Navigating the Experience Age
We have an opportunity to transform and redefine travel by exploring how virtual and real experiences might complement one another
The challenges and opportunities presented by technologies, transport and travel in this current period – an era dubbed ‘The Experience Age’ – provided the focus of the recent Expo Talks: Travel and Connectivity, during which experts probed how continued advances in the speed, reliability and convergence of technologies have helped rewrite the world that relies on them.
The Information Age’s portfolio of lifechanging technologies is substantial. For example, the smartphone – a computer that can be plucked out of our pockets – revolutionised how we communicate, listen, watch and interact, with an everpresent internet connection that has made us constantly available, accompanied by a camera that never leaves our side.
Social media, another outcome of multiple technologies brought together, has further defined the way we communicate, creating a new era of hyper-connectedness while also profoundly re-shaping the internet.
Meanwhile, video and game streaming exploded in popularity, allowing us to access, watch and engage with our favourite content live from the comfort of our homes. And, in case video was not engaging enough, virtual and augmented reality experiences found new avenues into our lives, entering mainstream adoption.
If you’ve ever played Pokémon Go, you’ll know it was designed to make you move and to take you outside, into the real world. So it was particularly fascinating when the game was recently changed to better facilitate exploration of the digital environment, during a time when the physical world wasn’t as available. Today, we have a similar and promising opportunity to transform and redefine experiences by exploring how virtual and real experiences might co-exist and complement one another – converging to inform, inspire and entertain, expanding our horizons like never before.
In the near future, such converged experiences or ‘unified worlds’ will increasingly become both an outlet and a tool. The opportunities offered by such a convergence of the digital and physical worlds, and the impact it will create, are significant, making borders and personal finances less restrictive. Digital experiences will be the ultimate destination for those who may not be able to travel in person, allowing them to experience places and spaces virtually. On the other hand, these engaging digital experiences will complement physical spaces by becoming the first port of call of any journey.
As we plan for this reimagined future, we expect travellers and adventure seekers to morph into gamers and internet-globetrotters – embracing this long-term behavioural shift to a digital-first engagement.
From mobile devices, headsets and contact lenses to wearable bands and digital signs, this change will come in forms we have yet to even imagine.
Whether through virtual tours and virtual shopping at a market on the other side of the world, or gaming through physical and digital worlds, these newly-defined experiences are expected to resonate as much as our real-life experiences. And with the potential and agility of such converged technologies to adapt and cater to different purposes, age groups, geographies and languages, and overcome other potentially restrictive factors, The Experience Age is clearly here to stay.
Expo 2020 Dubai will bring together the world to seek and deliver real-life solutions to real-life challenges, and our virtual component is an essential part of this, leveraging technologies to create entirely new experiences. We want to ensure that every visit is special, be it physical or virtual.