The Next Stage is the signature live event of the Immersive Experience Institute publishers of No Proscenium – the ultimate insider’s guide to immersive & experiential entertainment.

Following on the heels of the Institute’s partnership in the successful Denver Immersive Gathering, The Next Stage ups the ante with a mix of dynamic Summit talks, salons, workshops, and affinity dinners for which we are known.

MARQUEE PRESENTING PARTNER

Inquire about becoming the Title Partner for The Next Stage.

This package includes:

• Top sponsor billing: “The Next Stage, Presented by [Brand Name]”

Ask us about becoming the Title Partner for The Next Stage.

• Bespoke package including one or more partner packages listed below

• Tier 1 Sponsor billing

• Keynote stage logo placement

• Up to six (6) custom ads integrated into No Proscenium media feeds (podcast, newsletter, etc)

…and more

PUT ON A SHOW

This year’s programming is structured around three pillars:

1. Impact (social, economic, and audience experience),

2. Creative Technology (XR, virtual production, live production), and

3. Next Generation (new artists & audiences).

Sponsors will be acknowledged in all sessions in their chosen pillar.

This package includes:

• Naming rights to one pillar, with custom branding stage and content integration. “official Festival Program, Presented by [Company Name]” for one (1) or more events

• Tier 2 Sponsor billing

• Up to four (4) custom ads integrated into No Proscenium media feeds (podcast, newsletter, etc)

…and more

This item is sold out and we are proud to be partnering with Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts! Ask us about getting involved for 2024.

HOST THE ONLY OFFICIAL SATURDAY NIGHT EVENT

The Next Stage seeks to explore a truly next stage event venue atop the iconic US Bank Building at Liminal Space.

Surrounded by massive high definition screens, the top experiential creators in the world will enjoy immersive video art and gaming experiences in the largest social gathering of the summit. All attendees, sponsors, and media will gather under one roof for drinks, food, and art.

Your brand will host the memorable night where connections are made that shape the future of the industry.

Additional partners are invited to inquire about opening the doors early, and taking over the screens, as an official piece of the Next Stage Summit calendar.

This package includes:

• Top sponsor billing: “The Next Stage After Party, Presented by [Brand Name]”

• Bespoke package including one or more partner packages listed below

• Tier 2 Sponsor billing

• Upgrade opportunities as one of three Tier 1 Pillar Sponsors

• Keynote stage logo placement

• Up to four (4) custom ads integrated into No Proscenium media feeds (podcast, newsletter, etc)

…and more

TAKE IT TO THE HOUSE

This package includes:

• Custom, co-created design on The Next Stage VIP gift bag, created alongside Next Stage design team and local experiential gift box talent

• Custom experience for VIP gift bag pickup area

• Opportunity for prime VIP gift bag product placement

• Tier 2 Sponsor Billing

• Custom IP-integration into unique, take-home experience

…and more

BRING TRAVEL, HOSPITALITY, FOOD & BEV TO THE NEXT STAGE

This package includes:

• Exclusive concierge access to world-renowned artists for collaborative “ARG” opportunity within Summit & Festival programming, at the official “Next Stage Lodge”

• Room logo and product placement

• Care package opportunities for talent, media, and creators

• Recap video for immersive lodging/travel experience

• Tier 2 Sponsor Billing

•  Up to four (4) custom ads integrated into No Proscenium media feeds (podcast, newsletter, etc)

…and more

AN INNOVATIVE CALENDAR

This package includes:

• Unique, branded Augmented Reality experience launched by aiming any smartphone at The Next Stage guest badges, displaying schedule and programming information for the Summit & Festival

• A branded video moment within a 30-second AR animation

• Exclusive concierge access to world-renowned artists for activation

• Custom, co-created design on all badges

…and more

A UNIQUE PHOTOBOOTH

This package includes:

• Unique, branded Augmented Reality experience launched by aiming any smartphone at The Next Stage red carpet

• Branded video moment within a 30-second AR animation

• Optional upgrade: exclusive “The Next Stage Face Filter, Presented by [COMPANY NAME]

• Exclusive concierge access to world-renowned artists for activation

• Custom, co-created design for red carpet step and repeat

…and more

TICKET RELEASE TAKEOVER

This package includes:

• Custom, co-created design on every ticket confirmation email with quarter page ad and custom copy, created alongside The Institute’s design teams

• Exclusive concierge access to world-renowned artists for collaborative opportunities within ticket launch moments, including narrative ARG design, augmented reality moment, and more

• Dedicated followup email to every ticketholder

…and more

PARTY WITH US

Invite the world’s foremost experiential creators to your ticketed attraction, immersive venue, or theatre! Let us know what you have in mind!

• Additional programming opportunities on our panel stage or after party stage, created in tandem with programming curators and panelists

• "[PANEL/PERFORMANCE TITLE] presented by [COMPANY NAME]"

Note: Additional production costs not included.

At The Next Stage it is important to us that we capture a wide swath of the most innovative and influential minds in the Immersive industry. That means that we want to be inclusive to creators that struggle with the requisite ticket pricing.

Ask us about helping to bring the next generation of Immersive creators to The Next Stage.

The Summit & Festival reaches far beyond the ASU California Center and into venues around the entertainment capitol that is Los Angeles County, inviting local and international guests to explore the creativity of a region that sparks so much innovation.

Next Stage 2022 sits adjacent to many inspirational locales: the historic theatres and underground art scene of Downtown Los Angeles, longstanding movie and animation studios of Burbank, beaches of Venice/Santa Monica, stars of Hollywood, new stadium in Inglewood, and theme parks all across the Southland.

Noah Nelson is the founder of No Proscenium, a publication dedicated to exploring the immersive and experiential arts, its sister site Everything Immersive, a co-founder of LEIA - the League of Experiential & Immersive Artists, and part of the Founding Circle of the World Experience Organization.

As an organizer, he has produced multiple events that have drawn international audiences in the immersive creative community, including the original 2018 & 2019 Immersive Design Summits and as a speaker on immersive creativity has been commissioned to speak around the globe at events and for companies including the Sundance Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Meow Wolf, Sandbox Immersive Festival (Qingdao), and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

His reporting has been heard on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition & American Public Media's Marketplace.

He holds a bachelor's in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University and resides in Los Angeles.

Eric Vosmeier is a producer. He likes to solve problems and spend other people’s money to make collectible moments happen. For money he’s worked with: FX, NBC, Bezark Company, Clif Bars, Amazon. For joy he works with creators like Annie Saunders, David Ruzicka, Tommy Honton, and on projects like The Next Stage.

Kathryn Yu is an immersive designer and developer based in Los Angeles, bridging the worlds of user experience, augmented & virtual reality, games, and immersive theatre. She is currently pursuing her masters of fine arts in Interactive Media & Game Design at the University of Southern California.

She is an Oculus Launch Pad Fellow for 2021 and most recently worked at the indie game studio Tender Claws. Kathryn was also a recipient of a USC Annenberg Graduate Fellowship for 2020-2021; during her Fellowship she worked on pervasive games to foster creativity and collaboration among incoming students to the School of Cinematic Arts. Her last game, Heirloom, was shortlisted for the 2020 New Media Writing Prize, a 2021 Women in Games Global Award, and was a nominee for Best Student Game at the 2021 Games for Change Festival.

Kathryn is also the Executive Editor of No Proscenium. She has spoken at Games for Change, the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media, The Knight Foundation, IndieCade, and more.

The Next Stage’s strategic partner for creative direction, Dinua Creative is an accomplished design company focused on brand design, print + product design, and web + social media strategy. Founder Dino Nama II has worked in the Immersive arts for nearly a decade, bringing experiential activations to the audiences of DesignerCon, Night on Broadway, Think Tank Gallery, and more. Dinua Creative also oversaw the creative integration for all partners at Immersive Design Summit.

The Next Stage’s strategic partner for creative production, Think Tank Presents has over a decade of experience in the Immersive and Experiential Entertainment industries.

The team’s work has reached tens of millions of consumers in event produced for various corporate partners, with a diverse array of programming for audiences of one or 100,000. Clients include Playboy, Cirque du Soleil, Patron, PBR, and Vans.

Mikhael Tara Garver has been a pioneer in leading the experiential field. She has worked across brands, arts organizations, social justice organizations, and civic organizations. She has created some of the first original experiential commissions by national arts organizations like the American Repertory Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Goodman Theater, Montclair New Work Initiative, and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.

Garver was the Head of Experiential Entertainment at Category41; the Managing Artistic Director of Woodshed Collective; and the Founder and Artistic Director of lauded Chicago Uma Productions. She was a director on American Repertory Theater’s Production of Sleep No More, an associate producer for Anne Bogart and SITI Company, and is currently an advisor for Starfish Accelerator. She most recently founded experiential studio 13Exp; is the experiential architect/designer behind God Bless the Promise Land, and is directing Covid-safe experiences along the L.A. River, Rio Reveals.

Mikhael is a grantee of Pop Culture Collaborative’s Becoming America Fund and an International Sacatar Fellow. Her speaking and thought leadership around Innovative Experiential Content - where digital and live platforms work in concert - has been a keynote at the Immersive Design Summit, Switchpoint, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Garver began her career making experiential marketing campaigns for Chicago Athletic Clubs - tripling their income and growth strategy over 3 years.

She has built award-winning experiences for AMCTelevision, The National Park Service, Bloomberg, Serino/Coyne, BBDO, Hormel, Tentrr, & Smirnoff. She has also done work for high-level brands such as IDEO, Facebook, and Virgin. Garver was the Creative Director for the band, Great Caesar, and developed an immersive journey through 18 hidden shows over 8 days! Additionally, Garver created the advanced program in Making, Directing, and Leadership for NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has spoken and taught on Arts and Democracy at North Carolina School of the Arts, Yale, Columbia University, Harvard, DePaul, Montclair State, as well as other universities.

Sara Thacher is a Creative Director and Senior R&D Imagineer at Walt Disney Imagineering, where she works with engineers, computer scientists, architects, artists, and inventors to fashion new technology into revolutionary guest experiences. Her work at Imagineering includes creative leadership on the upcoming Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser two-day immersive experience and the TEA Award-winning Haunted Mansion: Ghost Post. Previously, she served as Executive Producer and Experience Designer at Nonchalance where she co-created the groundbreaking experience, The Jejune Institute.

Diana Williams is the CEO & Co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment. She has a wide range of experience in the entertainment industry, developing IP and producing creative content for distribution across storytelling media. Throughout her career she has been at the forefront of working with emerging and established talent to ensure that all voices are included in an ever-evolving industry.

Kinetic Energy Entertainment is a multi-media development and production company. Kinetic’s project slate includes the cross-platform storyworld of The Gatecrashers, Sermons Beyond Sunday podcast based on 1863 Ventures’ focus on entrepreneurs of color, Crimson an epic fantasy/thriller take on Alice in Wonderland, and recipe-memoir Adventures in Starry Kitchen.

An award-winning producer, she produced the critically acclaimed feature film Our Song, which earned her a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award in the Producer category. Other credits include documentaries Room 237, the Emmy© award-winning Sylvia Drew Ivie, Student Academy Award©-nominated Another First Step, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, and Dear Mom Love Cher.

In addition to producing, Diana has held various positions in the entertainment industry. She was the Creative Development and Franchise Producer at Lucasfilm within the Story Group, the team responsible for developing and maintaining narrative cohesion and connectivity throughout the Star Wars universe. While at Lucasfilm, Diana developed film and tv (including Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One), mobile and console videogames (including 2015’s Battlefront), publishing (Marvel’s Star Wars comics and novel expansions), and was a member of the team that launched ILMxLAB, an immersive entertainment and mixed reality laboratory, with projects including Vader Immortal (writer: David Goyer), Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire for The Void, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award© winning experience Carne y Arena. She was also a production consultant for BET on Let the Church Say Amen (director: Regina King), Gun Hill Road (creator/director: Reggie Rock Bythewood), and Untitled Kenya Barris Project (creator: Kenya Barris). She also held the position of Executive Vice President of Content at MWM.

Recently named by the Peabody Awards as Chair of the Board of Jurors for digital and interactive storytelling, Diana is also on the Strategic Planning Committee of The National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange; the advisory committee for the Royal Shakespeare Company/Digital development; the advisory board for UK-based organization Future of Film; and the boards of Diverso (a non-profit organization by students for students, dedicated to empowering the under-represented storytellers of the next generation), The Overlook Film Festival (genre festival), and The Next Stage Summit (focused on interactive and immersive events, theater, and creators). Diana began her career in production as an Assistant Director and is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Diana is also a member of the Auntie Sewing Squad, a volunteer network of people across the U.S. that sew and distribute masks for free to First Nations, immigration organizations, and local communities in need. A graduate of Georgetown University, Diana currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.