The Immersive Experience Network connects creatives, tech providers and industry experts to create cross-discipline collaborations.
From vast digital art projections, to escape rooms and scare mazes, and theatre companies which invite their audiences to participate in productions such as Punchdrunk’s Burnt City, immersive arts are booming. The size of this disparate industry is not well documented, but millions of visitors flock to blockbuster experiences like Phantom Peak, every year.
To support immersive creatives, and foster growth in this exciting industry, Dr Joanna Bucknall, a University of Birmingham lecturer in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, co-founded the Immersive Experience Network (IEN) in 2022. It brings together the immersive experience industry’s most exciting creatives from across the world, as well as providers of technology, set design and insurance services that they rely on. Through annual summits, and smaller “huddles”, IEN helps these individuals share creative, operational and commercial insights.
Before we existed, all of these different communities within the immersive entertainment world were very siloed. One of the reasons that we set up the network was to bring together these disciplines and to make connections between them.
An industry network was sorely needed because of the sheer diversity of immersive experiences, says Dr Bucknall. The sector has grown rapidly over the past ten years, driven by demand from Millennials and Gen Z consumers, who are said to prefer experiences over things. IEN has identified 12 genres of “live/location-based immersive experience”, including location-based virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), live-action role-playing (LARP), standalone scare attractions, themed sites like Walt Disney World, immersive theatre, art and audio.
“Before we existed, all of these different communities within the immersive entertainment world were very siloed. One of the reasons that we set up the network was to bring together these disciplines and to make connections between them,” Dr Bucknall explains. “By pulling together these very small communities into a bigger community, we’ve become a catalyst for camaraderie and a cross-pollination of ideas but also sharing best practice to improve the quality of audience’s experience. People have found that they have valuable learnings that they can share to make their respective works better. That’s one thing audiences have told us is hugely valuable in what we do.”
This year’s IEN summit on 21 October was the largest yet, with over 600 international delegates and more than 35 influential speakers attending talks and master classes at London’s Woolwich Works. That compares to the 150 delegates who attended IEN’s first summit in 2022 and the 300 in attendance at the 2023 Summit. Attendees will hear from keynote speaker Sara Thatcher, Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative arm that designs Disney’s theme parks and cruises, along with industry leaders from across the UK, Europe and USA. IEN has partnered with the Escape Room Industry Conference (ERIC), which will manage an escape room content stream and bring interactive experiences for delegates to play during the summit.
We’re supporting individuals by making sure there are opportunities to network and collaborate and find investors. But best practice-sharing is also a really big part of what we are doing.
As well as running events, IEN produces annual market reports for the immersive industry, and this year published an Immersive Audience Report, providing insights on the demographics of audiences in the UK. With support from an Arts Council England grant, IEN has also built a “knowledge bank” for emerging immersive creators, including articles and podcasts which offer guidance on everything from seeking funding, to finding a venue and marketing a show.
“We’re supporting individuals by making sure there are opportunities to network and collaborate and find investors. But best practice-sharing is also a really big part of what we are doing,” says Dr Bucknall.
In October, the team will transform the network into a membership subscription service, launching an app, the IENgine, that will allow creators to build professional profiles, showcase their work, and connect with talent and collaborators. IEN will offer tiered membership pricing, to balance accessibility for creatives with commercial imperatives. The membership scheme, supported with funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will initially target industry members in the UK before opening to the US and European markets.
“We have been able to build this network on a lean start-up model, but if we want to keep moving forwards and growing, we need to commercialise the business model,” Dr Bucknall explains. “This is quite a big pivot for us. But we’ve set a precedent for the support we offer, so when we move to that membership approach, we are hopeful that people can already see the value that we have given them.”
There is no sign of audiences tiring of immersive entertainment and forecasts suggest that it will grow by 36% over the next ten years. IEN’s Immersive Audience Report found that half of British immersive audiences are under the age of 34, but that those attending immersive events are geographically and demographically diverse, and value experiences that can be shared with friends and family.
“Public demand just seems to be insatiable for this kind of thing,” says Dr Bucknall. “What audiences say is that it’s about having an experience that’s communal; that’s with other people. I think that’s what people really crave, especially post-COVID.”
However, immersive creatives confront common challenges, including difficulties in securing affordable venues. Financing is another perennial problem, with many creators struggling to find investment, or relying on commercial brand activation to support their public performances. With audiences concerned about pricing, creators have to balance the need for high-quality experiences that also offer good value for money. Practical issues are also rife; immersive creators do not work in traditional theatres but must still meet strict health and safety requirements, such as installing toilets and fire alarms, in pop-up and ‘meanwhile’ spaces.
Dr Bucknall cites the cautionary case of a Willy Wonka “Chocolate Experience”, held in Glasgow in February. It charged up to £35 a ticket for what it promised would be a chocolate-themed fantasy world, but families instead found a half-empty warehouse filled with some basic props and inflatables. Parents were so furious that the police were called in. “That showed that it’s really not easy to pull these things off. There is a lot of skill and consideration in getting these things done, down to really practical things like whether you have the right insurance,” she argues.
To help overcome such challenges, more public support is needed for the immersive arts, says Dr Bucknall. Currently, many immersive creators struggle to access government funding because their work does not fit into traditional cultural niches. Advocacy groups and public subsidies exist for the traditional arts sectors, such as theatre, dance and museums. Government support for the immersive sector has been focused on the development of immersive technology such as AR/VR and does not extend to most live/location-based immersive experiences.
Immersive creators deserve similar support, Dr Bucknall argues. But to advocate for the industry, a clearer sense of the market’s size and growth is first needed. Addressing this need, IEN aims to consolidate data from different parts of the UK’s immersive performance industry, generating a stronger body of evidence that can be used to inform government policy.
Dr Bucknall advocates for a widening of the UK’s theatre tax relief scheme, which is designed to support traditional theatre, to include immersive productions. “There are so many art forms now operating in this space which need support and would go under without it,” she says.
She adds that infrastructural assistance may also be needed. With stronger policies, governments could link immersive creators with commercial units that have sat empty as British high streets decline, she argues. This has already started to happen via “meanwhile spaces”, a model which gives creatives or community groups access to empty units under temporary contracts. “Immersive arts could be the solution to some of the big societal problems of high street regeneration. So, we would ask the government to bring us to the table in some of those discussions,” she says.
The UK is already a leader in creating immersive and interactive experiences. With the right support, it can continue to develop as an artistic hub, meeting the huge audience demand for shared experiences, says Dr Bucknall: “Immersive art is an important part of the UK economy. So, the government would be wise to start to find ways of allowing it to flourish.”
Lecturer
Biographical and contact information for Dr Joanna Bucknall, Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Drama and Theatre in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham.
