With more than 20 years in marketing, brand strategy and events, Kim is known as one of the world’s leading design thinkers, thought leaders, innovation activist and brand storytellers. He has a unique combination of strategic, creative, commercial and international experience which has earned him industry-wide recognition as an expert in integrated engagement marketing and live and online brand experience. He is often quoted in business and trade publications and is a frequent speaker at industry events.
Kim has held Managing Director positions with some of the world’s leading experience marketing agencies including George P. Johnson, FreemanXP and MCI Experience. In 2020 Kim launched Experience Designed, a strategic advisory and creative ideas generator that applies a new purpose-led design approach to create more immersive, engaging and transformative brand experience strategies across live and online channels.
- How long have you worked in the events industry and what keeps you interested in it?
I’ve been in the brand experience business for more than 25 years. I believe that well designed human experience can be a powerful force for positive change. - Best (and worst?) moments working in the events industry?
Best moments have been having the opportunity to work with some of the worlds most innovative brands to re-imagine how events are designed and delivered – worst moments have been working with event planners who think they’ve been there done that, know everything and resist change. - What was the last event on which you worked?
Well for the last 12 months of so, most of activity has been virtual – we have developed a unique virtual workshop-based ‘Hackathon’ experiences to enable our clients to apply human centered design principals to reimagine brand strategies. - From your experience, what’s the best way to utilise tech at an event?
The recent developments in virtual event technology, largely driven by the Covid-19 Epidemic, has finally enabled some really creative and innovative online experiences. As an industry we need to acknowledge that virtual and hybrid events and the technologies that support these capabilities will now continue to offer amazing experiences and positive benefits. Online events can reach larger, more diverse audiences, at lower costs, offer extraordinary content experiences, and generate better insights into audience behaviour than live events ever could. We are already seeing growing demand for event content with higher production values leveraging expertise in television production and storytelling techniques, and the creative use of video, VR, gamification and enhanced online networking and community building are now being applied to engage, entertain and thrill virtual and hybrid audiences. There will be no turning back to the kinds of live only experiences we were offered before these virtual events technologies existed, and the ability to create compelling hybrid experiences will only continue to grow. - We all learn from our mistakes! What was the biggest lesson you learned from a mistake since being in the industry?
Biggest mistake – believing that event organisers actually knew what attendees needed. The reality is that event organisers have mostly prioritised their financial business models over meeting the needs of their event audiences. - What are you most looking forward to at Event Tech Live?
Interesting content from some of the new technology solutions providers and opportunity to make new contacts. - What do events, such as ETL, mean to you?
A chance for the events industry to catch up on emerging technologies and explore the new opportunities these technology can enable. - What can our delegates expect to take away from your session at ETL?
A recognition that event technology is here to stay and that we are only in the early stages of development – the future potential for technology to completely transform human experience is exciting. - Which one piece of tech couldn’t you live without?
iPhone. - Most pointless tech you have purchased?
Mario Kart Live
Join Kim for his session: Experience Design in a Hybrid Event Future
at ETL US & Canada on June 8th on the Omni Stage – Book your ticket here
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