Q&A with Dreamtek CEO Victoria Neeson
CEO Victoria Neeson leads Dreamtek, a video and technical production and services company in London, launched in 2001. Along with Liberty & Co. CEO Erica Boeke, Victoria recently authored this piece for Fast Company on the rules of navigating virtual XP.
Years in the biz: 20+
First job in XP: Managing global media and production (including XP) for an international investment bank
Currently working on: Being a CEO at Dreamtek
Where others can find you: LinkedIn
Q: Why do experiences matter generally? Why do they matter to you?
Even what you consider the most seemingly mundane activities matter and can leave a lasting impression, be it positive or negative. Creating the right experience for my customers is critically important to my business and must be treated very carefully — every experience matters. We need to be able to engage and impress our customers and we do that by creating amazing experiences.
Consider the amount of planning for the attendee journey you put into a live event experience and apply the same thought and care to your virtual attendees.
Q: What is one top trend that you think will define the next year of experiential? The next five years?
There is little doubt that the trend moving forward will be hybrid events and experiential will play a huge part in successful adoption. The hybrid experience will need to cater to all audiences in a viewer-friendly way. We need live and virtual audience on the same level. Consider the amount of planning for the attendee journey you put into a live event experience and apply the same thought and care to your virtual attendees. Event platforms and UX will play a huge role in this over the next year also.
Q: What qualities define the perfect experience?
My favorite quote from Maya Angelou is “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This is so true of any experience. It’s not about how pretty the room looked or how good the food was (although it helps!). Instead, it’s about how you felt when you left the room, how what you felt became a great memory and how it impacted you in some meaningful way.
Q: Describe one word that you would use to describe your outlook on your own work these days?
Accomplished.
Q: If you could expand your own creative/technical/analytical skills, what one skill would you most want to add and why?
I am pretty new to the wider world of XP. There’s so much to learn and engage with. I have set myself a goal this year to become more “curious.” Now, I’m not going to just say “no” if I don’t have an interest in something. Instead, I plan to explore all opportunities and see where they take me even if they don’t directly correlate to my work. I want to immerse myself into XP so that I can add value for my staff and customers. And I need to be open minded as to what that entails.
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