NL House: Make them feel something - The future of experiential
Audiences have never been harder to reach or more desperate for something real. As attention fragments and digital noise grows, the smartest brands are pouring budget back into live experience. But what separates an experience people post about from one they actually remember?
This session unpacks the state of experiential marketing: what's working now, what's tired, and where it goes next. From global brand activations to grassroots cultural moments, we'll explore why physical presence is having its moment again, and what it takes to make audiences genuinely feel something.
With:
James Wallman, founder WXO (moderator)
Jay Davis, Senior Creative Strategist, Seen Presents
Camila Rodrigues, Creative Director at 72andSunny Amsterdam,
Wouter Moll is Managing Partner at WT Interactive
Arne Koefoed, Co-founder Wink
About the speakers
James Wallman is CEO of the World Experience Organization (WXO), whose mission is to engineer better lives through experience design. Before that, he served as the UK government's Sector Specialist for the Experience Economy, including advising the Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street. He is the author of two bestselling books on the rise of experiences — one a Financial Times Book of the Year — and has spoken at SXSW, TEDx and the Royal Academy, from Amsterdam to Beijing to California.
Jay Davis is a Senior Creative Strategist at Seen Presents, the London-based brand experience agency behind work for TikTok, Netflix and Peroni. He specialises in shaping culturally aware, emotionally intelligent experience strategies that create meaning rather than just moments, driven by a fascination with how people respond when something feels real.
Through pieces on cultural flattening, third places, audience states and Gen Alpha participation, his writing explores what authenticity, connection, and relevance actually look like for brands today. He argues that audiences can no longer be understood through static demographics alone, instead advocating for more fluid lenses rooted in behaviour, fandoms, emotional states and cultural context.
Across both strategy and thought leadership, Jay believes the best brand experiences are stories people get to step inside, experiences that resist sameness, create emotional texture and make people feel
Camila Rodrigues, is a Creative Director at 72andSunny Amsterdam, known for work that resonates culturally — for brands including Nike, Netflix, Nubank, Uber, and Ford. In 2023, she marked a milestone by co-designing the 47th Brazilian Creative Yearbook — the first edition signed by two Black female art directors. A strong advocate for equality in the industry, she mentors emerging talent globally through the LIAisons program, teaches D&I, and maintains @PorTips_, a platform championing women in creativity. She has served on the jury for The One Show, Young Lions, Clio Awards, and London International Awards, among other leading industry awards.
Wouter Moll is Managing Partner at WT Interactive, an agency specialising in interactive brand activations, and founder of Nieuwe Vaart, an experience design studio helping companies tell their story through physical and interactive spaces. He also co-founded StoryTemple, an AI-powered presentation platform. His work sits at the overlap of brand, technology and spatial storytelling.
Arne Koefoed threw his first rave as a fashion student in the late 80s and never looked back. As founder of WINK, he has spent 30 years designing events, experiences and environments that transform the temporary into the unforgettable — blending subculture, hospitality, art and brand storytelling into something that genuinely makes people feel good. Most recently, Arne led the creative development of SXSW’s new Clubhouse concepts in Austin 2026. Hippie, hooligan, tactile storyteller. Still riding the wave.
Partners
Presented by Gielissen & WT Interactive
Gielissen designs and builds brand experiences at scale — from trade fair stands to full event environments spanning thousands of square metres. They handle everything from concept to construction, working across interiors, exhibitions and live events. Clients include Salesforce, for whose World Tour across multiple European cities they have managed production and delivery for over five years.
WT Interactive designs and builds interactive spaces where brand story and digital experience meet — from offices and experience centres to events and retail environments. Every project is built around the specific story a client needs to tell, and the specific audience they need to tell it to.
NL House @ SXSW London
On June 3 2026, NL House opens for a day that runs from a morning wake-up call about where ambitious people should actually point their talent, to late-night conversations about what Amsterdam's after-dark culture is building next.
Expect cities to make the case for why they deserve your attention. Brands and studios showcasing work that moves people. Artists and technologists with projects that refuse to fit neatly into a single discipline. Explore the NL Lounge, where ten Dutch startups will showcase their technological creativity.
Presented by New Dutch Wave and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, created in collaboration with Dutch Digital Design, Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition, EIT Culture & Creativity, the City of Amsterdam, ROM Utrecht Region, Innovally, Gielissen, WT Interactive, and Dentsu Lab.
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Registration is free (subject to the organisers' approval)