Keeping up with the latest design standards, toolsets and analytics can be tough, but it's a must to stay ahead of competitors. During "Usability and Experience," leading UX and design experts will share their insights about how to create engaging, effective digital experiences.

"The Digital Summit will bring together some of the best strategists in UX, and I'm honored to share my knowledge of digital experiences and interactives with conference attendees," began Erik, adding, "I'll be sharing best practices to implement in a rapidly-evolving environment - as interfaces become ubiquitous, it's imperative to create designs that are easy to use and intuitive."

Erik's contribution to the panel will be his expertise in creating appealing touch-and sensor-based interfaces that engage the increasingly attention-deficit consumer. Using his extensive background in devising and executing digital experiences for huge clients at the world's largest sporting and entertainment events, Erik will present about crafting attractive, functional, and intuitive user interfaces that are intelligent, responsive, and data-enabled to capture relevant and informative analytics.

Erik has been a national leader in the digital marketing industry for over 17 years. Since founding Brightline Interactive, Erik has provided the creative direction and technical understanding that has established Brightline as a national leader in the digital and experiential marketing space. Erik's leadership and vision cut across platforms - mobile, web, installations, and live events all converge, providing award-winning solutions for clients and brands including 5-hour ENERGY, the National Guard, AT&T, Pepsi and the National Park Service. Erik is an alumnus of James Madison University.

The meetup will take place Tuesday, May 21st at the Digital Exchange, a studio annex across the street from Brightline's Headquarters, at 816 North St. Asaph Street in Old Town Alexandria. The location is walking distance from Braddock Road metro, and ample parking is available on-site.
To RSVP, click here.

DC Experiential, hosted by Brightline Interactive, is engaging, educating and exciting the Washington DC metro area with the latest and greatest of digital and experiential event marketing. Through parties, discussions, and presentations, DC Experiential focuses on all elements of experiential marketing and welcomes interested people of all industries to join the action.

The meetup group will be truly democratic, with pre-event surveys asking participants what they'd like out of the event: from panels to presentations, demos to competitions, DC Experiential will strive to be as inventive in its format as the members of the group.

"We all know the DC Technology scene is hot," began Erik Muendel, CEO and Creative Director of Brightline Interactive. "However, we've yet to land a place for those who use technology in advertising and marketing. DC has been called the next Silicon Valley, but really we want to be more than just a place where technology enthusiasts gather-we want to bring in people from every industry that can benefit from digital experiences, whether they are consumers, brands, agencies, or developers."

DC Experiential was started by Brightline Interactive for innovators in the DC area working in experiential marketing, including social media, interactive, and digital marketing. This will be the inaugural meetup, the first of many monthly or bi-monthly events to serve as a meeting of the minds.

Sam Santarelli has been a player in the digital marketing industry for over 13 years. Since joining Brightline Interactive in 2007, he has helped provide the creative direction and business relationships that have established Brightline Interactive as a national leader in the digital event marketing space. In his previous life, Sam produced historical documentary films, including the Emmy Award Winning PBS documentary, "The Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson and Wine." He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Virginia.

The panel takes place from 1:30-2:00 on the afternoon of April 19th. Joining Sam during this session are Svetlana Legetic, Co-Founder of Brightest Young Things, as well as Matt Schleyer, Director of Design at NavigationArts.

"In the realm of event marketing, you see brands activating with some really innovative footprint designs, and it makes my heart sad to see integrated digital elements treated as an afterthought," stated Sam, adding, "I look forward to exploring some great and not-so-great examples."

Brightline produces sponsored experiences for national brands at premiere events. Sam works with both agencies and brands from strategy to production through event installation and promotion.

The panel will address the future of the mobile and surrounding technology ecosystems, and address the new ways in which brands will reach them. With the advance of new technologies such as augmented reality-enabled wearable devices, voice and fingerprint scanning, gesture-based UIs, facial recognition, flexible displays and more, what will tomorrow's mobile devices look like? "Beyond Google Glass" will separate science from fiction and explore what's on the horizon.

Joining Erik during this session are Joe DePreta of Pearl Media, Jeremy Gilman of Pappas Group, Paul Capriolo of Social Ingot, and William Hurley of Chaotic Moon.
Brightline is the leading creator of social machines, turnkey experiences that translate digital actions-such as tweeting or RFID scanning or Instagramming-into a physical result, and vice versa. Social machines are conduits of personalized experiences. They work by both pulling in content from the cloud or through user opt-in sharing, as well as pushing out content, producing a physical or digital result. Tracking and data capturing are inherent to social machines, resulting in measurable, memorable experiences for both the consumer and the brand.

The all-star panel will explore the future of mobile markets, specifically addressing how advertising will reach consumers through new platforms, and how brands will reach consumers through emerging technologies. "Beyond Google Glass" will delve into new ways that devices will communicate with consumers.

"ad:tech serves as the perfect platform to discuss the wave of next-generation experiences," began Erik, adding, "We've pulled together some of the brightest thinkers in mobile engagement-with experts in advertising, non-traditional marketing, and ambient technologies-to explore how integrated technology sets are changing the digital landscape."

Social Machines are turnkey experiences that translate digital actions-such as tweeting or RFID scanning or Instagramming-into a physical result, and vice versa. They are conduits of personalized experiences, both pulling in content from the cloud or through user opt-in sharing, as well as pushing out content, producing a physical or digital result. Tracking and data capturing are inherent to Social Machines, resulting in measurable, memorable experiences for both the consumer and the brand.

"We're finally introducing our Social Machines to SXSW, displaying our unique skills set that fuses or embeds shareable, personalized experiences with branded content," began Erik Muendel, CEO and Creative Director of Brightline Interactive. "With a recent return from the Super Bowl, where we introduced some of our Social Machines to crowds in the hundreds of thousands, Brightline's Social Machine presence at SXSW is a natural progression and perfect fit for an event as important and innovative as this one is to the industry."

While at the Super Bowl, Brightline's Social Machines included a branded karaoke experience for the sporting event's presenting sponsor, Pepsi, which created an instantly-accessible YouTube video. Another Social Machine, created for Doritos, allowed users to embed his or her face into an iconic commercial, forming a customized video which can be shared on Facebook and Twitter or sent to friends via email. In addition, a Twitterbuild, which was projected onto large, branded community screens, featured hash tags promoted by a major credit card company to attract users both on-site and via satellite location.

Social Machines were created for SXSW's premiere sponsors, and will be used at several important points of location for the event, such as the main information hub, VIP receptions, and on the tradeshow floor. Brightline's four major Social Machines include: The Virtual Presenter, a show-stopping rear-projection onto glass; Social Booth, a branded photo booth with social sharing capabilities; a speed matching game played on iPads; and a scalable data capturing and identification verification application. The Social Machines will be ubiquitous at SXSW, seen accompanied with both roaming brand ambassadors and in established and unmanned footprints as well.

Several of these Social Machines will be traveling to the Georgia Dome for Final Four, as well as some new experiences. Brightline will be unveiling a Twitterballoon-an experience in which users tweet to a particular hash tag, causing the physical action of air being blown into a large balloon. The tweeter whose tweet causes the balloon to burst will receive a prize from the brand, bringing the Social Machine from digital action to physical act, and leaving the consumer with a lasting, tangible, and branded memory from the experience.

Partnering with Team Epic and The Marketing Arm, Brightline has created engaging touchscreen and gesture-driven experiences with monumental international brands sponsoring the marquee sporting event. This is the third year Brightline will be supporting the Super Bowl effort, both with the NFL experience in Super Bowl adjacent venues like this year's New Orleans Convention Center, as well as at private parties and receptions leading up to the main event.

Erik Muendel, Brightline's CEO and Creative Director, added: "We continue to bring our interactive experiences to sports' largest events like the Super Bowl, partnering with some of the world's most recognizable brands. Interactive experiences like these that we have created for Super Bowl XLVII amplify brands' presence at large sporting events, when companies must compete with a multitude of sensory experiences to attract the attention of the consumer."

Brightline will be unveiling a total of seven applications at Super Bowl XLVII: there will be a head-to-head matching game linked to a jumbotron score screen; a gesture-driven passing challenge that helps raise money for charity; a twitterbuild with photo preview; a karaoke experience that manages entries, encodes on-site, and emails participants instantaneously for sharing on social media; a dynamic application that embeds users' photo into iconic Super Bowl commercials, a trivia game incentivized with prizes, and a twitter application to feed the twitterbuild.

Your Tweets Take Flight will be held at the Digital Exchange (DX), an annex studio of Brightline and RedPeg Marketing in Old Town Alexandria. The address of the DX is 816 N St Asaph Street in Old Town Alexandria, 22314. The location is walking distance from Braddock Road metro, and ample parking is available on-site.

The focus of the event is described:
"As we become more and more mobile, it's important to keep consumers engaged in your brand through social media anywhere-whether it's a stadium, the club, an amusement park, or anywhere in between. Participants will learn ways to attract consumers through social media no matter where they are via experiences like Twitter builds, Twitter falls, Facebook connected RFID, and all kinds of developing hi-tech applications."
CEO and Creative Director of Brightline Erik Muendel give remarks during the event, wherein guests will see a suite of social media-enabled expereinces. Fresh from his trip to Super Bowl XLVII, where he and the Brightline team debuted seven digital experiences with integrated social media, Erik will be offering his insights about experiential marketing.

"The advent of ubiquitous social media can make or break businesses, and Social Media Week's expansion into DC marks the increasing need for companies to understand their consumer's mobile capabilities," began Erik, adding, "The incorporation of social media into digital experiences used at huge sporting and entertainment events opens channels for greater audience reach and engagement with the brand."

To RSVP for this free event, click here.

Social Media Week is a worldwide event exploring the social, cultural and economic impact of social media. The mission is to help people and organizations connect through collaboration, learning and the sharing of ideas and information.
In just under five years, Social Media Week has become a platform and a community that has grown to more than 100k members in 26 cities around the world.

Brightline Interactive is one of the nation's leading experiential marketing agencies. The DC-area agency specializes in building custom personalized digital and mobile experiences for national brands. Brightline has been particularly visionary in leading the way by incorporating gesture technology into marketing experiences.

In the coming year, Brightline's cutting-edge gesture-driven applications will be featured at marquis sporting events including Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans.

"Brightline has been exploring gesture for over a year now, and to see this technology gain so much traction at one of the world's largest conferences for consumer technology encourages us in pursuing more experiential and non-traditional marketing experiences," stated Erik Muendel, CEO and Creative Director of Brightline. "We look forward to seeing more gesture-driven applications in the field, and continuing to be in the vanguard of this new and developing technology."

Erik has shared his expertise in the gesture field at multiple conferences, including The Future of Touch and Interactivity, ad:tech, EVENTtech, and Touch Gesture Motion. During these conferences, Erik presented about the future of gesture-driven experiences, and how these kinds of technologies are changing the landscape of interactive experiences.

About CEA
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $206 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. CEA also owns and produces the International CES - The Global Stage for Innovation. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA's industry services.

Erik will be speaking as a solo presenter during the "Amazing Interactivity" panel. He will be presenting a 20-minute session entitled, "The Integration of Sensors into Gesture Experiences." The panel will take place from 3:40-5:00 PM, and will feature a total of four speakers. Joining Erik on this panel will be Greg Giordano, Senior Project Manager of Sensory Interactive; Michael Kosic, CEO of XYZ Interactive; and Jon Fox, Managing Partner and Chief Creative Director of Helios Interactive.

Erik has been a leader in the digital marketing industry since 1995. In 2004, he founded the digital experiential agency, Brightline Interactive. Erik sits as Brightline's CEO and Creative Director, where he leads an advanced team of media and application developers. Brightline produces sponsored experiences for national brands at premiere events, and he and his team work with both agencies and brands from strategy to production through event installation.

"Sensors are a largely unexplored technology that we're seeing develop in the digital experience space more and more," began Erik, adding, "Brightline is in the vanguard of exploring this technology, and I hope my presentation at the Touch Gesture Motion Conference will illuminate the many possibilities sensors offer in creating engaging, cutting-edge digital experiences."

Over the past eight years, Erik has led Brightline to become one of the nation's leading digital experiential marketing production houses. He has received multiple marketing awards has been featured in many industry related publications.

Erik's solo presentation will take place on Wednesday the 14th at 1:45 PM. The title of his presentation is "Activating the Power of Touch Technologies."
Erik Muendel has been a leader in the digital marketing industry since 1995.

In 2004, he founded the digital experiential agency, Brightline Interactive, where he leads an advanced team of media and application developers. Brightline produces sponsored experiences for national brands at premiere events. Erik and his team work with both agencies and brands from strategy to production thru event installation.

EVENTtech describes Erik's presentation as the following:

"The ability to create touch-triggered environments and interactives has changed the event industry forever. The architect behind touch activations for Infiniti, PepsiMAX and Sports Illustrated will show you how to upgrade your use of touch. Check out the top touch-based trends, see some case studies and walk out feeling like you've 'got the touch'."

Over the past eight years, Erik has led Brightline to become one of the nation's leading digital experiential marketing production houses. He has received multiple marketing awards has been featured in many industry related publications.

"'Activating the Power of Touch Technologies' will educate listeners about the importance of integrating digital experiences into their marketing campaigns and taking consumer engagement to the next level," began Erik, "Touchscreens are the one of the foundations of a truly immersive experience, and I'll discuss technologies to look for in the future-gestures, sensors, and beyond."

For more information, see brightlineinteractive.com. Find the full EVENTtech schedule here.