Creating immersive experiences is a masterclass in weaving together form and function. The Back to Space experiences use set design, VR, special effects, characters, storyline, and have the added fun of being completely self-contained.
Someone told me early on that everything about what we’re doing is hard. The market, the tech, operations, creative, etc. He still joined as an advisor. Because when you get it all aligned, magic happens. And isn’t it fun to be part of something magical?
Tickets are about to go on sale for our first pop-up experience that runs in Dallas February 29 – May 28. It promises to be one giant leap year at Back to Space. OK, no more space puns.
When I took on the CEO role in February, we didn’t originally set out to build an experience using shipping containers. Yes, you read that right, episode #1 of The Lunar Light is being delivered within shipping containers! Why??
I’m SO happy you asked! You see, we first designed a 10,000 square foot pop-up that we plan to tour around Tier 1 cities like Los Angeles, NYC, London, etc. However, after many great and random conversations, we realized that there was an actual need for a different format of experience. I come from the B2B world where you solve for customer needs, not consumer wants. My interest was piqued! Marry that with an abysmal early stage funding market, and we decided to do a little pirouette (it's like a pivot, except we'll spin back to the original plan in Phase II).
While we finalized the design for the large pop-up, and while investors took their summer holiday, I figured why not take that time to design an experience that could be set up anywhere, at least in any parking lot. I happened to be filling a shipping container to move to the island at the time, and I’ve seen some really creative installations using them, so why not try creating an experience in shipping containers?
I grabbed the dry erase markers and filled my windows with drawings. Most VR experiences are delivered in open rooms where some kind of digital barrier shows you how far you can go in the VR. There are fans and heat blowers, maybe even a good rumble floor, but few have things you reach out and touch. There's also rarely an immersion before you put on the headset.
That wasn’t going to work in shipping containers that are only eight feet across. We had to design a 1:1 experience, meaning that what you see is what you feel.
The problem was that it didn’t fit our storyline of abundant energy and ships that sped travelers to the stars. What it felt like was a big tin can. Kinda like those first space habitats.
And so an origin story was born…
I’ll let you discover that part on your own.
We call this format our Research Base. It will deliver the story of The Lunar Light in multiple episodes, beginning with The Lunar Light: Discovery. Type your email below, or join the VIP list on www.backtospace.com and I'll make sure you get access to the pre-sale and my CEO discount code.
As for the magic, we’ll just have to wait and see.