A Walk Through Memory Lane: 2024

What a year! I can hardly believe that 2024 is coming to an end, and a new year of adventures, experiences, and transformative design is about to begin. It’s been a whirlwind for us here at Odyssey Works: wrapping up our third cohort of the Experience Design Certificate Program, starting a not-for-profit foundation, rebranding and launching a new website, traveling to meet so many amazing experience designers from all around the world, and designing an odyssey in France. Not to mention hiring me—Taouba Khelifa—to be the new Program Manager! So much happened!

Here’s a quick walk down memory lane as we bid 2024 goodbye, and welcome in 2025:

Experience Design Certificate Program

We wrapped up the third cohort of the experience design certificate program in November with a fantastic showcase of 19 experiences designed with intention, empathy, and an invitation to be curious and playful. We couldn’t be more proud of this year’s cohort and their incredible work!

To date, we’ve had a total of 46 graduates from the EDCP, with an exciting 30 new students joining us in 2025. We will be introducing our new cohort in January (and we can’t wait for you all to meet these incredible folks!) Keep your eyes on our social media for their intros.

We’ve also had the most applications we’ve ever had this 2025 cohort, with more than 90 applicants from all parts of the world and a cohort spanning Austria, Italy, Norway, Finland, UK, Sweden, India, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Canada, and the USA. It’s been absolutely amazing to see how the world of experience design has grown and taken shape in so many communities and cities from all around the world.

This spring, we also led a Master Class in France to design an Odyssey for Tiu de Haan. Tiu, for those of you who haven’t yet encountered her work as a ritual designer and creative coach, is someone who injects effervescence everywhere she goes. She ignites inspiration in others.

Working with thirteen fellows (strangers who later became a wonderful community of friends) we designed a 36-hour-long experience for Tiu DeHaan, to help her crack off the old shell so she could expand into the next phase of her life and make it home. I won’t spoil it too much for you — but I do invite you to read our Phase Zero’s about the inner workings of this odyssey here, here and here.

Connections Galore

We had the opportunity to meet so many brilliant experience designers in 2024: in the UK at our first weekend workshop in London, in Bulgaria at the Storytellers of the Future Summer Scriptwriting Base, in Poland at the College of Extraordinary Experiences, and in New York at the WXO Summit Design-for-Climate Hackathon.

Consulting

We’ve started providing consulting services and Experiential Audits this year (ohh what’s that you might ask!?) We will be sharing more about our work and process in this area in 2025.

What’s not to look forward to in 2025! We have a new cohort of students starting with us in January, we’ve got some weekend workshops we are hoping to launch in London (April/May), Brazil (July), and NYC (tbd). We’ve got our Family Reunion planned for August 2025 (more details to come). And those are just some things we have in the books.

We are grateful for the blessings that 2024 brought: the new friends and connections, the gifts of stories and experiences we’ve gone through and shared, and for the community that is being built all around the world.

Wishing you all an incredible end to 2024, with good health and endless opportunities for transformation in 2025.