More About the Sessions:
AROUND THE WORLD IN 48 HOURS
Online 7 Experiences Summit 2025, September 29–30
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
An online unconference session with experts from 7 Experiences Summit in 2023 sharing their successful collaborations (NZ and the USA).
First hour: Insights from the Insiders (Presentation)
Second Hour: Unlocking the Unconference Topics
Third Hour: Sandbox Hour (Where collaborators get together to play or experience with new ideas)
Tongji University, China
The Shanghai session will be structured as a 2-hour program, combining
- one keynote lecture by a leading expert in the field
- five presentations from diverse academic backgrounds.
The session will highlight the methodological, ethical, and pedagogical dimensions of introspective methods, especially autoethnography.
LAB University of Applied Sciences, Finland
In our session, we are exhibiting and hosting a discussion about how traditional design disciplines, such as industrial design, interior architecture, visual communication, fine arts, and photography, function as the central medium of transformational experiences, undertaking significant changes in the future.
- Our keynote, “Living on a finite Planet—What is the shape of Design in future transitions?” concentrates on design for the future and opens the discussion on how design and art practice shape experiences.
- We plan to showcase art installations offering different perspectives of experience production through art and design.
- We are keen to host a research paper session related to the design of a future topic.
University of Oulu, Finland
- Our experts in phenomenological experience research (PhenEx) at the University of Oulu will arrange the roundtable discussion “Change in shared experience” with invited experts from our partners. PhenEx members include Teemu Suorsa, Anna Suorsa, Katja Castillo, and myself.
- The University of Lapland will arrange the on-site streaming session “Eco-phenomenology in Lapland Winter Park” from the Arctic Circle; see full description below. Their contacts are Anna-Emilia Haapakoski and Emily Höckert.
- We will keep open a slot for research presentations on phenomenological experience research on the theme of change from around the world.
University of Lapland: Eco-phenomenology in Lapland Winter Park
For this session we will wonder to Ollerovaara forest to explore a “fairy trail”. The fairy trail was initially a student production of experience design for Lapland Winter Park, a new-found tourism company, to bring forth the stories of the forest area they occupy. Ollerovaara is located near the city of Rovaniemi, famously known as the official hometown of Santa Claus. During the session we will discuss the role of storytelling in designing experiences, both for tourist enjoyment but by larger in fabricating social imagination. Situating ourselves in this forest, by actually sitting on the ground for the session, we’ll be highlighting the phenomenological idea of the centrality of experience, in research and in design. Simultaneously we aim to demonstrate phenomenology’s need to engage in an ecological self-evaluation and to root out anthropocentric assumptions embedded in our scientific methodologies and reasoning. Revisiting beliefs central to the Western philosophical tradition, we will use eco-phenomenological thought and situated imagination to approach environmental concerns and resolutions through slowing down.
Change for an ecological way of living is officially on the global agenda. Most of today’s policy problems such as deforestation and the inequities in rights and benefits from natural resources are deeply rooted in historical processes and tied to organisational patterns of the contemporary society. Thus, slowing down to reexperience and rewrite relations of the natural world towards desired futures seems timely. We argue that slowing down allows for the required space for reflexivity outside the patterns of mundane and thus to being receptive for different ideas of how we might present ecological thoughts.
We invite you to accompany us on these trails of thought towards new kinds of collaborations between phenomenologists, ecologically-minded theorists, experience researchers and designers. The session will be streamed live from the Lapland Winter Park where we hope to be able to share the Finnish forest experience momentarily around the world.
Multidimensional Tourism Institute at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@MTILapland/videos
Intra-living in the Anthropocene at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@ilarctic7428
University of Pretoria, South Africa
TBA
Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile
This two-hour session will explore changes in experience research from the perspectives of participants. Given that changes in South America differ from those in other parts of the world, we will invite researchers from various countries to discuss recent developments in the field. The session will be conducted in Spanish, as there have been fewer discussions in Spanish compared to English. As an outcome, we will produce a brief report in both Spanish and English to share with the EXPRESSO community.
The main topic of discussion will be the evolution of experience research over the past five years within the design field, focusing on perspectives from universities. We will also examine the connection between academia and the public and private sectors. The primary goal of this discussion is to understand the differences among Latin American countries in how they approach experience research and to provide insights on how academia can strengthen its connection with both the public and private sectors.
California Polytechnic State University, US
The session will feature:
- A keynote speech (20 mins): Dr. Sandy Shen, Director of the Experience Innovation Lab at Cal Poly will provide insights into objective measurement and technology-driven transformations in experience industry management.
- Three research presentations (45 mins): showcasing cutting-edge applications of eye tracking, skin conductance sensors, and service robots in experience research.
- An industry segment presentation (40 mins): George P. Johnson, the world’s leading strategic experience marketing agency will highlight real-world applications of technologies in designing and managing experiences.
- A multidisciplinary panel discussion (45 mins): Professors from Computer Science, Graphic Communication, and Experience Industry Management at Cal Poly will engage in a forward-looking conversation on the future and impacts of technology in experience design.
Check out their Experience Innovation Lab! https://www.eilcalpoly.org/
Brigham Young University, US
Our session will focus on changes in experience offerings guided by applied experience research. We would plan to have one keynote, one or more simultaneous workshops, and one or more simultaneous research sessions.
