A recent study highlights a growing issue many of us feel but rarely address—digital fatigue. The constant push and pull of notifications, social media scrolling, and virtual engagements have reshaped how we interact with the world and one another. While technology connects us in ways never before possible, it has also ushered in an age of disconnection, leaving many craving more meaningful, tactile, and human experiences.
The study explores how over-reliance on digital platforms diminishes the dopamine-driven joy of real-world interactions. People report feeling overstimulated and yet underwhelmed by the fleeting nature of online engagement. This trend has implications for brands as consumers increasingly seek experiences that foster genuine connection, creativity, and emotional resonance. (full report)
The good news? This shift opens a doorway to innovation. The antidote to digital fatigue isn’t to abandon technology but to reimagine how it serves us—emphasizing balance, intentionality, and opportunities for in-person engagement. Events and immersive experiences are emerging as critical tools for helping people unplug and reconnect with their surroundings and communities.
At Alt Ethos, we’ve embraced this challenge by designing experiences that blend the best of the digital and physical worlds. Through thoughtful, human-centric design, we create immersive environments that engage without overwhelming, providing spaces where people can connect, relax, and be inspired. As we navigate the digital landscape, our mission remains to help people rediscover the joy of meaningful, shared experiences.
Fun Event Rentals: Unplug and Engage with Your Community
Interactive Experiences That Go Beyond the Screen
Forget passive scrolling. Fun event rentals transform spaces into playgrounds of creativity and interaction. From immersive projection mapping to playful LED designs, these experiences offer a digital twist while prioritizing in-person connection. It’s not just about technology—it’s about how it’s used to bring people closer.
Chill Spaces That Encourage Relaxation
Incorporating chill spaces within events provides attendees with areas to unwind and recharge. These spaces invite moments of quiet reflection and genuine conversations, promoting mental wellness in the midst of an exciting event. Think cozy seating, subtle lighting, and thoughtful layouts—all designed to prioritize human comfort.
Community Building Through Shared Moments
Incorporating chill spaces within events provides attendees with areas to unwind and recharge. These spaces invite moments of quiet reflection and genuine conversations, promoting mental wellness in the midst of an exciting event. Think cozy seating, subtle lighting, and thoughtful layouts—all designed to prioritize human comfort.
Our Innovative Services
Immersive Digital Domes
Step into a world of wonder with our immersive digital domes, where storytelling meets technology to create unforgettable experiences.
Interactive Installations
Engage your audience with our interactive installations that invite participation and spark curiosity through cutting-edge technology.
Projection Mapping
Transform any surface into a dynamic canvas with our projection mapping services, bringing your vision to life in stunning detail.
Virtual Reality Experiences
Transport your audience to new realms with our virtual reality experiences, offering a fully immersive journey into your brand’s story.
Why Alt Ethos
At Alt Ethos, we believe in the power of meaningful experiences to inspire connection. Our event rentals are thoughtfully designed to blend interactive digital elements with opportunities for community engagement. It’s about unplugging from the noise and plugging into what matters—shared joy, creativity, and connection.
Incorporating experiential elements, such as AR/VR, live projections, and interactive installations, can increase event engagement by up to 60% (Digital Agency Network, Coresight Research). These immersive experiences not only captivate audiences but also lead to up to 80% more social media sharing, encouraging broader participation and digital buzz (Coresight Research). Similarly, city-based immersive designs like pop-up installations and AR-driven tours can boost community involvement by 40% and social sharing by 30% (Event Solutions, Learn Hub | G2). Cities like New York and Tokyo have successfully applied these strategies to transform public spaces and enhance both tourism and local engagement (Digital Agency Network).
Alternative Terms for Experiential
Interactive
Engages participants in shaping the experience through active, real-time involvement.
Immersive
Engulfs participants in fully branded, interactive environments, often blending physical and digital elements. It’s used widely in XR and metaverse spaces to create transformative experiences.
Multi-Sensory
Activates various senses through sound, visuals, touch, and more to create a deeply immersive environment.
Experience Design
Crafts a seamless and impactful user journey, blending physical, digital, and emotional touchpoints for maximum engagement.
Immersive Storytelling
Focuses on creating engaging narratives that take place across multiple realities—digital, virtual, and physical. This term is widely used in entertainment, marketing, and brand activations.
XR (Extended Reality)
Covers a spectrum of immersive technologies, including AR, VR, and MR, providing a comprehensive term for any blend of physical and virtual experiences.
Phygital
Seamlessly blends real and virtual environments, offering practical yet transformative hybrid experiences.
Mixed Reality
Fuses physical and virtual environments, enabling real-time interaction between digital and real-world elements.
Our Innovative Services
Immersive Digital Domes
Step into a world of wonder with our immersive digital domes, where storytelling meets technology to create unforgettable experiences.
Interactive Installations
Engage your audience with our interactive installations that invite participation and spark curiosity through cutting-edge technology.
Projection Mapping
Transform any surface into a dynamic canvas with our projection mapping services, bringing your vision to life in stunning detail.
Virtual Reality Experiences
Transport your audience to new realms with our virtual reality experiences, offering a fully immersive journey into your brand’s story.
The Power of Language in Event Design
Choosing the right terminology in experience design is critical for communicating the distinct value and impact of your offerings, particularly at a strategic level. Words like “interactive” or “immersive” are not just descriptors—they help define the type of engagement your audience will have, whether it’s in a physical, digital, or hybrid environment. Using precise language allows you to shape expectations, highlight innovation, and position your brand as a leader in delivering cutting-edge, transformative experience.
At Alt Ethos, we recognize that language is not merely a tool for description but a way to frame the entire customer journey. Whether we’re designing immersive digital environments, XR-powered installations, or city-wide pop-up activations, our focus is on aligning the design with the message these terms convey. This deliberate alignment between language and design ensures that the experiences we create resonate deeply with audiences and stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Public spaces are undergoing transformations as we navigate new rules and guidelines for social interaction. Lighting design reinvigorates places and brings them to life. Murals or large building surfaces can be transformed into glowing dreamlike creations when they would otherwise be obscured in shadow. Architectural lighting revitalizes our neighborhoods to support vibrant urban life, creates a sense of security and safety, and attracts new economic activity.
Groups like the Project for Public Spaces have valuable information on the best ways to move forward with engaging community spaces in this time of transition. In our recent Experiential Design Playbook: Solutions for Engagement During COVID-19 & Beyond, Alt Ethos outlines a number of inspirational designs for public spaces that bring joy and engagement to our communities in creative and safe ways. Via projection mapping, LED wash lighting, and no-touch interactive displays – an entire public square can be activated. Whether we are gathering six feet apart in a public square, or passing through our usual main street now filled with outdoor public seating options — an experience can be illuminated with creative lighting design in simple and impactful ways.
When people are venturing out with their families this summer, they will be on the hunt for engaging experiences, community events, and comfortable interactions that will give a much-needed lift to their spirits. Seeing their favorite public places brought to life with light would be a great way to do just that. Through public installations and interactive experiences, such as the Illuminous interactive projection-mapped mural in Fort Collins, CO, our communities can be welcomed back to shopping and spending time in public spaces with fresh, inspired eyes.
We encourage downtown development authorities and businesses to convert public spaces into interactive art using projectors, lighting effects, and sensors. These placemaking initiatives not only offer free public access to an immersive, child- and pet-friendly experience, but are proven to stimulate greater economic activity.
Alt Ethos, in partnership with Reactiv.io, recently illuminated Denver’s iconic brick mansion by the Downtown Aquarium and I-25. Together, Alt Ethos and Reactiv are creating experiential designs in Denver to inspire connection. Future immersive collaboration includes the Tennyson Street / Berkeley area – one of Denver’s most historic neighborhoods with private immersive themed bungalow experiences.
Architectural lighting in conjunction with an urban revitalization plan acts as a vehicle that reconnects people with a sense of place to emphasize the true strengths of a community. In 1989, the city of Lyon, France, introduced one of the earliest holistic lighting master plans to revitalize the dense historic core of the city. The origins of the festival date to 1643 when Lyon was struck by the plague. Today, Lyon is known as the “capital of light,” hosting the largest festival dedicated solely to illumination, the Fête des lumières, in part commemorating the day Lyon was consecrated to the Virgin Mary. The 2019 festival attracted 1.8 million visitors over 4 days.
Urban design has taken on a new level of importance to keep the residents of urban areas feeling safe. Alt Ethos works in collaboration with city planners and corporations to commit to the health and vitality of its community. Contact us to set up a complimentary consultation on how your downtown shopping area, municipal buildings, or public park can be activated with light.
Here at Alt Ethos we thrive on finding creative and innovative ways to solve problems and help our community. The COVID-19 world crisis is no different. “We watched everything unfold as businesses were closed and friends and colleagues lost their jobs,” Ethan Bach says. “We wanted to help.”
We are using our powerful computer to run protein simulations of the COVID-19 virus to help understand how they function, providing new opportunities to develop a cure. Using the distributed computing project Folding@home, our computers now join thousands of other computers around the world to create a supercomputer. You can read the latest Westworld Article on this project here: Denver Design Company Alt Ethos Aids COVID-19 Research.
Stay up to date with the Folding@home progress on our social media: Facebook, Instagram, & LinkedIn.
Alt Ethos, an experiential design company in Denver, was invited by Wade Troxell, Mayor of the City of Fort Collins, to proclaim October 15, 2019 as Empowerment Through Creative Technology Day. This proclamation has recently been enacted by the Mayor as a means to encourage citizens to explore the creative arts through technological applications and renew a sense of pride for the cultural diversity found within the community. The reasons for this proclamation and celebration of creative technology are many. Alt Ethos, a company at the forefront of a movement to bring creative technology applications to the mainstream, is supported by many fellow private and public organizations. The proclamation is in line with the Fort Collins Downtown Development Authority’s dedication to economic development through technology and creative arts. The Downtown Development Authority recently put its Downtown Alley Master Plan into place, which encourages the conversion of local alleys into interactive art and technologically-driven displays. These public arts not only offer free public access to an immersive, child- and pet-friendly experience, but encourages new storefronts due to greater economic activity in otherwise low-traffic areas. The Downtown Development Authority worked with Alt Ethos in 2018 to complete the first of many interactive wall murals in accordance with the Downtown Alley Master Plan. The murals, painted by local artist Peeta, were transformed by Alt Ethos into an animated visual display. Using projection mapping technology, passersby can control the movement of the mural through simple movements. The project, titled “Illuminous,” is free for pedestrians to experience and enjoy in historic Old Town. In light of the proclamation for Empowerment Through Creative Technology Day, Alt Ethos founder, Ethan Bach, is excited to advance several new projects for the company. They have recently entered and won a Young Industry Professionals Award for a similar public arts project, and in the past spring partnered with Anythink Libraries to openly construct an interactive sculpture, combining elements of sound, light, and motion to encourage young minds to explore the opportunities in design and creative technology.
Alt Ethos is currently accepting invitations for new interactive community and commercial design projects, aimed at connecting crowds to their surroundings in novel and powerful mediums. To learn more about Alt Ethos, visit their website at www.altethos.com or call their Denver office at 303-800-4243.
Groups like the Project for Public Spaces have valuable information on the best ways to move forward with engaging community spaces in this time of transition. In our recent
When people are venturing out with their families this summer, they will be on the hunt for engaging experiences, community events, and comfortable interactions that will give a much-needed lift to their spirits. Seeing their favorite public places brought to life with light would be a great way to do just that. Through public installations and interactive experiences, such as the 
