Thought piece by Becky Livesley, head of scenic project management, Event Concept
Ever been to an experience and found yourself genuinely transported somewhere else?
Maybe it was the faux stonework and set builds that made it feel like you’d really entered some ancient temple. Or the careful gold leaf detailing that convinced you you’d stepped into somewhere far more luxurious than the venue postcode suggested.
What you don’t always see is the work behind the illusion. The quiet obsession of scenic artists hand carving, painting and finishing until every surface holds up not just from the back row, but at arm’s length.
Today, there’s a lot of conversation about AI across every corner of live experience production. And there’s no doubt the tech has powerful benefits to offer. But from a scenic perspective, it feels like the right moment to remind ourselves of something important.
The magic guests truly remember still comes from human hand and human judgement
Scenic is where the emotion lands
For the sake of those outside the world of live experience, “scenic” is the craft of creating the physical environments that bring an event’s creative vision to life, from stages, backdrops and bars to hand-crafted props, bespoke carpentry and hand painted artistry.
Through scenic, experiences are able to create something truly wonderful and unique for guests. They can transport someone to another time, another place, or even back to a specific memory.
For Twilio, for example, we brought back fond childhood memories with nostalgic arcade game units, built with integrated technology within the event space. They were an instant conversation starter and a strong emotional hook for guests..
And for the Chelsea Flower Show, we transported guests from central London to a French château. Using scenic hand-painting techniques, we recreated weathered windows, aged doors and hyper-realistic stone walls, all based on real photos our team members had taken on recent holidays. The scenic finishing was so realistic that guests often touched the MDF faux walls to see whether they were really stone.
That sense of wonder matters. When you create a genuine emotional engagement (aligned, of course, to the event’s objective), you’re far more likely to drive behavioural change. Whether the goal is purchase, loyalty, advocacy or repeat attendance, live experiences work hardest when they when they make people feel something real.
The craft guests never see
We also can’t underestimate the human thinking that goes on behind the scenes.
In the workshop, scenic production is highly collaborative. Different specialists with various skillsets work side-by-side, inspiring and pushing each other. Sampling materials is also a hands-on process, with everything from the colour to the sustainability of the material discussed and tested.
And then there’s the experimentation. The moments where a render doesn’t come with instructions, just a brief and a challenge to make it real.
For one client, we were asked to create unusual “drip” forms without an obvious production route. We ended up heat-bending plastic around everyday objects, testing CNC techniques and iterating until the finish felt right.
AI is powerful, but that interactive, instinct-led process, shaped by experience and trial, isn’t something it can replicate.
Where AI genuinely adds value
None of this is to suggest we dismiss AI or its potential. In fact, it’s already proving useful in scenic development in a few key ways.
Tools like Weavy have helped speed up our early creative process significantly. Our creative team can generate visuals much faster, and we can place those designs directly into a rendering of the venue to see how their concepts will work in situ.
That context is incredibly useful. We can collaborate much more closely with creative teams, discussing materials earlier and sense-checking scale before anything reaches the workshop floor. It also reduces errors and helps accelerate approvals.
There’s definitely more we can do with AI, and that will be something we constantly experiment with and explore moving forwards. But ultimately, it’s a tool. It helps with efficiency and answering those early questions, but the craft and emotional intelligence of the event environment still have to come from human makers.
Don’t lose sight of what really moves people
AI will continue to transform live experience production, and rightly so. But let’s not lose sight of where the real magic happens.
Interestingly, audiences often feel disappointed when an AI image turns out not to be real. With scenic builds, we see the opposite. When guests at the Chelsea Flower Show realised the stone walls weren’t stone but paint, their reaction wasn’t frustration, it was amazement and delight. The craft and care behind the illusion was something they could genuinely appreciate.
That tells us something important. Exceptional scenic work isn’t just about visual realism. It’s about how it makes people feel when they experience it for themselves.
And for now, the work that truly moves an audience remains, unmistakably, human.