The @NanoLumens Summerfest ‘Story Telling Through Technology’
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Here’s the on-camera interview we did with James Keppel (in the centre of the below video) and Ed King (camera right in the below video) at the NanoLumens Summerfest, held coincidentally during #InfoComm18.
Ed King is Co-Founder, HighStreet, A Retail Experience Collective and a well-known and well-respected retail guru. Ed told us “I’m on the side of humans. I’ve become a lifelong student of their tendencies, their behaviors and their brains. I believe in the art AND science of storytelling. I believe in the power of nurturing an innovation mindset, and in truly understanding how and why human beings behave the way they do”. HighStreet’s specialties include customer experience, innovating technology, retail, shopping strategy, hospitality, mobile, digital strategy, content development, consulting, brand strategy, customer retention and customer loyalty. He and his business partner Laura Davis-Taylor are some of the best at speaking and presenting on the topic of retail and they’re regularly on our list of must-hear speakers.
James Keppel creates guest experiences for places where people gather, socialise, and participate. He’s based in the San Francisco Bay Area and describes himself as an entrepreneur, a designer, and a seasoned orchestrator of complex projects. He likes to say “The band plays the music. I play the band”.
A couple of his signature projects include Apple Park in Cupertino, California, San Francisco’s Exploratorium, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Zoo, Guadalupe River Park & Gardens in San Jose, California, Westfield San Francisco Centre, and the San Jose Arena (Compaq Center/HP Pavilion/SAP Center).
As a former member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD) and a regular contributor to the SEGD publication Messages, he’s spoken at the national conference several times, focusing on the process of developing and implementing complex architectural and EGD programs.
James has a new book in the works, ‘See You Soon’ will be his thoughts about making places people love.
NanoLumens Vice President of Global Marketing Joe’ Lloyd who kindly arranged the event told us, “It was a killer event with over 160 in attendance. Customer engagement, in all of its many and varied forms, increasingly involves story telling through the filter of integrated audiovisual experiences that form a stronger bond between the teller and the audience. Ed and James are two of the most forward-looking technology visionaries at work in the industry today and their insights into the technologies that are shaping our future certainly stimulated a lively and engaging conversation.”
In the video interview Ed King emphasised that “We are hyper-focused on removing friction and innovating the in-store shopping experience for today’s shopper. Thanks to technology and ecommerce, shoppers’ expectations continue to rise, while the rate of innovation at retail has lagged behind. Serving retailers and service providers alike, HighStreet helps close this ‘experience gap’ by giving shoppers meaningful reasons to come back into the store”.
James stressed that “My role in the universe is to shape how people experience places through urban planning, architecture, experiential graphics, placemaking, digital signage, brand design, technology, and almost everything in between” and gave some great examples of where that is happening, being a European and a soccer / sports fan we particularly liked his point that Europe is doing a better job in keeping its heritage and upgrading and improving as opposed to the (seemingly) American way of knocking down old stadiums and putting up new!
Long may NanoLumens keep using their Las Vegas Visualization Studio for innovative events such as this!
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