Re-design your life with purpose. Connect with impact.
Damian Madden is a creative strategist and experience architect helping brands and leaders design more connected, meaningful experiences. With over two decades of work across luxury, tech, and culture, he’s advised organizations like Adidas, Pernod Ricard, and Facebook.
Damian is the creator of The Experience Compass and The Experience Arc, frameworks that integrate brand, behavior, and intention. He’s also the co-founder of A.SINGLE.PIECE, a gallery exploring how art and presence reshape perception.
Named Australian Consumer Experience Leader of the Year, Damian speaks globally on creativity, leadership, and mindful innovation—showing how clarity and connection drive long-term impact.
Talking Points
Beyond the Touchpoint: Designing Connected Brand Worlds
Most CX programmes still treat each interaction as a silo. In this session Damian shows how to stitch those moments into a single, living “brand world” that customers (and employees) can step into anywhere—online, in-store, pop-up or post-purchase. Drawing on two decades of global activations—from secret Foo Fighters gigs to F1 pop-ups—he unpacks the Experience Compass framework and the data behind it. Attendees learn how connection, not frequency, drives lifetime value.Beyond the Touchpoint: Designing Connected Brand Worlds
Key Takeaways:
- A practical blueprint for mapping & linking every CX, EX and marketing touchpoint
- Metrics that matter: moving from NPS & clicks to “dwell, depth & downstream” revenue
- Check-list to de-risk product launches, pop-ups and sponsorships before dollars are spent
- Inspiration cases your team can lift and run with tomorrow
The Future of CX: From Funnels to Flywheels
CX is no longer a post-sale service function—it’s the business model. Damian explores the macro shifts (AI personalisation, blended channels, employee activation) redefining experience in 2025 and beyond. He demonstrates how leaders can evolve from linear funnels to self-propelling “experience flywheels” that compound loyalty and reduce acquisition spend.The Future of CX: From Funnels to Flywheels
Key Takeaways:
- A forecast of five CX trends that will reshape budgets in the next 24 months
- A “flywheel canvas” to spot leakage and turn service costs into revenue loops
- Proven tactics to align marketing, ops and HR around one experience KPI
- Benchmark data to justify investment to the C-suite
Experience Architecture Playbook: De-Risking High-Stakes Activations
Pop-ups, flagships and sponsorships promise buzz but often burn cash. As an Experience Architect, Damian reverse-engineers celebrated activations and reveals why others flop. Attendees receive a step-by-step playbook that balances creative vision with technical, operational and financial rigour—turning “one-and-done” events into long-tail brand assets.Experience Architecture Playbook: De-Risking High-Stakes Activations
Key Takeaways:
- A four-phase activation checklist covering concept, flow, tech and scale-down
- Hidden budget traps and how to avoid them (backed by real cost data)
- Methods to capture and re-deploy activation content across digital channels
- Templates to calculate projected ROI before signing the venue contract
The Busyness Illusion: Re-Design Your Workday, Reclaim Your Life
“Busy” has become the badge of worth—but it’s crushing creativity and wellbeing. Damian shares science-backed insights and personal stories of overcoming burnout, ADHD and perpetual motion. Audiences learn a simple redesign framework to trade frantic activity for high-value presence, boosting both productivity and personal fulfilment.The Busyness Illusion: Re-Design Your Workday, Reclaim Your Life
Key Takeaways:
- A diagnostic tool to identify “performative busyness” in teams
- Time-blocking and micro-ritual techniques that raise focus by up to 30 %
- Strategies to reduce burnout-driven turnover costs
- A personal “24-hour redesign worksheet” employees can use immediately
Design Like You’re Dying: Unlock Urgent Creativity in Your Team
If today’s project were the last thing you ever shipped, would you be proud? This provocative talk reframes deadlines as lifelines, teaching teams to channel urgency into bolder, faster, more meaningful work. Damian blends art-school drills with corporate case studies to show how constraints catalyse innovation.Design Like You’re Dying: Unlock Urgent Creativity in Your Team
Key Takeaways:
- A rapid-ideation method that cuts concept time in half
- Mindset shifts that move staff from risk-avoidance to calculated experimentation
- Tactics to embed “creative sprints” inside existing agile cycles
- Morale boost: teams report higher purpose and engagement post-session
The Experience Compass™ for Teams: From Silos to Shared Purpose
Great CX begins inside the building. Using his proprietary Experience Compass, Damian guides employees to align personal values with organisational purpose, breaking down functional silos. The result: cohesive teams that think like experience designers, not departmental operators.The Experience Compass™ for Teams: From Silos to Shared Purpose
Key Takeaways:
- A common language that unites marketing, operations and HR around one north star
- Workshop tools to surface and solve cross-team friction points
- Increased internal NPS and reduced project hand-off time
- A roadmap for ongoing Compass “check-ins” without external consultants
Working With the Machine: Creativity Lessons from Nam June Paik & AI
The Korean pioneer who fused art and technology in the 1960s offers timely guidance for today’s AI era. Damian juxtaposes Paik’s playful experiments with current generative tools, showing leaders how to embrace tech without losing their human spark.Working With the Machine: Creativity Lessons from Nam June Paik & AI
Key Takeaways:
- A mindset model for “co-creation” instead of “man vs. machine” anxiety
- Practical guardrails for ethical, brand-safe use of generative AI
- Ideation prompts that merge human insight with algorithmic speed
- Inspiration that fuels an innovation culture beyond the keynote
