Form Follows Feeling: A Formula for Turning Cultural Moments into Lasting Movements
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 2:00 PM to 2:45 PM · 45 min. (US/Eastern)
City Hall | 2nd Floor
Information Exchange
Information
Super Bowls. Blockbusters. The Olympics. The biggest moments in culture aren’t just spectacles — they’re collective cultural movements. And when brands tap into that energy with emotional precision, the moment stops being marketing and starts becoming memory. For experiential marketers, this signals a seismic shift: storytelling can no longer function as a call to action. It must become a call to feeling.
For more than four years, XD Agency and Lowe's have partnered on a shared belief: the most powerful brand experiences don't just show up in culture, they make people feel part of it. Year after year, they've taken the same familiar internal event and reinvented it, again and again, into something distinct and unforgettable. The secret isn't luck or a bigger budget — it's a repeatable formula for experience design, rooted in neuroaesthetics, cultural rhythm, and the evolving ways audiences gather, connect, and seek meaning.
In this session, Amy Williams, SVP of Production and Lauren Rice, Senior Director of Strategy at XD Agency, alongside Madison Hotho, Senior Manager of Corporate Events at Lowe’s, will unpack the neuroscience and cultural forces fueling a new storytelling renaissance — a shift from storytelling to storyfeeling —and reveal the formula behind four years of reinvention. Together, we'll explore how leaning into the cultural zeitgeist, layered with neuroaesthetic design, emotional contrast, and narrative structure, can transform passive audiences into active participants who feel something — and because they feel it, they remember it.
ATTENDEES WILL LEAVE WITH
-A repeatable formula for reinvention: Discover how to take a familiar event and design it new each year — building relevance, sparking community, and creating experiences that linger long after the lights go down
-A creative strategy rooted in feeling: Understand the neuroscience behind emotional resonance and why storyfeeling drives memory, meaning, and lasting engagement.
For more than four years, XD Agency and Lowe's have partnered on a shared belief: the most powerful brand experiences don't just show up in culture, they make people feel part of it. Year after year, they've taken the same familiar internal event and reinvented it, again and again, into something distinct and unforgettable. The secret isn't luck or a bigger budget — it's a repeatable formula for experience design, rooted in neuroaesthetics, cultural rhythm, and the evolving ways audiences gather, connect, and seek meaning.
In this session, Amy Williams, SVP of Production and Lauren Rice, Senior Director of Strategy at XD Agency, alongside Madison Hotho, Senior Manager of Corporate Events at Lowe’s, will unpack the neuroscience and cultural forces fueling a new storytelling renaissance — a shift from storytelling to storyfeeling —and reveal the formula behind four years of reinvention. Together, we'll explore how leaning into the cultural zeitgeist, layered with neuroaesthetic design, emotional contrast, and narrative structure, can transform passive audiences into active participants who feel something — and because they feel it, they remember it.
ATTENDEES WILL LEAVE WITH
-A repeatable formula for reinvention: Discover how to take a familiar event and design it new each year — building relevance, sparking community, and creating experiences that linger long after the lights go down
-A creative strategy rooted in feeling: Understand the neuroscience behind emotional resonance and why storyfeeling drives memory, meaning, and lasting engagement.
