A conversation about why themed entertainment is uniquely positioned to lead
by Simone Bonnejonne, Development Director, and Nicolle Figueroa Rosado, Program Director, Big Break Foundation
Over the past year, we’ve written about why inclusion matters to the location-based experiences (LBE) industry and what a more inclusive future could look like. This time, we wanted to tackle a harder question: How do we make that future sustainable?
So, we sat down to talk about it. We explored what makes LBE uniquely positioned to build IDEA into the ways our industry works, what causes roadblocks to this work, and what it might look like to make inclusion part of the systems and collaborative practices we already use every day. Here’s that conversation.
Simone: When I think about what makes LBEs uniquely equipped to embrace inclusion, I keep coming back to intentionality. Design is already an intentional process in our industry.
Nicolle: The industry is collaborative by nature. There are some forms of art that are much more siloed, but this industry brings teams of experts and creatives together to create an experience.
That collaboration gives us an opportunity to bring in perspectives that we individually might not have. Those different viewpoints challenge us and help us create something more powerful than any one person could create alone.
Simone: We could push that process even further by thinking about the environment around the work. If designers, creators, experts and engineers are able to show up with their authentic lived experiences, they’re going to create attractions that reflect a multitude of audiences. Collaboration is important, but so is the inclusive environment around that process.
Nicolle: There’s a practical business case for that as well. Done right, inviting a diverse set of perspectives to the table can strengthen both what we create and how we create it.
If someone responsible for fabrication is involved early enough, for example, they can help inform the design based on what is actually achievable. That can prevent bottlenecks later on and create cost-saving efficiencies.
Inclusion isn’t separate from better processes, better communication or innovation.
Simone: So if we know that broader perspectives can improve workflows and outcomes, what are the roadblocks to making inclusion part of the process?
Nicolle: Time is a big one. There’s always urgency, another deadline, another thing that needs to get done. That leaves very little room to pause, reflect, evaluate and iterate.
Simone: Time scarcity is where I get hung up, because that’s the one resource I don’t think any of us can manufacture. We can’t stop business for three months and say, “Okay, we’re going to think about inclusion now.” Instead, it has to become a daily choice.
Nicolle: That’s where I see a lot of overlap between IDEA and efficiency. Both require intentionality. We have to be willing to ask: Is this working? Is there a better way?
IDEA is work. But if that work helps people stay longer, retain institutional knowledge, communicate their ideas and thrive, then we’re building a more sustainable business that is able to weather the changes.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Start small. Make your meetings more inclusive by establishing team agreements. Give everyone an opportunity to contribute. Establish how you’ll handle disagreement. Give an emerging professional an opportunity to participate and learn. You don’t have to reinvent your organization in one day. But you can start changing how people experience working together.
Simone: Engaging employees at all professional levels is crucial in establishing IDEA as part of your systems. If you have an IDEA committee, what happens when the person leading it leaves?
You need continuity. Ideally, you’re building your entire team to be IDEA champions, creating a chain of people who can carry the work forward.
Nicolle: IDEA stalls if it doesn’t leave the leadership loop. Oftentimes, an organization can have great intentions, but get stuck in “a strategy bubble,” developing and refining a detailed plan of action in isolation.
IDEA sustainability requires communication, opportunities for employees to shape the strategy, and a pathway from employee input to decision-makers. IDEA councils, employee resource groups and affinity groups can help, but only if those groups are actively engaged in strategic conversations.
Simone: And IDEA has to tie into every role.
Nicolle: Exactly. For an engineer, that might mean creating through the lens of Universal Design. For marketing, it might mean accessible communications or inclusive language.
Even seemingly small choices matter. Leaders, for example, can help set healthy work-life boundaries by limiting emails to established working hours. Need to write an email at 10 p.m.? Schedule it for the morning! These choices may not look like IDEA initiatives, but they’re shaping the culture people experience every day.
Simone: That’s where I think LBE has another interesting opportunity: the design process itself.
Nicolle: I like to think about it as building an IDEA design toolkit. There isn’t one methodology that works for every project. Universal Design can help create experiences for the broadest possible range of guests. Inclusive or Participatory Design can bring specific communities directly into the process. Design Justice can give those communities greater ownership of the design process.
The point isn’t that one methodology is the answer. It’s having enough tools to choose the approach that fits the project.
Simone: Once the experience is built, we’re not done. The operations team becomes an essential part of inclusion. Frontline workers, for example, need to understand what accessibility features are available, how to access them, and how to maintain them. But they also need to be empowered to tell creative and design teams when something isn’t working.
Nicolle: I’d advocate for involving operations at the start of a project, especially if an experience is being expanded or refurbished. These team members have a wealth of visitor insights: they know what guests are asking, and what isn’t working in practice.
Simone: That’s a unique aspect of LBEs: our products aren’t static. We can watch people interact with them. We can learn from those interactions. We can adapt the experience as the audience’s needs change.
Nicolle: Exactly. The experiences we create are a living, breathing work of collective art. We have continuous opportunities to observe, learn and improve our spaces – that is an incredible amount of data we can leverage to inform our designs and make them available to a diverse audience. And it’s already available to us.
Simone: Maybe sustaining IDEA isn’t about preserving one particular initiative forever. Maybe it’s about building organizations that know how to keep learning. The language, landscape and people in the room may all change. But if we’ve built inclusion into the way we design, hire, lead, operate, evaluate and create, then the work naturally evolves as the needs do.
Nicolle: As an industry, we already have the creativity, adaptability and collaborative mindset necessary to drive IDEA forward. We know how to imagine something that doesn’t exist yet, bring different people together to build it, invite people into it, listen to how they experience it, and make it better.
Simone: We can apply that same process to inclusion. The goal isn’t to build IDEA alongside the work; it’s to build it into the work. If we do that well, the next generation of LBE professionals won’t have to ask how to sustain inclusion. They’ll simply inherit an industry where it is already part of how we create. •
