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Author: designmaze

Designing a Themed Space for Your Business

If you’re starting a business, moving your business, or just wanting to give your space a much-needed face lift—what are your options?  If you’ve got the budget, you may be inclined to seek out a designer to create that perfect space.  There are many talented designers and firms out there that specialize in commercial storefront or workplace design.  However, if you’re in the market for a glow-up on a budget, here are a few things to consider if you’re planning to tackle this sort of project yourself:

Purpose built.

One of the greatest barriers to commercial design is durability.  Commercial spaces frequently see more heavy traffic than our homes, and often need to be designed using furniture and surfaces that are made to handle such traffic.  At Dimension XR, we opted to use paints that had a scratch resistant rating to fight scuffing and marking.  In addition, we went with a finish that was conducive to regular wiping and cleaning.  In a fun, family friendly atmosphere, such as ours, where we host birthday parties, corporate events, and other meetings we’re very prone to accumulating curious fingerprints—so durability and cleanliness were key purposes to consider.  We also chose to use standard spec construction grade materials that would be readily available now and in years to come.  This choice enables us to pivot and grow along with the needs of the business while still maintaining consistency in materials and furniture.

Intentionally branded.

If your space isn’t customer facing, you may not have much need for branding inside your space.  When we were planning for Dimension XR, we knew we needed to have a tasteful branding presence throughout the space to inject some ownership and representation into it.  Doing so also affords the brand visibility in photo and video content that is captured in the space.  This is something that can be easily overdone—which you also don’t want.  In order to keep this potentiality in check, we limited ourselves to one branded piece per major room inside the space.  In our lobby, we settled on a bold backlit sign just to the rear of our point-of-sale installation.  In our main arena, we opted to utilize a projector that projects a large logo on one of the main walls of the space.  Just outside that area, we installed a large vinyl cutout of our icon that doubles as a selfie wall.  Even these three intentional branded items bring a sense of intentionality to the experience.

It’s all about feel.

Sometimes it can be hard to realize or conceptualize the ways that a room imparts a “feel”.  When designing, however, this is at the forefront of the intent.  Since Dimension XR exists in the virtual reality gaming space, we needed to convey a feeling of awe when the customer enters.  Since our flagship experience is a virtual reality laser tag game called Limitless VR, we felt that lighting would be an important vehicle for communicating such a feeling.  The backlit sign is the centerpiece, with backlit modern art panels emanating light from their perimeters.  Controlled light pours through small holes in the panels shrouding the fluorescent tubes in the ceiling.  Plexiglass panels in the drop ceiling allow colored light to pour in—while hinting that another dimension exists just beyond the barrier.  In our arena, colored bulbs explode from the center of the room, priming the viewers eyes to the bursts of glow coming from the flood lights pouring over each corner of the space.  Modern art panels continue in this room—giving a nod of continuity to the lobby area.

Whatever the budget, intentionality and planning can come together to create a space that’s worthy of representing your business to your customers, clients, and staff.  Have fun with it.

How VR is Disrupting the Laser Tag Industry

Laser Tag is a household name in the United States today and is especially popular among kids. It is frequently experienced as part of parties and events at thousands of arcades and arenas globally. The technology behind laser tag was first introduced during the 1970’s and early 1980’s when then U.S. Army developed combat training technologies for soldiers. Called the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES), this precursor to modern-day laser tag technology is still in use by the army.

After the world’s first laser tag entertainment facility, Photon Center, opened in 1984, the concept was widely adopted within the United States and subsequently globally. However, in recent years laser tag’s popularity has been declining due to rising consumer expectation, more at-home entertainment options, and the desire for more exciting, immersive experiences.

Concurrent with laser tag’s decline has been a slow, but steady rise in popularity of virtual reality (VR) entertainment experiences at arcades and entertainment centers. However, until recently, VR systems were expensive, clunky, and have not been able to match laser tag’s ability to handle large groups of players simultaneously. A new VR system named LimitlessVR debuted at the IAAPA EXPO in Orlando, FL to much fanfare. It boasted 16 simultaneous players with the promise of up to 30 players. Furthermore, LimitlessVR could be played in the same arena as traditional laser tag system.

This system represented a major turning point for the laser tag experience. By leveraging VR technology, laser tag players could experience a potentially unlimited number of themed environments, many powerups and weapon choices, and visually engaging special effects during gameplay.

By the Summer of 2022, the LimitlessVR system was featured in four entertainment facilities globally, with many more venues poised to offer the system in late 2022 and throughout 2023. Some in the industry expect that the rise of VR laser tag systems will eclipse the analog laser tag systems that were popular in the 1980’s and 1990’s. It is expected that this disruption to the laser tag industry will ultimately reverse the declining trend by bringing people back to entertainment facilities for some traditional group fun, but with a high-tech twist.

Dimension XR is one of the first few locations that publicly launched the LimitlessVR system in 2022, serving the Seattle region with its first arena-scale VR laser tag system.

XR Technology Ushers in a New Era of More Accessible Immersive Experiences for Everyone

Historically, to experience world-class entertainment (e.g., special rides, immersive museums) people needed to travel far or purchase expensive tickets to theme parks and other similar establishments. Large swaths of the global population have little hope of ever experiencing such things during their lifetimes due to the high cost and barriers of these establishments.

With XR technology, we can now bring immersive experiences to people without the need to build expensive props, mechanisms, and without the need for huge properties. We can build amazing experiences for VR that rival, if not exceed incumbent physical experiences and bring these experiences to large and small communities alike, both around the country and around the world.

The Digital Revolution massively lowered the cost of distributing pictures, documents, videos, and music by removing the requirement for physical media. It disrupted entire industries. The XR Revolution will do the same for spatial experiences. All you need are headsets and a simple space – indoors or outdoors.

In its fully realized state, I envision a location where people can gather, put on headsets, and transport themselves to an amazing world of wonder and amazement. People can play competitive games together, such as LimitlessVR titles and laser tag games, go on journeys together like riding through an adventurous ancient jungle or serenely sail down the waterways of Venice. Groups can come for educational experiences to interact with exhibits to learn of the wonders of science and technology, take a walk through history, or learn about the amazing world of musical instruments. The number of experiences may be vast, yet the physical footprint small. With no physical change needed, countless experiences can share the same area.

Dimension XR launched in June 2022 with this vision and goal in mind. The goal to make world-class entertainment and informational experiences more accessible and affordable to all communities through the power of virtual and augmented reality.

How to Plan Your Corporate Event

Planning a corporate event can be fun and exciting but also headache-inducing. With so many details to think through, what can you do to ensure that the event goes smoothly, and your team has a good time? This article provides some valuable tips to ensure a well-executed corporate event that will make you look like a planning hero! Some of the main issues to tackle are as follows:

Who?

Will this be an event for all the staff at your company or a subset? For example, board members, district managers, area managers, store managers, shift leads, all employees, etc. Who is making the decision on which people are coming to the event?

What?

Based on how many people you have attending and who will be attending the event, what should you do? It could be an evening out, a full day trip, a weekend retreat or all of the above. What is something that would fit with the group of people who are attending? You could do a weekend trip for your Board or Executive staff but most likely not for all of your employees unless you have a small team.

When?

Some of this will likely be decided based on the number of people you will have attend the event. If there are going to be fewer people, it could potentially be a much longer event, lasting multiple days. However, if there will be a large number of people, the likelihood is that your event will last a number of hours. It is also important to decide if you will have this during work hours or in the evening or on the weekend. This is largely a financial and personal decision. Some places, such as our company, Dimension XR, offer discounts for corporate events that book during slower business hours like weekday afternoons. This is something to consider when looking at the financial impact of your event.

Where?

This is the meat and potatoes of your decision making process on your corporate event. If you are planning a weekend getaway, which hotel and what activities will you book? If you decide to do an evening event, which venue will you opt for and will it be somewhere with catering and some sort of engaging activity, or will you opt to do a more casual hors-d’oeuvres, drinks and mingling? There is no wrong option. It is just a question of which fits your budget and event attendee needs and desires.

Why?/Theme

This is the question of whether there is a theme to your event or not. If there is a reason that you are having the event such as a 10 year business anniversary or a major partner’s birthday, then you have a theme right there. Sometimes you don’t need a theme for a corporate event, it can just be a good time for your staff to enjoy themselves and get some bonding experiences to further their camaraderie which will increase their performance. Bonus for you. At Dimension XR, we offer a free roam virtual reality laser tag experience, called Limitless VR which, despite shooting lasers at one another, really develops a deep sense of engagement and bonding between the players.

The most important aspect of planning a stellar corporate event is to give yourself the time to get what you need done without having to rush and accept the “good-enough” options. Take the time to look at your finances, have a budget for the event, and I know that you will be able to come up with something fantastic. One of the best corporate events I ever attended was when I was working for a county organization, and they took all of their employees to the beach and provided hamburgers or hotdogs and we just got the afternoon off of work to engage in preplanned corporate bonding activities and eat lunch right next to the ocean. It did not cost a lot for the county, but we had a great time. You can do a lot with a little.

To get more information about the corporate event packages we offer at Dimension XR you can visit us on the web at www.dimensionxr.com, email us at info@dimensionxr.com, or call us at 833-664-8727.

How to Plan a Great Birthday Party for Your 10-Year-Old Child

There are many ideas about how to begin planning a party for your 10-year-old. However, the most important aspect to start with is what your child enjoys. By this time, you have spent 10 years taking care of the needs and desires of your child so you are familiar with what those are. You are probably quite knowledgeable about the fact that, at this age, they can change every 5 seconds. The newest movie, TV show, or toy can influence what they like and don’t like. At 10 years old, friends have a big impact on their decisions as well. Knowing all this, narrowing down what to do and how to do it for your child’s birthday can seem like a daunting task. Never fear! There following are general items to remember when planning your child’s birthday:

  1. Talk to your child – ask them what they want to do. Be sure to leave yourself with plenty of time to prepare (weeks to months not days). Give them parameters to make sure they ask for something reasonable and within your budget.
  2. Book the venue – many places have online booking options which are convenient but if that is not available or you have any questions don’t be afraid to call. Most places require a deposit so be sure of the date and time that you want to schedule.
  3. Invite the guests – there are so many ways that you can do this. You can do the traditional method of card invitations, phone calls to parents, text messages, emails, or one of the preferred methods these days is online invitations. There are multiple options for online invitations.  If you choose to use them people can respond immediately with how many people will be attending, leave comments, ask questions, and if you want to have some sort of connected amazon wish list for your child you can do that with several of them as well.
  4. Gather the decorations – whether or not your child wants a themed party, it’s a good idea to have some fun decorations. These can include balloons, banners, special napkins, cups & plates, streamers, centerpieces, confetti (have fun cleaning that up), pretty much anything that will liven the place up.
  5. Order the food – some party venues will have food available for you or specific places that they order from. Find out before you order your food.
  6. The cake – make sure that the cake is on theme (if applicable) and is the flavor that your child likes the most. Plan on ordering the cake at least a week ahead, depending on where you order it from. Specialty bakeries may take longer to prepare them. Better to be early than late!
  7. Goodie bags – this is more of an optional thing. You can choose to make goodie bags for the children who attend that party, but it is by no means required. They are most likely still appreciated at this age. Though probably stick to candy more than toys.

How can we help?

Dimension XR is an immersive experience center in Tukwila, WA which offers exciting virtual reality experiences such as VR laser tag. We opened our doors in June of 2022. We are a business created to facilitate the use of Virtual Reality in individual, family, group, and corporate bonding. We believe that Virtual Reality can be an avenue to experience places, ideas, events, and fun in a healthy and engaging way.

At Dimension XR we offer party packages which include:

  • Unlimited Virtual Reality Laser-Tag for your party time which includes both Limitless VR and/or Recoil
  • Disposable utensils, napkins, & plates and tables, chairs, & tablecloths
  • Various time options, from 1.5 – 3.5 hours
  • Online Booking
  • Pre-payment
  • Staff member(s) to help exclusively with your needs
  • Happy to answer any questions or help in any way that we can

To find out more about us or to book a party, you can visit www.dimensionxr.com, email info@dimensionxr.com, or call 833-664-8727.