The Global State of Awe | Paul Bulencea, Barbara Neuhofer & The Extraordinary Crew | TEDxBucharest

The Global State of Awe is an talk and experience aiming to give insight into the awe-inducing event and mindset shift that astronauts have when looking at Earth from space, known as the overview effect. Astronauts who have seen Earth from space report an explosion of awareness that triggers a new relationship between one's self, others and the environment. Paul is the co-founder and CEO of The College of Extraordinary Experiences, one of the world’s top experience design conferences and a community of global immersive experience designers. Paul is also the co-author of Gamification in Tourism: Designing Memorable Experiences and has visited eighteen countries to-date to speak about, design, or implement transformational experiences. He was a lead designer helping IKEA Centers implement its strategic shift from a shopping-center format to a more experiential model. Abu Dhabi awarded Paul’s team the opportunity to transform the legendary Yas Waterworld into a fully immersive Live Action Role Play experience “Legends of Arabia: The Quest of the Pearl Tribes”, allowing visitors to become part of the show instead of just watching it. In 2018 he was selected by Forbes Romania on the 30 under 30 list.

As a scientist, educator and keynote speaker, Barbara researches, writes, teaches and speaks about experience design as a philosophy, mindset and toolset to guide human and business transformations across the physical and digital realms. She has published over 30 scientific articles, book chapters and conference papers, and has shared her work at over 60 conferences and industry events around the globe, from Austria as far afield as Australia. Barbara’s work has been recognized with more than ten international scientific awards, and in 2013 she received the ITT PhD Student of the Year 2013 Award at the House of Commons, the British Parliament. Barbara also has a PhD in Services Marketing and Management from Bournemouth University, where she coined the notion of Technology Enhanced Tourist Experiences.

Currently, Barbara and Paul are co-writing a book that focuses on how to design and guide transformational experiences.

Thomas Mertlseder is a composer, educator and sound artist working in film, games, and media-based in Austria. Currently, he is scoring a game for Activision and a horror movie for Blumhouse Productions with the London based composer Walter Mair.

Michael Riemer fell in love with music listening to the works of Johannes Brahms, AC/DC and Metallica. He learned to play the violin and electric guitar before studying classical guitar in Berlin. Getting influenced by the music scene there, he also started playing the double bass and produced electronic music with various analog gear.

Bartosz Nowak was born in Wrocław, Poland in 1995 and began his musical training at the age of 7 at the Karol Szymanowski Music School, from which he graduated with highest honors in 2014. Bartosz forges his own path and seeks out individual musical experiences, experimenting with different instruments (udu, cajon, hand pan) as well as play improvisational, experimental and electronic music. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx