in the narrative and I find portrayals of human excellence deeply moving.

Over the years, I have found myself using expressions of famous novelists, musicians, architects and filmmakers as truisms to live my life by.  

I love documentaries because I learn things I did not know. I love discovering how things work in our world and how things we often take for granted in out built environment are not there by happenstance but have come to be through an intense, and usually lengthy, process of collaborative making.

I often stand in places and I'm amazed at the amount of decisions that had to be made to bring the thing that I'm experienced into the world. 

This is no small thing and it's something that I think the general public is unaware of. I would hazard a guess that most walk through their environments blissfully unaware of the magnitude of human invention and hard work that it took to bring most buildings to the world.

There have been stories I have read - biographies, monographs and radio shows and podcasts that I have listened to that have described the lives of famous makers, builders, architects, artists, designers and musicians - these alchemists of human ingenuity bringing things to the world that are lasting expressions of what it means to be human - in a certain place - at a certain time.

And so, it's probably not so surprising that documentaries that focus on the work of architects or TV shows that show how things are made or how to make them better or how our built world has come to be I find particularly fascinating. 

I think that if people better understood architecture and design, and the intricate set of interdependencies and decisions made to make the beautiful building or ice cream scoop, the world of design and architecture maybe experienced with more reverence.

I've often heard it also said that architects tend to make buildings for architects and the much of the subtlety and deep meaning of what architects and designers do is lost on the general public.

An this may be, in part , due to the fact that architects haven’t been too good at explaining what they do to the public. 

In the past there were various guilds, associations of craftsmen or merchants that formed for mutual aid and protection and for the furtherance of their professional interests.And indeed, knowledge of the craft was often held in confidence among its members. 

I've often heard it also said that architects tend to make buildings for architects and the much of the subtlety and deep meaning of what architects and designers do is lost on the general public. Maybe this is a hold-over from ancient guilds. If so, the consequence has been a poor understanding of the world of architecture and one that needs some revision.

This is just one of the mandates that Kyle Bergman and the architecture and design Film Festival have set out for themselves in bringing stories of architecture and design to the general public. 

The architecture and design Film Festival attempts to write that story in a different way. 

To bring the art and science of architecture and design, what it means, why we do it and how we do it, to the general public so they better understand the nature of the built world and what it means to be a participant in it.

ArchitectKyleBergman founded the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) in 2009 and serves as its festival director. He has always recognized the strong connection between architecture and film and how the ADFF can provide a unique opportunity to educate, entertain and engage people who are passionate about the world of architecture and design. 

Now in its 14th season, ADFF has grown to become the largest film festival dedicated to the creative spirit of architecture and design.

Kyle Bergman has been involved with design/build education since 1992 when he created and moderated an architectural lecture series about the design/build process for the Smithsonian Institute. 

He has taught community design/build classes in the Dominican Republic for the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont, and served on their board of directors for 9 years.

He is also the president of Pacific Rim Park (PRP) whose mission is to use the process of designing and building parks as a tool to connect people and communities around the Pacific. 

The architecture and design Film Festival now screens about 300 documentary films every year. They curate the best of them and bring them to the public in major cities across the US and Canada as well as releasing them online.

Because of the work of Kyle Bergman, the general public continues to be invited into a deeper understanding of architects, designers and the nature of the built environment.

The architecture critic Paul Goldberger has said “Architecture begins to matter when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.” 

For the past 13 or 14 years, the architecture and design Film Festival has brought together the story of architecture and design offering those who participate a felt sense of delight and sadness, a deeper appreciation for the complexity of the practice of design and architecture and a sense of awe about the magic and meaning of buildings.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT DENISE NAGUIB:
Denise’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/denisenaguib

Email: denise.naguib@marriott.com

Twitter: dnaguib

Bio:

Denise was born in Cairo, Egypt where she lived for half of her childhood before moving to Michigan, Minnesota, and finally Oregon.  She attended the University of Oregon, earning a Bachelors of Science in Geography with an emphasis on biological and human impacts on the environment.  After graduating, Denise became involved with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, implementing environmental education programs at various locations.  

In 2005, Denise moved to the Cayman Islands to implement Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman.  Naguib moved to Washington, DC and led the environmental strategy for the brand, as well as supporting the growth of the Cousteau program within The Ritz-Carlton.  In January 2010, Denise joined the Global Operations group at Marriott International and continued her work on sustainability strategy for all brands, as well as expansion of the Cousteau program. 

In 2012, Denise was named Vice President of Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, integrating both of these important subjects in the company’s global operations.  In 2017, Naguib launched the company’s new Sustainability and Social Impact platform, Serve 360, and accompanying goals.  Denise is working on a variety of projects including responsible sourcing, food waste, carbon reporting and supporting efforts to increase spend with diverse businesses globally.

Denise currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board for WEConnect International, the global organization supporting women businesses around the world.  She is also the Chair of the National LGBT Chamber’s Procurement Council, on the Board of The Conference Board’s Sustainability Center and serves on the boards of The Ocean Foundation and Arbor Day Foundation.  

SHOW INTRO:

A few years ago, my family gave me a book that was full of amazing illustrations of planet earth… without humans.

The images it showed were both fantastic and tragic. 

But as you looked through the images one thing became perfectly clear, that earth without humans was actually OK. 

Now I'm not suggesting that we work hard to leave earth. On the contrary, I'm actually suggesting that we need to work harder at saving earth from ourselves.

When you think about it, in the grand scheme of things, the big universal timeline, humans have been around for a micro moment, not even a blink of an eye.

 And to be sure, in the very short time that we've been around, we have done some pretty remarkable things. There isn't a day go by that I don't marvel at human ingenuity as well as the strange paradox that we equally seem to be working as hard at making this planet uninhabitable for ourselves well at the same time we're trying to save each other from devastating diseases to keep us alive for as long as we can.

Which I suppose points to the idea that despite our irresponsible treatment of mother earth we really love being here.

As an architect I am particularly tuned in to what our built environment costs, not in terms of materials or operating expenses, but in terms of what it does to the environment around us what natural resources we strip from the earth, the cost of shipping them to construction sites and the leftovers of the construction process that end up in landfill. 

As a LEED certified architect I'm even more tuned in to the lifespan of buildings and the impact that they have on the environment. 

Alan weismann’s book “The World Without US” brought to light some pretty interesting ideas regarding how the world would be if we simply retreated further into the background and let natural ecosystems take over.

We've seen some of these changes over the past two years in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

It's kept people inside, animals have had a chance to roam, our urban environments have become less raucous, the ozone layer has had a chance to mend and even the canals in Venice are running clear.

So, it does tend to make you want to question what would happen to our planet if for example we weren't here. 

Now, having said that, I think most of us want to be here. We find this little blue dot spinning uncontrollably in the vast universe an astounding place to be with a wealth of natural resources flora and fauna, that if you look, just for a moment, you can be nothing but amazed at the complexity, beauty, detail and design of all things.

It's not surprising as well that during this pause imposed on us over the past couple of years, that people have begun to reconnect to the value of nature. 

Biophilic design is rolling off the lips of more people these days than ever before and sustainable practices are being embraced and young GenZers, like Greta Thunberg, are being lauded for sailing across the ocean and bringing a global consciousness to the climate change issue.

I can tell you, my sons are quite concerned about the planet they've inherited. And what we need to do to make it right in the next few years so that the trajectory of climate change won't lead to a climate calamity. 

I don't know, maybe it's quite likely that our influence on climate will likely be the demise of humans long before some asteroid hits us like in the movie Don't look up.”

I was also quite struck by the Salesforce commercial playing during the Winter Olympics with Matthew McConaughey who was suggesting that space is ‘a final frontier’ might be a misappropriation of our attention. 

We might be better off connecting better and creating viable alternatives to the way that we've treated mother earth, a planet that we've been gifted and need to be better stewards of.

I liked the idea of SalesForce’s “Team Earth” commercial.

Bravo for bringing that into the social consciousness.

When I was at Marriott our chief engineer Terry Smith was on a mission to remove plastic bottles from hotels and implement water filtration systems that would remove millions of plastic bottles from landfill every year.

You know, there's a plastic island the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean and everything we can do every day to remove things like that from our planet the better off we all will be, humans and ocean life alike. 

When I was at Marriott there was a woman who seemed to make it her life purpose to connect us to the consequences of our behavior on geography and the natural ecosystems. 

Denise Naguib is an extraordinary person with a passion for education and growing our awareness of how to interact with a world around us that produces better human outcomes.

Denise was born in Cairo, Egypt where she lived for half of her childhood before moving to Michigan, Minnesota, and finally Oregon.  

She was originally on an education track that would put her into medicine. But one day, when needing to take an elective for one of the courses to complete her Bachelors degree, she discovered the world of geography… and that changed everything.

She earned a Bachelors of Science in Geography degree from the University of Oregon with an emphasis on biological and human impacts on the environment.  

After graduating, Denise was hired to be a snorkeling instructor at a summer camp on Catalina island off the coast of California. She had grown up snorkeling and this was a natural fit for her.

And, as fate would have it, one day she got a call that led to becoming involved with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, implementing environmental education programs. 

In 2005, Denise moved to the Cayman Islands (not a bad gig) to implement Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman.  

With the success of that program, Denise then moved to Washington, DC and led the environmental strategy for the brand, as well as supporting the growth of the Cousteau program within The Ritz-Carlton.  

In January 2010, Denise joined the Global Operations group at Marriott International and continued her work on sustainability strategy for all brands, as well as expansion of the Cousteau program. 

In 2012, Denise was named Vice President of Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, integrating both of these important subjects in the company’s global operations.  In 2017, Naguib launched the company’s new Sustainability and Social Impact platform, Serve 360, and accompanying goals.  

Denise currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board for WEConnect International, the global organization supporting women businesses around the world.  She is also the Chair of the National LGBT Chamber’s Procurement Council, on the Board of The Conference Board’s Sustainability Center and serves on the boards of The Ocean Foundation and Arbor Day Foundation.  

When I was at Marriott, I liked visiting Denise in her office as often as I could, because it was filled with plants and just smelled better. 

Her little enclave of the building felt a little bit like a place that grown over after humans had left. Except that at Marriott Denise Naguib is very much there connecting a network of over 8000 hotels and the companies that supply them to the world of sustainable building practice. 

She leads a team who spends there days connecting to hearts and minds to what we can learn from, and the value of, natural ecosystems helping to make sure that this little blue dot we live on… will not just be there for future generations but be one we can continue to thrive on. 

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT DR. CHARLES LIMB:

USSF Health: 

https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-charles-limb

https://ohns.ucsf.edu/charles-limb 

https://profiles.ucsf.edu/charles.limbWikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Limb

TED Profile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Limb

TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_limb_your_brain_on_improv

Kennedy Center:

https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/l/la-ln/charles-limb/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/center/discussionspoken-word/2017/jazz-creativity-and-the-brainsound-health-music-and-the-mind/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/digital-stage/discussionspoken-word/2019/music-and-the-voice-brain-mechanisms-of-vocal-mastery-and-creativity--sound-health/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/center/discussionspoken-word/2019/sound-health-inside-esperanza-spaldings-brain--the-kennedy-center/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/center/classical-music/2018/music-and-the-mind-with-piano-prodigy-matthew-whitaker/

The Art of The Spark: Musical Creativity Explored with Dr. Charles Limb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQmGOVr8aJ0

Articles: 

https://www.artsandmindlab.org/charles-limb-md-mapping-the-creative-minds-of-musicians/

On Creativity: mihaly csikszentmihalyi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

DR.CHARLES LIMB Bio:

Dr. Charles Limb is the Francis A. Sooy Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Chief of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at UC San Francisco. He is the Director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center at UCSF and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery. 

Dr. Limb received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University, medical training at Yale University School of Medicine, and surgical residency and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in functional neuroimaging at the National Institutes of Health. He was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Peabody Conservatory of Music and the School of Education between 1996 and 2015. 

Dr. Limb joined the UCSF Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 2015.

Dr. Limb is the 2021-22 President of the American Auditory Society and the Co-Director of the Sound Health Network sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, NIH and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is the PI of an NEA Research Lab and Co-PI of an NIH R61/R33 grant. 

He is the past Editor-in-Chief of Trends in Amplification (now Trends in Hearing), and an Editorial Board member of Otology and Neurotology. Dr. Limb was selected as the 2022 NIH Clinical Center Distinguished Clinical Research Scholar and Educator in Residence. He was also named in 2022 as one of the Kennedy Center’s Next 50, a group of fifty national cultural leaders who are “moving us toward a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate world”.

His current areas of research focus on the study of the neural basis of musical creativity and the study of music perception in deaf individuals with cochlear implants. 

His work has received international attention and has been featured by National Public Radio, TED, 60 Minutes, National Geographic, the New York Times, PBS, CNN, Scientific American, the British Broadcasting Company, the Smithsonian Institute, the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sundance Film Festival, Canadian Broadcasting Company, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Discovery Channel, CBS Sunday Morning, and the American Museum of Natural History.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

A number of years ago I attended a series of lectures at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC that focus on music and the brain and as I sat and watched and listened to these presentations, I was absolutely amazed with the interrelationship between brain activity, spontaneous creativity, music, language meaning and all these things that we share as human beings.

For years I've been fascinated with the creative process. 

It seems natural I suppose given that I'm an architect, an artist, an author and occasionally I might even consider myself a novice musician because I can bang out five chords of a James Taylor song on my guitar. I do however have the extraordinarily good fortune of living with three musicianS. MY sons who are jazz musician,  a pianist and a drummer, and a wife who is also a pianist and composer/songwriter and have been surrounded by music and love it for years.

In fact, when I paint, and I happen to be focusing on a series of portraits of famous jazz musicians and other musical artists, I only listen to their music as I'm creating. Somehow I think I'm channeling John Coltrane or Miles Davis or Keith Richards or Janis Joplin or Prince.

But it helps, it really does. It gets me into a flow state and the world outside me just disappears.  

For a long time now I have held that creativity is part of who we are. We are equally Homo Faber man the maker as we are Homo Sapiens man the wise.

I deeply believe that the creative process is something that is intrinsic to building community and connections with other people for years. We have danced around fires and stamped out meaning with our feet and sang songs and beat on drums and created extraordinary symphonies or rock concerts and in doing so we come together and better understand ourselves our community culture and, in some strange cosmological sense, our relation to the larger whole of humanity.

It seems to me that vocal utterances (not speech as we now know it) or producing melodic or rhythmic sounds, beating on drums etc., predated organized or syntactic speech. 

Since adapting to changing circumstances in the environment around you required some degree of creativity, it seems that there would be a natural connection between the development of creative thinking processes as a matter of survival and what we now know as music as a way to exchange these ideas. 

Music and music with language, lyrics, are extremely powerful mechanisms to evoke and share emotion and communicate with each other. 

Building strong social groups and the use of communication tools like language and certainly music has been part of our evolutionary process. Our brains have evolved into these immensely complex systems of functional areas that provide us with the magic of music and art and creative invention. We humans have survived at the top of the food chain not because we have bigger brains than other creatures on the planet, but as I understand it, because our brains are wired differently. 

And how all of this relates to creativity is particularly interesting. 

When you see jazz improvisation happening, what has always amazed me is the speed with which the brain is making decisions and the amount of information it is processing:

…what note to hit next? – how does it related to the last? – where is the improv going? - is there a structure of any kind? – how the brain makes those decisions and then send signals to motor areas and then electrical impulses to muscle groups that produce fine motor movements in hands and /or other body parts to create sounds… 

this is all happening with electricity and chemicals moving between cells…this is a bit overwhelming to figure out! 

It’s like the brain is out ahead of the body in its thinking…

When I sat in the audience of those early Kennedy Center music and the brain sessions, there was one that was particularly interesting to me. Dr. Charles Limb had intriguing conversations with musicians including Jason Moran - the Artistic Director for Jazz at the Kennedy Center - and he described some of the work he was doing with trying to understand the neural correlates of creativity.

How was he doing that? 

Well, he was taking some of the best jazz musicians on the planet and putting them into fMRI machines and observing their brain activity while they were in moments of spontaneous creation - jazz improvisation. 

And what he's begun to discover is something pretty remarkable.

Certain areas of the brain are deactivated in these moments of spontaneous improvised creation while others are lit up.

From Dr. Limb studies, it seems that conscious self-monitoring, a function of the Prefrontal Cortex, is deactivated opening a gateway for spontaneous creation unencumbered by self-monitoring or concerns about inappropriate or maladaptive performances and areas that are connected to autobiographical narratives are more active.

“In jazz music, improvisation is considered to be a highly individual expression of an artist's own musical viewpoint. The association of the MPFC activity with the production of auto biographical narrative is germane in this context, and as such, one could argue that the improvisation is a way of expressing one's own musical voice or story.”

Dr. Limb’s own story is nothing less than remarkable. 

From his early years as a young musician, to his study of medicine, he has become one of the preeminent scientists looking into music, the brain and the neural correlates of creativity.

His list of professional accomplishments and appointments to various medical institutions is extensive and include:

Being the Francis A. Sooy Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Chief of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at UC San Francisco. 

The Director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center at UCSF and he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery. 

Dr. Limb received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University, medical training at Yale University School of Medicine, and surgical residency and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

He was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Peabody Conservatory of Music and the School of Education between 1996 and 2015. 

Dr. Limb is the 2021-22 President of the American Auditory Society and the Co-Director of the Sound Health Network sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, NIH and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

He was also named in 2022 as one of the Kennedy Center’s Next 50, a group of fifty national cultural leaders who are “moving us toward a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate world”.

His current areas of research focus on the study of the neural basis of musical creativity and the study of music perception in deaf individuals with cochlear implants. 

His work has received international attention and has been featured by TED, 60 Minutes, National Geographic, the. New York Times, PBS, CNN, Scientific American, the Smithsonian Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sundance Film Festival, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Discovery Channel, CBS Sunday Morning, and more.

It is my distinct honor to be able to talk with Dr. Limb about music, creativity and the brain. 

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

About Hannah Grady Williams:

Hannah’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/hannah-williams-genz-ceo-advisor

Website: hannahgwilliams.com/  (Personal Website)

Phone: 828-490-7535 (Work)

Email: hannahnaomigrady@gmail.com

Bio:

As a 12-year-old middle schooler and the oldest daughter of seven children, Hannah Williams’s dad took her to work at his start-up one day per week. Usually, they would visit properties, collect rent, and file paperwork, but one afternoon was different. “Hey Hannah, the phone is ringing. There’s a guy on the other line with a house for sale and you’re going to close the deal.” Hannah took the phone and fumbled through the call, but sure enough, within weeks, they owned the property.

Before long, Hannah was religiously consuming business books. She enrolled in college at age 14 and graduated with a degree in international business by 18. Since then, Hannah has consulted Fortune 500 companies and boutique luxury brands and has had the pleasure of working with some of the best and brightest leaders across the globe. Hannah is now on a journey to help companies connect with her generation, and her first book will be published in the Summer of 2021. In a time when the world is increasingly divided, Hannah has made it her mission to foster #RadicalEmpathy in the workplace - helping both young and old gain a voice.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Since watching my son Ben create Instagram posts years ago when he was 12, I have had an intense interest in what Gen Z was doing with their phones beyond using it for a communication device. 

As I have watched and seen the creativity pouring out of my sons in the making of digital content, I have become increasingly aware that what they are doing with their digital devices goes beyond texting, playing games and watching videos, they are imbibing content at a remarkable pace, learning more about the world than I knew about the world well into my early adulthood and… making stories.

They are content creators writing narratives of their own lives. They are bringing to life themselves, their own personas, as individual brands, with strong points of view on politics, media, identity, social issues, the economy, climate change and more.

As content creators they have a facility with media production not seen in generations before them. That power of connection into the digisphere lays in the palm of their hands and they come to the table with an expectation set that is very different that other consumers.

Contrary to popular belief, they don’t love digital technology. They aren’t amazed orconfounded by it. It just is. It is as if it is simply another appendage that they wouldn’t be able to navigate the world without. 

And, this mindset has particular consequences in how brands and corporations will interact with them. 

As they create media content whether on FB, Instagram, TickTock or myriad other platforms, they become their own brands with thousands of followers who align with the projection of their personal brand image - all before the age of fifteen.

They have become savvy marketers. 

They have had to, because to be relevant in their sphere of influence, they have attached relevancy to the system of ‘likes’ that tells them what they are producing and pushing out on digital platform is valid – that they are valid – that they exist and matter.

As long as they are recognized for what they produce and validated for creating it, the Brand of Me counts. This is of course a real challenge, rife with psychological complexity and pitfalls that can lead to significant emotional issues. 

Nevertheless, they have had little say in the matter since they were born into a system of digital platforms that promulgates the creation of content that is targeted directly at the base of the brain stem feeding primitive neurobiological processes. 

But then, they are generally wise to that too.

However, conscious awareness of the slippery slope that digital content consumption has them careening along, does not necessarily supplant brain chemistry that has one going back for more. Even if you have an inkling that it’s likely not good for you. 

Gen Z sees through inauthenticity and want straight talk and not BS. 

They’ll jettison brands that speak out of both side of their mouths paying lip service to social causes while they sit on a historical heap of supporting institutionalized inequities. 

They can smell a sales pitch a mile away and will dump a brand relationship in a minute, not necessarily because they don’t align with the company’s brand position, but that the company doesn’t align with their individual brand ideology.

As culture shifts in response to exponential change, this emerging generation of experience-seeking consumers may be less tied to tradition as a benchmark for their engagement with a brand. 

They live in a series of nows. 

The fluid nature of the digitally enabled world might suggest that what has worked in the past is simply no longer relevant today, tomorrow or in the next moment. This group seems to be more deeply connected to experiencing moments than they are to monuments.

Relying on the past to predict the future requires that something has survived the test of time. 

As we move into a new experience paradigm of continual change, failing fast and continual iteration may become de rigeur because constant change will demand it and make it mainstream in order to remain in sync with change.

With attention spans shortened due to a constant flow in information to attend to, GEN Z is perfectly adept at moving fluidly between experiences.

They experience life in a strange state of ‘inbetweenness’ – between what is now and what is next. And, the delta between these states becomes smaller as the exponential rate of change continues bending upward, faster with every passing day.

Seems like we all may find ourselves living in a perpetual state of change – living in the presence of a future absence and the absence of a future presence.

Emily Dickenson said “Forever is composed of nows.” It seems that this is a truth that becomes more self-evident as we experience life in the fastlane.

And, for this new group of consumers now is simply more relevant than what has been. 

This presents a particular challenge to brands who have relied on traditional narratives, like many luxury brands, because culture shifts swept by rapid change may not have them looking backwards when “back” fades quickly from a front row seat in a bullet train. 

All of this poses particular challenges and opportunities for brands meaning to sell goods, services and experiences and for companies looking to hire and retain them.

This is where Hannah Grady Williams comes into picture. 

Hannah consults with corporate CEOs who are often more than twice her age. She knows Gen Z – because she is one of them. 

She can demystify this complex generation because she lives it every day and understands what makes her generation tick… or shall we say - click.

Hannah’s trajectory to being a consultant to corporate CEOs started at the age of twelve when she closed a real-estate deal for her father’s business and hopped on the fast track to finishing an International Business degree at the age of 18. 

Since then, she has consulted Fortune 500 companies, boutique luxury brands, and has worked with some of the best and brightest leaders across the globe. Along the way, Hannah started two companies that failed, and says she’s proud of that.

Out of these failures Hannah embarked on a journey to help companies connect with her generation. 

Why is this her passion you may ask? 

Simply put, in a time when the world is increasingly divided, she exists to foster #RadicalEmpathy in the workplace - helping both young and older have a voice.

Hannah Grady Williams bridges the gap with insight that only come from direct lived experience. 

She’s a straight forward, no nonsense communicator who is like a Sherpa guide helping corporate leaders find steady footing on the footpath to unlocking Gen Z.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT Michael Monello:

Michael’s Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemonello/

Websites

campfirenyc.com/ 

Email

mike@mikemonello.com

Twitter

mikemonello

Bio: 

Mike Monello is a true pioneer when it comes to immersive storytelling and innovative marketing.

In the late 1990s, Monello and his partners at Haxan Films created The Blair Witch Project, a story told across the burgeoning internet, a sci-fi channel pseudo-documentary, books, comics, games, and a feature film, which became a pop-culture touchstone and inspired legions of found-footage movies in its wake. It forever changed how fans engage with story and how marketers approach the internet.

Inspired by the possibilities for engaging connected fan cultures and communities online, Monello co-founded Campfire in 2005. 

There, he leads an agency that has developed and created groundbreaking participatory stories and experiences for HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Cinemax, Discovery, National Geographic, Harley- Davidson, Infiniti, and more. 

Campfire won Small Agency Campaign of the Year via AdAge in 2013 and Small Agency of the Year via Online Marketing Media and Advertising Awards in 2012, and has been awarded top honors at the Emmys, Cannes Lions Festival, Clios, One Show, and more. 

Monello serves on the Peabody Board of Jurors, and regularly speaks at high-profile events.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

I am not a huge fan of the horror genre of movies. 

As a kid I regularly covered my eyes when the Wicked Witch of the West showed up on screen in the Wizard of Oz.

I saw Amityville Horror as a 13 year old and late into my adult years, looking out of a darkened home window was slightly un-nerving thinking that there was certainly something evil looking back. 

I saw Friday the 13th and growing up in Montreal during the reign of the Montreal Canadians and so I watched a good bit of hockey but never thought of goalie’s masks quite the same way. 

I sat through episodes Night Gallery, the Wolfman and Frankenstein with childhood friends trying to not look at the screen all the while putting on an air of calm remaining cool. 

As a 10-year-old, I scrambled under the flaps of circus show tent at a local fair when a man miraculously turned into a raging gorilla right in front of my eyes. 

Oh… and thank you Mr. Spielberg for making me afraid of my closet, and that a portal to the netherworld could be in there, and believing that every house could possibly be built on and Indian burial ground 

Oh and, of course, making sure I’d never look at open water the same way.

This may have all had to do with growing up with older brothers that thought it hilarious the wear a gorilla mask and jump out at my younger brother and me with the lights off in the basement. Except in that case, I brandished a big wooden shoe polishing brush and delivered a great whack to that nasty gorilla’s head. 

Or it may be that I have a particularly active imagination and believe in the power of story’s ability to go deep into our neurobiology and create ‘as if’ experiences inside us. Story is so profoundly woven into our very beings that, without it, there would be a vacuum of basic understanding of our world and what to it means to part of it all.

So, with all of this in mind, it’s likely no surprise that I haven’t watched the Exorcist and have kept away from The Blair Witch Project.

But Blair Witch is something entirely different. 

It didn’t just scare the crap out of millions of people, it shifted the film industry on its axis creating a new paradigm for storytelling where film and the burgeoning internet merged, blurring boundaries between these two vehicles for connecting fans to the profound power of a story.

It broke what was acceptable in terms of camera work replacing locked off cameras for a handheld approach where being all bumpy was perfectly OK. It was largely credited with creating the “found footage” technique that has become so common in years since its release.

The opening scenes left you questioning what was real, was this really found footage by a group of student film makers who ventured into the woods to capture a story of a reported witch but never came back? 

When The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999, it its promotional marketing campaign actually listed the actors as either "missing" or "deceased". 

It grossed over $250 making it one of the most successful independent films of all time.

Michael Monello, and his partners at Haxan Films, were the creators of this paradigm shifting approach to film making, forever changing how fans engage with story and how marketers approach the internet.

Inspired by the possibilities for engaging connected fan cultures and communities online, Monello co-founded Campfire in 2005, and ever since, has built an impressive and exciting career in immersive storytelling and innovative marketing.

At Campfire, he leads an agency that has developed and created more groundbreaking participatory stories and experiences for HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Cinemax, Discovery, National Geographic, Harley- Davidson, Infiniti, and more. 

Campfire won Small Agency Campaign of the Year by AdAge in 2013 and Small Agency of the Year by Online Marketing Media and Advertising Awards in 2012, and has been awarded top honors at the Emmys, Cannes Lions Festival, Clios, and more. 

This is a talk that goes into Projects Beyond Blair Witch and dives into the power of story, engaging the internet in creating famdom, the meta-verse, NFT’s and more. 

Michael Monello has a really interesting take on immersive experiences and believes that ‘its not really a thing until someone is experiencing it. He likens creating immersive experiences to architecture saying that you can build a really beautiful building, but is it really finished if it sits unoccupied and unused.’

That question is fundamentally at the core of this podcast where we focus on “DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.”

Michael Monello’s work crosses these disciplines with the same facility and passion that had him crossing boundaries since creating The Blair Witch Project over 20 years ago.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT Gwendolyn Osborne:

Gwendolyn’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/gwenosborne

Websites

gwen-osborne.com  (Portfolio)

lomoliqueskin.com  (Company Website)

soundcloud.com/tea_with_gwen  (RSS Feed)

Email

hello@gwen-osborne.com 

Bio: 

Gwen is an involved mother to her 3 talented kids ages 9-25. Leading a successful career in the modeling industry on the runway, print, and commercials, Gwen transitioned into a spokesmodel on the television game show The Price Is Right, gaining the historical accolade of the longest-running woman of color to work on a daytime game show. 

Continuing her acting career, she has played various roles such as an Amazonian in Wonder Woman 1984 toGeneral Hospital playing the fierce role Police Chief Vic.

Drawing from her acting talents, Gwen brings her most dynamic, comedic self as host of her podcast Tea with Gwen.Committed to bringing diverse stories of how real-life Wonder Women balance their own health, wellness, and beauty journeys.

When Gwen isn’t behind the microphone or filming on set, she’s promoting and building Lomolique, her revolutionary luxurious anti-aging facial oil - lovingly combining the names of her 3 children.

Gwen is a recent graduate of The Path and now a certified Meditation Teacher, under the renowned Dina Kaplan, bringing a new level of spiritual guidance to her audience. 

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Everybody faces adversity at some time in their life. 

Some may seem to face them more than others. 

Some collapse under the stress and others seems to have built in resilience to keep going despite what, at the time, may seem to be insurmountable odds. I have often wondered what it is that some have to keep them moving forward, building a life despite roadblocks.

I don’t know, maybe its ego strength – that ability to maintain their identity and sense of self in the face of pain, distress, and conflict. Maybe it’s a great support system of friends and family who prop you up when you need it most.

Maybe it’s a desire to not accept the status quo, to want more and believe you can craft a life in which the things you want you can make happen.

The American motivational author William Arthur Ward said “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”

Maybe today’s guest heard that somewhere along the line, but not likely prior to being ten years old, when she petitioned classmates and marched into the headmasters office to change the policy of school uniforms in her elementary school so that all girls could wear trousers.

That event was part of a trajectory of hurdling over roadblocks, or just believing that there was no barrier that would stop her forward motion.

As a single teen mother, Gwen focused her life energy on the performing arts, making a plan and then finding her way to Los Angeles where she wanted your young daughter to go to school. With passion for growth and perseverance she broke another barrier to be the longest running women of color on a daytime game show and the first to show pregnancy and return to work on the Price Is Right after her delivery of her son.

Strength of will and of character and saying yes to moments of serendipity lead to being one of the Featured Amazon Women in the Wonder Woman 1984 movie directed by Patty Jenkins.

The path was not straight. But then again, growth is not found on Easy Street but on the Slip ‘n Slide-bumper car-rollercoaster of occasionally scary life experiences, and Gwen Osborne has never been one to shy away from life’s ups and downs.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT Caspar Schols:

Caspar's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/caspar-schols-12687470

Email: cs@casparschols.com

Websites: https://www.cabin-anna.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casparschols/

Articles: 

Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2020/10/27/anna-stay-meet-caspar-schols/

Archdaily: https://www.archdaily.com/952580/cabin-anna-caspar-schols

A Home Is Not A House: https://socks-studio.com/2011/10/31/francois-dallegret-and-reyner-banham-a-home-is-not-a-house-1965/

Bio: 

Cabin ANNA is created by Dutch designer Caspar Schols, who design and built the first cabin for his mother. Without any architectural education, but with a fascination for architecture and design, he was looking for a concept to bring people closer to nature.

Cabin ANNA won various awards, among which the prestigious Architizer A+ Project of the Year Award 2021, one of the world’s largest awards program for architecture and building-products. Cabin ANNA's mission now is to structurally connect every human being with nature once again.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Are Physics and nature different things?

I suppose they aren’t given that all things in nature, the universe, are bound by the laws of physics.

So maybe it’s not so surprising that a young physicist, who loved architecture - also bound by the laws of physics - should find himself in the position of a major career path change when asked by his mother to build a small cabin in her back yard so that she could be in nature. 

Not a place to necessarily do something in nature but ‘be’ in nature, to experience it, connect with it, and get back to it, in a profoundly embodied way. 

There is a Dutch term for what she wanted to do - Niksen “nik-suhn” – it’s a noun that means:

“…the practice of doing nothing as a means of relieving stress; idle activity, as staring into the trees or listening to music, with no purpose other than relaxation.”

She could spend all day in the backyard, relaxing but noticing all of the details – birds, sounds of wind and birds, shapes of leaves on tress, passing of the clouds, changes in the quality of light…

As a young boy he too felt deeply connected to nature. With his family, he had slept out under the stars, exposed the elements, but connected with the universe and protected by his family who slept beside him.

With a budget of 20,000 Euros, Caspar Schols set off to design and build Cabin ANNA. Which by the way takes its name from his mother. 

Cabin Anna does more than just physically transform engaging the inhabitants to live different experiences in varying degrees of connectedness with nature. It expands as if taking a deep breath, opening up to the elements allowing the interior to become at one with the exterior. You can literally sleep under the stars as Caspar once did as a young boy.

It is both simple and impeccably detailed, everything counts.

It is beautiful and balanced so that nothing can be added or taken away but for the worse. And with a gentle but deliberate push its envelope slides open along beautifully engineered tracks like shedding your clothes to bathe in nature.

For Caspar, Cabin ANNA it is not really about increasing space, but about changing space, changing atmosphere, changing utility and always about bringing us back to nature and the laws of the universe and where we stand among the stars.

Cabin ANAA is Fallingwater, Phillip Johnson’s or Meis Van Der Rohe’s glass houses, Henry David Thoreau’s cabin in the woods and a Transformer all in one. 

For many of us Caspar suggests, “… this requires a different attitude, you have to be willing to change your customs, how you live…” Being in, and with, nature is a way of living from which modern society has immerged. 

Cabin ANNA is an invitation to remember where we have come from.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT Serdar Kutucu:

Serdar's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/serdar-kutucu-0808021b

Websites: https://slowness.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slowness/

Bio: 

Since April 2020, Serdar is Chief Executive Officer of Slow, a collective of people, places and projects around the world that reframe the ways we live, work and interact. Based in Berlin, Serdar oversees the strategic & brand development as well as all operational efforts. The portfolio of Slow currently includes a farmstead in Ibiza and a treehouse in Tulum and will soon add a creative campus in Berlin as well as a little palacio in Lisbon, providing not mere physical spaces but a journey to an altered state of being.

Previously, Serdar was Chief Operating Officer of Design Hotels, a global hospitality brand based in Berlin. He oversaw various business units, including business & portfolio development and brand management. Serdar had joined Design Hotel in 2008 as Director of Business Development and played a vital role in shaping the company’s collection of 350 independent and design-driven member hotels – in over 60 countries. An aesthete with a natural affinity for brand narrative, architecture, and design, Serdar soon assumed leadership of Design Hotels’ brand strategy and continuously developed the company’s business in alignment with its vision to create original hospitality experiences. 

With his deep understanding of the travel industry, gastronomy and hospitality, paired with a wealth of experience in marketing, communications and business innovation, Serdar aims to strategically develop the Slow brand … Serdar holds a master’s degree in international business administration from the University of Vienna.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

I have heard it said that travel changes us, mostly for the better. We go and return with a different view on things, new learnings and realizations. It draws us together and often can shed light on the differences of our human experience. Hopefully, a new awareness brings us all together in the shared meaning of being human.

We all expect good design in the hotels we visit but the experience of a hotel stay is more than the architecture. More often these days guests are looking for something deeper. A hotel stay that aligns with the search for meaning and a purpose driven approach to deciding to go out and go far. 

What if we sought out hotel destinations where a stay was not only about a good night’s sleep – though that should be a given – but where the place was a collective of people, places and projects around the world that reframed the ways we live, work and interact.

Perhaps the place you would go to is a farmstead in Ibiza or a treehouse in Tulum or maybe it’s a creative campus in Berlin as well as a little palacio in Lisbon, and each of these provided not mere physical places but a journey to an altered state of being.

And then there is the hospitality company called SLOW who dares to be slow in the face of everything around us that seems to be speeding by. SLOW chooses to create places that not only creates memorable locations and does more than shift the velocity of experience, it seeks to alter a guests’ state of being. SLOW conscientiously defies conventions, and embraces the imperfect, the strange and the indigenous. 

Serdar Kutucu is the Chief Executive Officer of Slow. 

Based in Berlin, Serdar oversees the strategic & brand development as well as all operational efforts. 

Serdar was Chief Operating Officer of Design Hotels, a global hospitality brand based in Berlin. He oversaw various business units, including business & portfolio development and brand management. Serdar had joined Design Hotel in 2008 as Director of Business Development and played a vital role in shaping the company’s collection of 350 independent and design-driven member hotels – in over 60 countries.

With his deep understanding of the travel industry, gastronomy and hospitality, paired with a wealth of experience in marketing, communications and business innovation, Serdar now aims to strategically develop the Slow brand by taking a localized, conscientious approach to every element in the creation of integrated aesthetic environments that are design to enrich wellbeing and provide a model for a more sustainable future.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT CHRISTIAN DAVIES:

Christian's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/christian-davies-fcsd-3728a513

Websites: https://www.bergmeyer.com

email: cdavies@bergmeyer.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianthdavies/ 

Bio: 

Davies brings 30+ years' experience as a creative leader, working with brands across the globe, from disruptive startups to the very top Fortune 500 contenders in retail, experiential, beauty, fashion, hospitality, technology, luxury, and more. His veteran status includes over 100 national and international design awards (15 of which earned top honors for Store of the Year Awards), including a five-time winner of design:retail’s Retail Design Influencer as well as a coveted Retail Design Luminary award.  

As a Design Practice Leader for Bergmeyer, Davies will bring a thoughtful and provocative approach to leading and inspiring its teams, projects, and clients through purposeful brand identity exploration and the shaping of meaningful and memorable physical environments.

Prior to Bergmeyer, Davies served as Managing Director of the Creative Marketing Group at Verizon, Creative Vice President of Global Design and Innovation for Starbucks, Executive Creative Director of the Americas at Fitch, and Vice President/Managing Creative Director at FRCH Design Worldwide.

Also See: https://www.bergmeyer.com/people/christian-davies 

Also See: https://www.retaildive.com/press-release/20210506-from-corporate-to-collaborative-storied-industry-vet-christian-davies-join/

Articles: 

https://www.bergmeyer.com/trending/the-shock-of-the-new 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/which-way-experience-design-time-chaos-christian-davies-fcsd/ 

Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en 

On Creativity: 

See: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

See: "Creativity: Flow and The Psychology of Discovery and Invention" by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Back in the early 2000’s the International Retail Design Conference came into being. The event sponsored by VMSD magazine and STMedia Group – now owned by SmartWork Media – wasn’t your typical tradeshow. They tried booths by vendors early on and then abandoned them for a fully educational event. 

Retail industry leaders and some of the best retailers and visual merchandisers have since gathered every year – but for 2020 due to the COVID pandemic – to talk all things retail. 

There were always great presentations about projects that pushed the boundaries of retail design, awards galas, the requisite cocktails and spontaneous conversation in the hallways where ideas flowed naturally.

As a member of the VMSD Editorial Advisory Board, I have attended all but 2. 

And over the past 20+ years I recall a few speakers that simply captivated the audience. Christian Davies was a ‘standing room only’ presenter that drew crowds to hear insightful, thought provoking and slightly cheeky commentary that he seemed to get away with – perhaps because his English accent gave him some slack – but mostly because he was on target and freakishly smart.

Christian didn’t hold back. He went to the heart of the matter.

Sometimes critical, sometimes satirical and often emotional. 

Too this day frequent attendees will recall a session he presented on Compassionate Capitalism where he and the audience shared a tear over the profoundly moving actions of some global retailers who stepped beyond the bottom line and reached out in support of people in need.

I was always one of the ‘standers’ – not because I needed an easy way out if the presentation was not meeting my expectations but because people had rushed the room to be creatively inspired and challenged in their thinking.

I have worked with and competed against Christian for design gigs with national and international retailers but mostly studied him as a retail design, brand experience place-making leader who has had a career working on both sides of the line – as a design consultant and big brand retailer. Honestly, I have been at times envious but mostly admiring of him.

Christian is a visionary creative leader with over 30 years working in the retail and experiential industry across the globe. He is Skilled in Strategy, Innovation, Design and Implementation.

He gets it done.

He has amassed over a 100 international design awards working for everything from disruptive startups to the very top of the Fortune 500. 

And… he continues to be a keynote and session speaker at every major retail conference in the US. 

Christian is now the Design Practice Lead for Bergmeyer – a Boston based design firm.

A recent favorite topic for his speaking sessions these days? 

“Navigating the future in this time of seismic change.”

Love it…Right up my alley….

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

Contact Info

Eric’s Profile

linkedin.com/in/eric-schick-73b72117

Email

eric@pantheontile.com

Bio:

Eric Schick is an entrepreneur and business strategist whose passion and enthusiasm for restoring the natural environment through the built environment are palpable when you meet him. Eric’s 23 year background as co-founder and CEO of Pantheon Floor Solutions, a popular commercial tile brand specified by the architect, engineer and design community, led him to discover a variety of innovative and futuristic building technologies he has helped co-found, fund and steward. Two of the most exciting technologies are Hover Energy and Eden Green, which have both recently hit commercialization stage.

Eric recently formed the company CEED with his wife of 25 years, Elizabeth Schick, who is his partner in marriage, business and all things important in his life. “CEED” is an acronym for Consumables, Energy, Environment and Design, and CEED’s mission is to deploy distributed infrastructure technologies that are good for mankind, mother earth and the marketplace.

Eric is also a reverend, and enjoys encouraging people with the gospel to find their purpose for their life so they can share it with the world and live the abundant life.

SHOW INTRO:
It’s not often that I talk to a business owner who lives by the simple rule of growing his business in service of “MANKIND – MOTHER EARTH - and the MARKETPLACE.” This is a “triple bottom line” that keeps on repeating, over and over in my head. 

Perhaps it has become more front row center in my conscious awareness over the past couple of years because I have become more convinced that what we humans are doing to our planet, and each other, needs urgent attention.

My sons will tell me that they, at times, lose hope that what is happening now with climate change will mean that the planet is unsave-able. This was never a consideration when I was growing up. I grew up in a world where plastics were a savior – think the joy of Tupperware parties and how plastics would revolutionize almost everything. 

Plastics, another use for the black gold buried deep in the core of our little blue dot spinning around one of the billions of stars in the universe. Plastics also form a floating island growing to be twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. It is estimated that the mass of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) was estimated to be approximately 80,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to that of 500 Jumbo Jets.

Let that sit for a moment. 

Our relationship with our planet is broken.

And we can’t simply do what has been on the rise for years in marriages and divorce it. As far as we know, and despite some brilliant thinking and creative and brilliant engineering and visionary leadership, we are still a number of years away from getting off Mother Earth and colonizing Mars. 

And, what a tragedy to simply suck this planet dry of natural resources and leave the scorched earth to maybe do the same somewhere else. Divorcing our planet is not an option.

My guest on this episode of NXTLVL Experience Design believes that “Right now we are suffering from bad relationship” – with the earth, each other.” 

Energy and food production are part of the complex system that is contributing to our planet literally being on fire. We have got to have our “Come to Jesus moment” with climate change and not rely on teenagers like Greta Thunberg  (God bless her) to be ringing the alarm. Generations prior to Greta and my Sons’, have made the mess, and we can’t avoid the responsibility for cleaning it up. Corporations have to up their game in producing clean energy solutions, reducing waste to landfills and the food production industry must look for sustainable solutions to not pumping more carbon into the atmosphere.

I use the ‘come to Jesus’ phrase because it is time but also because my guest on this episode is a business owner, investor, philanthropist, and Reverend.

Erik Schick has a mission of “Restoring the environment through the built environment.” He knows that a good deal of the damage being done to our planet’s ecology is from the building industry. Building buildings, and operating them, puts a lot of carbon into the atmosphere. And so, Eric believes that “Wherever we create an economic impact we have to leave a social footprint.” 

Eric’s 23-year history as founder and CEO of Pantheon Floor Solutions led him to discover a variety of innovative and futuristic building technologies he has helped co-found, fund and steward. Two of the most exciting technologies that we will talk about are Hover Energy and Eden Green, which have both recently hit commercialization stage. 

Eric recently formed the company CEED with his wife of 25 years, Elizabeth Schick, who is his partner in marriage, business and all things important in his life. “CEED” is an acronym for “Consumables, Energy, Environment and Design.”

CEED’s mission is to deploy distributed infrastructure technologies that are good for mankind, mother earth and the marketplace. There is the mantra: do good for - mankind- mother earth and the marketplace.

A note to our listeners about this episode:

This conversation with Eric Schick is powerful and inspiring. 

It is also challenging at times because we talk about some of Eric’s work while on a medical mission trip to Romania during the revolution and El Salvador where atrocious acts of violence were being committed. So, I feel I need to let you know that some listeners may find this particular content during the episode disturbing. 

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

Contact Info

Vince’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/vince-kadlubek

Email: vince@meowwolf.com

Website: https://meowwolf.com 

Twitter: @VKadlubek 

Vince Kadlubek Bio:

Vince Kadlubek is a Founder of Meow Wolf, an art collective that has transformed into an award winning Art and Entertainment Production Company that specializes in immersive, open-world walk through experiences. Vince acted as leader and CEO for Meow Wolf though its formidable years, having created the business plan for Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return and leading the team towards the project's completion in March of 2016. In January of 2017 Kadlubek formed Meow Wolf, Inc as a full fledged arts production company and creative studio positioned to create the largest, most innovative and audacious monumental art exhibits in the world. After raising series A funding he announced two new Meow Wolf exhibits in Las Vegas and Denver, opening in 2021. Kadlubek has been a force of vision in the realm of experiential art, and in 2020 launched a creative consulting agency called Spatial Activations as a platform to usher in a new era of experiential art in modern developments and everyday life. Vince is most passionate about co-creating fully-realized alternative realities that bring paradigm-shifting transformation and inspiration to the world.

Show Intro:

I have been fascinated with immersive experiences for years. Since studying architecture and sitting in on History Theory classes taught by Alberto Perez Gomez at Mc Gill University in the 80’s, I have deeply believed that there is a profound experiential difference between directly participating in ‘rituals’ rather than doing so at arm’s length, as a 3rd person observer.

I think we have lost the connection to significant rituals over the years. 

We don’t dance around the fire, stamping out patterns that bring into being place through the markings of our feet in the dust. 

The embodied enactment of rituals created context and meaning from our experiences. We came to better understand who we were in relationship to our community, culture, nation and cosmos through directly participating in the experience – the ritual enactment. Even now when we do go to church, synagogue or the mosque, to public events, musical productions, and movies, we observe more than we physically participate. 

When we do participate in an embodied way, time and space collapse. 

New constructs emerge. We create a crucible for experience, and we are changed, certainly for the duration of the ritual, but perhaps long afterwards as well. 

We have become a culture of watchers – be it watchers of TV, social media feeds, sports, entertainment or standing behind a red velvet stanchion at the museum and being ushered along past the Mona Lisa. In many ways, art, and our experience of it, has become a thing to view, at a distance, not something to directly participate in, to make.

In making art we express our collective need for self-validation. Art is an expression of who we are, at a very profound level.

It provides a sense of agency and empowerment of bringing things into being that have not been there before. 

We are Homo Faber – Man the Maker as well as we are Homo Sapiens – Man the Wise. We are not unique among the creatures of the planet in that we make things, but we are unique in that the things we make, make other things. And, the things we make are often done for the purpose of conveying concepts, ideologies and emotion – to make others feel something.

Another idea that we dig into in this episode about is it ‘the unknown’ and how we deal with the ambiguity and uncertainty of what has not yet come to pass. 

Within the context of the recent global pandemic this issue has been particularly acute in my mind as pathways and strategies for moving into my future, that believed were thoughtfully crafted and reliable, became immaterial and largely uncertain. 

What I thought was going to be course, changed and I found myself, over this past 20 months, looking into the idea of change, how we adapt to it, how it's transforming the world around us, our ability to remain resilient in the face of it and how we navigate this space of the unknown and consider it less foreboding and more an opportunity for creative possibility.

For many being in a constant state of change can be incredibly unnerving. We don't like it. 

It makes us feel uncomfortable and often, we would rather it not happen, but here's the thing, change doesn't much care if you're uncomfortable. It keeps moving on, along an exponential path that is rocketing skyward.

The unfamiliar signals potential danger and our biology is geared to sounding the alarms when the unfamiliar lurks near the edge of uncertainty. The paradox is that we both seek to avoid the perceived danger of the unknown while being driven toward the novel and unexpected because that is where learning lives. And so we slip into nostalgia remembering the good old times because it delivers a cozy sense of familiarity. On the other hand, change and the unknown is at the root of our shared neurobiology - our brains are made for change. We are incredibly adept at picking up even the slightest changes in our environment relationships and experiences because it has been built into us as a survival mechanism. To quickly attend to that which is the unknown to determine friend or foe. Whether we would be lunch or have lunch.

Enter Vince Kadlubek and Meow Wolf.

Vince is undeterred by the unknown. In fact, he finds stepping into the unknown unnecessary component for understanding himself, his context and how art can be transformative. 

Vince Kadlubek is a Founder of Meow Wolf, an art collective that has transformed into an award-winning Art and Entertainment Production Company that specializes in immersive, open-world walk through experiences. 

Vince acted as leader and CEO for Meow Wolf though its formidable years, having created the business plan for Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return and leading the team towards the project's completion in March of 2016. 

In January of 2017 Kadlubek formed Meow Wolf, Inc as a full-fledged arts production company and creative studio positioned to create the largest, most innovative and audacious monumental art exhibits in the world. 

After raising series A funding he announced two new Meow Wolf exhibits in Las Vegas and Denver, opening in 2021. 

Kadlubek has been a force of vision in the realm of experiential art, and in 2020 launched a creative consulting agency called Spatial Activations as a platform to usher in a new era of experiential art in modern developments and everyday life. 

Vince is most passionate about co-creating fully-realized alternative realities that bring paradigm-shifting transformation and inspiration to the world.

Meow Wolf’s mission?

…TO INSPIRE CREATIVITY THROUGH ART, EXPLORATION, AND PLAY SO THAT IMAGINATION WILL TRANSFORM THE WORLD…

Vince Kadlubek likes the unknown and he sees Meow Wolf as a place of exploration where people can for an hour or two lose themselves and enter the world of creative imagination to perhaps find something that they've always been looking for.

And with that, I welcome Vince Kadlubek, Founder and Director to the show…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

Sara’s Profile:

linkedin.com/in/sara-duffy-79b43617

website: https://stonehilltaylor.com 

email: sduffy@stonehilltaylor.com

Bio:

Sara Duffy graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and received her Associate of Applied Science in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. With a background in art history and television, Sara crafts a unique, immersive narrative for each of her projects with a focus on thoughtful, classic design. Her impressive variety of projects includes the Nomad Hotel and Bar in New York and its re-iteration in Las Vegas, the J.W. Marriott Nashville, and the iconic TWA Hotel at JFK Airport’s historic TWA Flight Center. She has worked with renowned hospitality developers such as the Sydell Group, Eleven Madison Park’s Chef Daniel Humm and Will Guidara, Marriott International, Turnberry Associates, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

Show Intro:

The Algonquin Hotel in New York was opened in 1902. Stories abound of the guests that stayed there and the fabled “Round Table” around which literary luminaries met daily to talk about all thing literature.

The TWA terminal designed by the masterful architect Eero Sarinen opened in 1962 and has a history of its own aside from the groundbreaking design that made it an icon of the era.

The Marriott Marquis in Time Square New York was the work of architect John Portman who created monumental interiors in concrete. The hotel's construction was first disclosed on November 3, 1972, and opened a little over ten years later.

These projects have stood the test of time but been reinvigorated with major renovations in the past couple of years to bring them into a new era of hospitality that caters to an evolving cohort of travelers. 

It’s no small thing to take a building and breath new life into it while not diminishing their cultural significance. Making them more effective in meeting the new need of guests while also paying due respect to the architects and histories they have lived has a plethora of challenges. 

Consultant teams can be as large as 100 different organizations, each with a specific mandate and areas of work. Building methodologies have changes, codes and regulations are stricter, materials and furniture options have proliferated. All of this adds to the challenge. And, when considering big design changes, board rooms are filled with questions like, “can we actually do that?”, “Should we do that”” “what message are we sending if we do that?”

Sara Duffy is a principal at the hospitality focused design firm of Stonehill Taylor. Sara Duffy graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and received her Associate of Applied Science in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. With a background in art history and television, Sara crafts a unique, immersive narrative for each of her projects with a focus on thoughtful, classic design.

It is perhaps not so surprising that she was charged with playing a prominent role in leading the Algonquin, TWA, and Marriott Marquis projects through their revitalization bringing their stories from the past to the present.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

ABOUT YORAM ROTH:

Yoram’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/yoramroth

websites:

yoramroth.com  (Personal Website)

cultureworks.com  (Company Website)

fotografiska.com  (Company Website)

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yoramroth 

Instagram: yoram_roth

LinkedIn Article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/looming-arms-race-cultural-experience-economy-yoram-roth/?trackingId=awEYFGPlTHShS8wDRg1OqQ%3D%3D 

Email: yoram.roth@cultureworks.com

BIO:

Executive Chairman: CultureWorks is the holding company, management and development platform for culture, experience and hospitality brands. Fotografiska is redefining the modern museum experience. NeueHouse is the place where culture works. Through Clärchens Ballhaus I am bringing a 19th century jewel with strong traditions into the 21st century. As a cultural investor I believe that community matters, and culture works. Artist on Sabbatical, father to three young men.

SHOW INTRO:

Art and culture are connected in an intimate dance. Art, it could be said, is an expression of culture, and it’s kaleidoscopic manifestations are emblematic of the subsets of ideologies adopted by likeminded members of communities. 

Art, in its myriad forms, comes to represent the meaning of experience and the values communities share. 

Art challenges us. It poses questions and it seeks answers. 

Art and design is all around us. 

As we shape the world through art, architecture and design, it shapes us back. We both make and are made by the things we create. 

In a digitally enabled world, we are increasingly exposed to a plethora of images we both make and share that shape our experience and understanding of the world.

The ubiquity and democratization of the image equally suggests a need for greater visual literacy – a common lexicon for understanding and discussing the power of images and the relationship to culture and community building.

Museums have a role to play, and there has been a movement to providing cultural experiences beyond the white wall for the past 40 some years. Traditional museum formats face challenges with the emergence of more immersive experiences that can be extraordinary. 

According to Yoram Roth – Executive Chairman of Fotografiska | NeueHouse and the newly formed Culture Works, “…Over the last ten years, there has been a substantial growth of “culture as an experience.” For Roth, “Culture Matters. And, Culture Works.”

He suggests that “…The most recent development is driven by artists and collectives creating site-specific immersive cultural experiences that reside on a spectrum between fine art and the spectacular…” 

Yoram Roth is on a mission to build a global cultural business and reinvent the museum experience for the modern world. He takes on this challenge with the awareness that there is as he has recently outlined in an article posted to LinkedIn, a “Looming Arms Race in the Cultural Experience Economy.” 

In this well referenced piece, Yoramoutlines some of the inherent complexities of building a global cultural business within the context of an experience-seeking-consumer-world that is deeply immersed in the making of digitally-based images. 

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

About Tracy,

Tracy Lee’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/tracyleestum

Website: tracyleestum.com  

Email: info@tracyleestum.com

Twitter: tracyleestum

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyleestum/ 

Tracy's Bio:

Tracy Lee Stumis an American artist best known for her 3D street paintings orchalkdrawings. 

She at one point held the Guinness World Record for the Largest Chalk Painting by an Individual.[1]

Tracy Lee Stum began drawing as soon as she could clutch a crayon. She studied privately as a child and earned a bachelor's degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She continued her studies in naturalism at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy.

A gregarious graffiti lover, Tracy began street painting in 1998 and is considered by Madonnari peers, festival directors and viewers alike as one of the finest street painters today.  Known for splashing color in festivals and events in all corners and crevices of the globe, her paintings have won numerous awards & accolades – her only regret is that her masterpieces rarely fit on the fridge.

In 2006 Tracy added the Guinness World Record to her collection of vinyl for the largest street painting by an individual.  

In 2013 she was honored to be a contributor on the Cannes Gold Lion award-winning team for their work in the now iconic Honda CRV commercial.

Experienced in multi-city campaigns for such clients as Cadillac, SoBe, and Dos Equis, Tracy is continually creating commissioned 3D and 4D works in chalk for advertising, public and private events, corporate PR and educational sectors. 

Her international team building skills have been utilized in developing street painting festivals in China, Mexico, India, Russia and throughout the United States.  Her art travels well and is always up to date on all of its shots.

Tracy has been privileged and honored to serve as the US State Department's 2012 cultural ambassador.  

She's toured Tajikistan and India creating 3D street paintings and teaching workshops at distinguished universities and art colleges to promote education, awareness and positive cross-cultural communication.

In 2013 Tracy put on clean pants and stepped effortlessly into management as she curated the first annual DO/AC 3D Chalk Festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey, showcasing 14 renowned international 3D street art & chalk artists.

Tracy's chalk conversations speak to her vast audience with imagination, beauty and playfulness – often with a thick Italian accent.

Show Intro:

When was a kid, I loved going to the mall when they had artists exhibitions. I could watch for hours as artist of all stripes created magic in front of passersby. I was mesmerized as the sweep of a had could create a deep forest with a shaft of light cutting through the green, a galloping horse, or a crowded street scene.

When living in New York and the Philadelphia area I marveled at the graffiti artists whose mural paintings stretched the full height of buildings. Not only was I awestruck with the subject matter but the sheer size of these creations always left me wondering …How do they do that?

I remember going to a Bougereau exhibit in Montreal where the paintings were huge and seeing the Night’s Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and being transfixed as people jostled for position all around me.

A few years ago, I started tuning into street art where skilled painters would use chalk to create masterful illusions of 3 dimensions on the pavement. These works, when viewed from a specific place, seemed to magically transform the warped image into a 3D experience into which you could place yourself. 

I have spent years teaching perspective drawing where the size of the image fits on a drafting table. This took perspective to a whole new level for me.

Tracy Lee Stum is an American artist best known for her 3D street paintings made with chalk. At one point, she held the Guinness World Record for the Largest Chalk Painting by an Individual.[1]

She began drawing as soon as she could clutch a crayon. She studied privately as a child and earned a bachelor's degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She continued her studies in naturalism at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy.

A gregarious graffiti lover, Tracy began street painting in 1998 and is considered by festival directors and viewers alike as one of the finest street painters today.  

In 2013 she was honored to be a contributor on the Cannes Gold Lion award-winning team for work on the iconic Honda CRV commercial and is she continually creating commissioned 3D and 4D works in chalk for advertising, public and private events, corporate PR and educational sectors. 

Tracy has travelled the world creating beautiful street art and been privileged and honored to serve as the US State Department's 2012 cultural ambassador teaching workshops at distinguished universities and art colleges to promote education, awareness and positive cross-cultural communication.

We share a love of art and making paintings, though mine are still on canvas resting on an easel, and I am delighted to have Tracy share her passion and craft with us.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

About Danny Forster:

Danny’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/danny-forster-4544b23

Email: danny@dannyforster.com

Twitter: dannyforster

Website: https://www.dannyforster.com 

Bio:

Architect. TV host. Producer. Director. Speaker. Professor. Danny Forster is all these things, and through them all he has become a global advocate for architecture. The field of architecture may not appear to need much help: buildings surround us. But that very ubiquity has made it almost invisible; we move in and around buildings but barely notice them. Through his persistent and passionate advocacy, Danny gets people to notice, understand, and value the built environment.

This quest began when Danny was hired, while still pursuing his master’s in architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, to host a television show about impressive feats of construction and engineering. The show would become Build It Bigger, one of Discovery Channel’s most popular series, and run for nine seasons, during which Danny traveled to more than fifty countries, exploring everything from record-breaking skyscrapers to cutting-edge sports stadiums, from airports to tunnels to impossibly long bridges. Besides offering a matchless education for an aspiring architect, Build It Bigger taught Danny how to talk about architecture so an audience wouldn’t just understand how and why a building was designed a certain way, it would care. The key was inviting them inside the process–not just saying what’s important, but showing them in concrete and engaging ways.

For inquiries regarding film and television work, please contact Danny’s agent at William Morris Endeavor, Jim Ornstein: JOrnstein@WMEentertainment.com.

For domestic speaking engagements, contact Julie Leventhal: JLeventhal@wmeentertainment.com.

For international speaking engagements, contact Hugo Chittenden at The London Speaker Bureau: hugo@londonspeakerbureau.com.

To purchase Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero, click here. To purchase episodes on iTunes, click here.

To watch selected episodes of Build It Bigger, click here. To purchase episodes on Amazon, click here. To purchase episodes on iTunes, click here.

Show INTRO:

Architecture is pretty complex and despite the fact that we spend most of our days inside buildings, I would hazard a guess that not many people know how great architecture actually comes into being.

After a number of years in university programs and then internships, architects follow years of practice. It said that architecture one of those professions that takes a long time to really begin to flourish.      

The great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim museum in New York late in his career and it opened six months before, Wright died at the age of 92.

With buildings all around us, some of which we pass by every day not paying them any concern, where do we go to find out what it really takes to make great buildings or why they should be particularly interesting in the first place?

Well, you could go to books, movies or even podcasts like this one. Or you might also tune into television shows whose purpose it is to bring some of the great buildings of the world into your living room.

By some way of unscripted serendipity, my guest on today's show did exactly that. 

As a student in the Graduate School of architecture at Harvard University Danny Forster was exhausted and looking to, as he explains, “run away from architecture.” In a strange twist of fate, he landed a job as the host of one of Discovery Channel’s most successful shows.

Build It Bigger ran for nine seasons  and became the highest rated show on the Science Channel, and won a 2010 Directors Guild of America Award.[8] The show took Forster and a camera crew around the world to investigate pioneering architectural and engineering projects, and put them in cultural, historical, and environmental context.

Through his persistent and passionate advocacy, Danny gets people to notice, understand, and value the built environment.

Besides offering a great education for an aspiring architect, Build It Bigger taught Danny how to talk about architecture so an audience wouldn’t just understand how and why a building was designed a certain way, it would care.

Danny Forster ‘ran away from architecture’ to find he could bring architecture home to all of us.

Today he wants us to care as much as he does about buildings and the effect it is having on our planet.

Danny has put a spotlight on modular building and has partnered with MiTek Inc., a construction company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, on something called the Modular Activation Platform, a system designed to clear away some of the obstacles to widespread modular construction.

Danny Forster is a multi-hyphenate creative spirit who believes that any modest progressive change to the building industry towards modular construction would be a paradigm shift for our planet.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

About Dorothy Di Stefano:

Dorothy’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/immersivedigitalexperiencespecialist

Website: moltenimmersiveart.com  (Digital Immersive Experiences)

Email: dorothy@moltenimmersiveart.com

Twitter: MoltenImmersive

Global thought leader, speaker, creative strategist, founder and director of Molten Immersive Art, Dorothy Di Stefano leads an international collective of experiential artists who create large-scale, site-specific, digital immersive experiences. As an ambassador for the arts, Dorothy sits on many cultural committees and is a Founding Circle Member of the World Experience Organization (UK) a Visual Arts Committee Member of the Della Leaders Club (NYC Chapter), Director of Research – Immersive Arts for the Digital Placemaking Institute and an International Partner on the Global Science, Technology and Innovation Committee for the World Business Angels Investment Forum (Istanbul).

She was the only Australian representative on the 'Experiential Design' judging panel for the prestigious ADC 99th Annual Awards in New York and was awarded LinkedIn's Top Voice for 2019.

Show Intro:

Art, be it analogue – created in the real 3d world - or digital - created in the virtual world of data and algorithms - is part of who we are. For millennia, art has told the stories of our lives. It has recorded our human condition and served as an expression of culture, of ideas and helped to give context and meaning to our often unpredictable lives in an seemingly chaotic world. We are equally Homo Faber – Man the maker as we are Homo Sapiens – Man the wise.

Art is powerful because it is empowering. In making things we share life energy with the objects of our creation. The lump of clay is just a lump of clay until the sculptor touches it transferring energy from the hand to the malleable mass. 

Bringing things to life, as if by some form of alchemy, artists make magic and meaning. They become connected to world of their inner selves and the things of their creation which by bringing them into being also become part of who they are - a true expression of being relevant in this world.

Artforms have transformed over the ages with technologies changing the media used in artistic expression. We have moved from pigments to pixels and the way environments can now be created digitally is  the way people experience art.

On this episode of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast my guest is Dorothy Di Stefano – Dorothy is a Global thought leader, speaker, creative strategist, founder and director of Molten Immersive Art where she leads an international collective of experiential artists who create large-scale, site-specific, digital immersive experiences. 

As an ambassador for the arts, Dorothy sits on many cultural committees and is a Founding Circle Member of the World Experience Organization (UK), a Visual Arts Committee Member of the Della Leaders Club (NYC Chapter) and the Director of Research of Immersive Arts for the Digital Placemaking Institute.

She is extraordinarily active on social media platforms like LinkedIn – where she was selected as one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in 2019 - and on Instagram where she wields the power of the image in showcasing arts of all kinds from around the globe.

I have followed her for some time now and look forward to her content because I both learn about who’s doing amazing things in the art world and because I am inspired by the artistic magic-making of human kind. I look to Dorothy’s posts because they are an elixir to the mundane and provide hope in our human potential to change the world through the arts.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

About Peter Dixon:

Peter’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/peter-dixon-b73ba98

Website: prohpet.com  (Company Website)

email: pdixon@prophet.com

Peter Dixon Bio:

Peter brings his clients a unique blend of perspectives as an architect, designer and brand consultant. It translates into an imaginative take on branding, customer experience and retail innovation, expressed in both high-level thinking and visual, verbal and spatial representations.

Peter’s award-winning programs have spanned all areas of the brand experience, ranging from brand strategy development to prototype design, customer experience concepts and merchandising approaches. He has worked for such notable clients as BMW, Citibank, ConocoPhillips, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Delta Airlines, Emart, Fiat Chrysler, Mayo Clinic, McDonalds, Nissan, Sprint, Samsung, United Airlines, United Health Group and Walmart.

Peter helped lead the consulting team on Walmart’s new brand strategy, including its new visual identity and store experience concepts. He also was instrumental in designing Nissan Motors' new dealership concept being implemented worldwide, and a new dealership design for its Infiniti brand. He led the team designing a new customer experience for Delta Airlines. And for McDonald’s, he directed the development of a revitalized restaurant concept being executed across the U.S. and many parts of the world.

Peter is a popular public speaker and has been tapped as a source by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, Newsweek, Visual Merchandising & Store Design, Convenience Store News and Advertising Age.

He serves on the editorial board of VM+SD magazine, and is a past national president of the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD). He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Texas.

Show Intro:

Do you have brands you love?

Do you always get the same detergent, toothpaste, only shop in a certain store. Do you choose on car, hotel, liquor or restaurant over another.

With so many options in the shopping world how do we choose?

Well…we adopt brands into our lives because they do what there are supposed to do. They clean your clothes, make your teeth whiter, make you feel safe and or powerful behind the wheel or they deliver impeccable service and they are reliable. 

But more than that, they create a relationship with us. 

For my guest on this episode of NXTLVL Experience Design the 'Brand' is about the relationship and 'Branding' is all of the stuff that you do like creating logos, store environments, digital experiences and more.
Brand-ing brings brands to life. In creating brands, you are bringing ideas and values to life. 

Peter Dixon is the Chief Creative Officer at Prophet, a globally recognized branding agency that combines insight, creativity, data and technology to help their clients to unlock growth that is human centered, transformative and durable. 

Peter brings his clients a unique blend of perspectives as an engineer, an architect, designer and brand consultant. It translates into an imaginative take on branding, customer experience and retail innovation, expressed in both high-level thinking and visual, verbal and spatial representations of places the brands want you to be in and buy from.

He has worked for such notable clients as BMW, Citibank, Delta Airlines,  Fiat Chrysler, Mayo Clinic, McDonalds, Nissan, Sprint, Samsung, United Airlines, and Walmart.

He is is a popular public speaker and has been tapped as a source by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, Newsweek, Visual Merchandising & Store Design, Convenience Store News and Advertising Age to share his insight on what makes great brands.

He serves on the editorial board of VM+SD magazine, and is a past national president of the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD). 

He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Texas.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: 

https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. 

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. 

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. 

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. 

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. 

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.