Program and Schedule
Thursday June 4, 2026
8:30AM - 10:00AM
Check-in: Pick up your registration and (MII) goody bag. (Coffee and tea provided)
10:00AM - 10:45AM
Keynote by: Jennine Willett - Co-Artistic Director of Third Rail Projects
“Story as Immersive Infrastructure”
In this keynote Willett explores how essential narratives—those that foster empathy, connection, and human-centered perspectives—can serve as powerful infrastructure for a wide range of experiences.
11:00AM - 12:00PM
Lunch Break
12:00PM – 4:00PM
David Feiner (Albany Park Theater Project) and Jennine Willett (Third Rail Projects)
“Inside the Narrative: Building Immersive Performance from Lived Experience”
Explore how real human stories can be transformed into multi-sensory, spatial, participatory worlds. Participants will move from ethnographic story-gathering to designing experiences that use sound, movement, environment, and interaction to shift audiences from observers to active participants. Participants will work with tools and methodologies developed through Feiner and Willett’s most recent collaboration, Port of Entry.
4:15PM - 6:15PM
Sadah Espii Proctor: PBS Director of Immersive Media
“Projection Mapping as Spatial Storytelling”
Projection mapping is more than projecting images onto a wall— it is the practice of composing with architecture. In this immersive workshop, participants explore how architecture, depth, and light reshape visual meaning, developing site-responsive compositions that expand imagery beyond the screen and into space.
6:30PM - 8:30PM
Sunset Rooftop Social
Cocktails, light bites, and a chance to meet your MII cohort.
Friday June 5, 2026
9:00AM - 10:00AM
A virtual workshop: Designing Immersive Worlds with Punchdrunk's Casey Jay Andrews'
“Deep Dive into the Punchdrunk Process of Designing an Immersive Show”
10:15AM - 12:15PM
Brandon Powers - Choreographer & Technology Translator
“Embodiment Design: An Intro to Designing XR Experiences Like a Choreographer”
The most powerful XR experiences are embodied—designed with the visitor’s body and its relationship to space in mind. In this workshop, choreographer Brandon Powers introduces Embodiment Design, a practice that blends dance techniques, including Laban Movement Analysis, with spatial design. Through presentation and collaborative play, participants discover how their theatre and dance training already equips them to create impactful immersive experiences.
12:15 - 1:15PM
Lunch Break
1:15PM - 5:15PM
Juan Sanchez- Playwright (Miami Motel Stories)
“Archival Material in Motion: Immersive Storytelling”
An interactive writing workshop that transforms archival material into living, immersive performance. Participants will dive into historical news articles, reimagining and rewriting them into short theatrical pieces rooted in time, place, and lived experience. These newly crafted works will then be staged as immersive moments, inviting audiences to step inside the world of the story rather than observe it from a distance.
The workshop culminates in a group sharing session that blends research, creativity, and the power of place.
5:15PM - 6:15PM
Octavio Campos: A Collective Cool Down
7:00PM - 8:30PM
Curated Group Outing — Details Announced Soon
Saturday June 6 2026
9:00AM - 1:00PM
Mikhael Tara Garver - Culture House Immersive
“The Dramaturgy of the Audience”
Through theatrical, sociological, creative, producorial, and immersive tools, this workshop offers producers, writers, and performers a new lens—a dramaturgy of the audience—and a vision of the craft that makes room for many stories, many spaces, and genuinely shared worlds. Come ready to question what you think you know. About your audience. About your work. About what immersive can actually be.
1:00PM - 2:00PM
Lunch Break
2:00PM - 3:30PM
The Next Stage Salon, presented in partnership with The Immersive Experience Institute
The Next Stage Salon: Career Pathways In Immersive
The Next Stage Salon blends the depth of a curated expert panel with the intimacy of peer-to-peer roundtables—bringing leading voices in the immersive industry into direct conversation with the MII Cohort. Designed to spark the kinds of honest, insightful exchanges that usually happen in conference hallways, this salon strips away titles and formalities to foster real dialogue. Participants announced soon.
3:30PM - 5:30PM
Zach Morris - Co-Artistic Director of Third Rail Projects
Designing Embodied Immersive Gatherings
In this warm, relaxed workshop, award-winning artist and Co-Artistic Director of Third Rail Projects Zach Morris shares practical tools and perspectives that he and collaborators have used to create critically acclaimed works that place the audience at the very heart of the storytelling. This workshop is designed for everyone. Whether you’re designing a social event, creating a product launch, planning a branded event, hoping to make a conference more engaging, or deepening elements of a performance—this workshop will offer something meaningful for you and for those you're gathering.
5:30PM - 6:00PM
Abraham Burickson: Odyssey Works
MII Intensive Keynote Closing: Worldbuilding for a Better World
Abraham Burickson—architect, founder, and artistic director of Odyssey Works—shares his unique vision of experience design. What if experience design was not just about creating memorable moments, but a tool to transform our very relationship with the world? How might we craft experiences that go beyond entertainment to deeply move and connect with individuals? This keynote offers a rare opportunity to understand how design can become a vector of both personal and collective transformation, and how empathy, intention, and imagination can quite literally reshape the world we share.
6:30PM - 7:30PM
Curated Group Outing — Details Announced Soon
Sunday June 7, 2026
Step Inside the Miami Immersive Summit
Presented in partnership with The Immersive Experience Institute
For the first time, the Miami Immersive Intensive expands into a full-day summit, bringing together keynote speakers, visionary artists, and industry leaders from across the country who are shaping the future of immersive experience.
Through keynotes, panels, and dynamic conversations, the Summit spotlights the ideas, innovations, and creative strategies driving the field forward.
Beyond the stage, the Summit is intentionally designed for meaningful connection, creating space for artists, producers, technologists, and creative leaders to build relationships, spark collaborations, and expand their professional networks.
Full Lineup Announced Soon
Ready to go all in?
