Next week is the Global Association of Customer Engagement Professional’s Spring Conference. A few hundred professionals dedicated to providing world-class customer experiences will converge on Austin to share best practices, network, and learn about new innovative methods of engaging customers. I always look forward to connecting at this conference because the conversations revolve around impact and outcomes as opposed to inputs and outputs.

The member companies in this association focus on place-based experiences in Executive Briefing Centers, (EBCs), where they invite their most important customers to visit, connect, and collaborate on where they may be able to help them achieve their goals. Customers who visit these centers leave with a deeper understanding of their business problems, potential solutions, and enhanced relationships with the partners that can help drive progress.

Why are these centers so effective? Let’s look at 3 reasons I believe EBC’s move the needle for the companies that invest the time, effort, and money to build and operate them.

The Experience Economy is REAL

You can stream Taylor Swift on Spotify for a few dollars a month, yet the biggest concert phenomenon of the last 20 years is arguably The Eras Tour, and people can’t even talk about a concert venue today without mentioning U2 or The Grateful Dead experiences at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

The experience economy is in full swing, and the pent up demand for compelling, in-person experiences expands beyond entertainment and into all the facets of our lives, including work.

In an increasingly digital first, video conference-centered business world, place based experiences stand out. They leverage environments engineered to build trust, increase awareness, demonstrate relevance, and create a compelling call to action. Place based experiences help eliminate distractions and create focus, minimizing the noise from the outside world and propelling those in search of solutions towards the desired result.

These environments blend storytelling, architecture, technology, content, and custom fabrication to transport visitors from today’s reality to a promised future.

EBC’s Simplify, Materialize, and Transport

Executive Briefing Centers aren’t just for technology companies. In fact, their value spans industries including technology, professional services, manufacturing, aerospace, and healthcare, to name a few.

A combination of space, physical artifacts, and digital content allow companies to take complex ideas or products and explain them in highly experiential ways that resonate with their audiences, making them simpler to understand and making decisions easier to reach. Space, objects, and technology can also give substance and physical heft to intangible services and offerings that may at first seem esoteric or hard to grasp the value of. These centers can also bring large scale physical objects like machinery and aircraft into the digital domain, making them easier to explore and explain without traveling to several, disparate locations to see them all in person.

Immersion Moves Hearts and Minds

The advances in 3D content in Unreal, Unity, and Notch as well as the accessibility of technology like Extended Reality, High Frame Rate Projection Caves, and large scale, bespoke DVLED canvases make creating immersive experiences in these arenas easier than ever before. (I wrote about how these technologies are changing the tech world here- https://www.ravepubs.com/the-future-of-av-is-unreal/ ).

Stacking senses provides novelty, and novelty creates an emotional anchor and a “sticky” experience that follows the visitor when they leave, increasing the chances that they capitalize on the opportunities they explored while visiting.

This makes the business case for EBCs even stronger, as they provide a path to business value for both the owner of the space and the company visiting.

My passion for these types of environments is undisguisable. As businesses look for ways to justify their real estate footprints and brick and mortar strategies, I believe EBCs will continue to emerge as a clear path to ROI for businesses and their customers.

Now more than ever, in person experiences matter, and Executive Briefing Centers deliver on all fronts.