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About

“The Texas Tribune Festival is a multi-day celebration of big, bold ideas about politics and public policy, featuring conversations with the leaders and influencers making the news. Each fall, the Festival engages, challenges and surprises attendees with thoughtful panel discussions, unexpected talent mashups, must-see interviews and provocative programming curated by the award-winning journalists at The Texas Tribune”

As the festival evolves, so do the needs of its attendees. This year, design research was conducted focusing on understanding the guest experience—examining how attendees navigated the event, engaged with the festival’s content, and connected with one another.

The goal was to uncover insights that could inform improvements for future events, with a particular focus on creating spaces for productive, engaging, and genuine cross-pollination and sharing of ideas.

Methodology

To capture a comprehensive picture of the attendee experience, I conducted in-depth interviews with festival guests, observed how they interacted with the event space, and gathered insights on their use of digital tools such as the festival app. Through this mixed-method approach, I’ve identified key patterns in how attendees navigated the festival, the challenges they faced, and the moments that stood out to them.

Read more about the research strategies I’ve employed for TribFest here.

Key Themes

As I documented the attendee experience through interviews, observations, and journey mapping, several recurring themes emerged. These insights represent the core challenges and opportunities that shaped how attendees engaged with the festival this year.