Experience Innovation Returns to Shape Tomorrow’s Communities

The design world moves fast, but the conversations that shape it shouldn’t happen in isolation. That’s the driving force behind DTJ’s Experience Innovation series—a forum where industry minds collide, challenge convention, and forge new paths forward.

Before we unveil this year’s focus, here’s what you’ll need to know:

What Experience Innovation Is All About

Creating the places people will love tomorrow is a dynamic, multifaceted mission. It’s about designing spaces that spark connection, cultivate belonging, and enhance the quality of life for everyone who calls them home. To succeed, we must offer adaptable, forward-thinking environments that meet today’s needs while evolving with the shifting landscape.

This isn’t your typical industry conference. It’s a design series where we explore designated subjects through in-depth discussions with a panel of industry experts, tackling multiple sides of complex topics. We aim to advance existing ideas and have established solutions, such as innovative toolkits, that aid in executing creative solutions for shared community goals.

The magic happens when diverse perspectives meet around pressing challenges. We bring together designers, developers, builders, relevant organizations, and municipal representatives for honest, engaging dialogue that goes beyond surface-level trends to uncover actionable insights.

Real Dialogue, Real Results

What sets Experience Innovation apart is the intentional curation of voices and the commitment to pushing beyond comfortable conversations.

“It’s easy to keep pace with the status quo, but we’re here to push the envelope.”

– Chris Moore, Partner and CEO

Our track record speaks to this approach. Launched in 2023, the inaugural summit first tackled Attainable Housing, welcoming an incredible mix of industry professionals to exchange ideas and co-create a practical toolkit.

2024 explored residential amenities, examining how recreational and social-use spaces can be thoughtfully integrated into residential developments. This extended into a webinar offering tools and fresh thinking for designing amenities that drive differentiation, absorption, and long-term value.

The format itself is designed for depth over breadth. Rather than rushing through a packed agenda, Experience Innovation creates space for the kind of group discussions, breakout sessions, and energizing activities that generate collaborative insights. Past sessions have explored questions like: What drives early decision-making, and how can we course-correct? How can we turn amenities into revenue generators? How are we measuring ROI?

“We really wanted to get people from different perspectives, different environments, and different regions to come together to challenge how we do things,” Chris reflected on the experience. This cross-pollination of ideas creates breakthrough moments that participants carry back to their own projects and communities.

The Journey Continues

Experience Innovation represents an ongoing commitment to advancing the conversation around our communities. These conversations live on through the projects participants lead, the partnerships they build, and the solutions they implement in communities nationwide.

“Every conversation about affordable and attainable housing in our communities provides a little layer of education that we then all take back out and share with others.”

– Jenni Hall, Director of Community + Economic Development, Adams County

For 2025, we’re building on this momentum: advancing ideas, strengthening collaboration, and shaping more resilient, inclusive communities.

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