OVERVIEW

Most technology demos ask you to pay attention. This one locked you in a room.

Decentralised Digital Identity — the idea that individuals should control their own credentials, prove only what's necessary and never surrender more data than a situation requires — is a genuinely transformative idea. The challenge at SXSW 2026 was making it land with a festival crowd in under fifteen minutes. The solution was a near-future escape room, built from scratch at The Dock and deployed at one of the world's most competitive attention environments.

DETAIL

Visitors entered a darkened room, the door locked behind them, and an AI-generated video began to play. A fully synthetic briefing officer set the scene: an identity breach was spreading through Austin's networks, and the team needed Field Operatives it could trust. That meant them.

What followed was a sequence of physical puzzles, hidden clues, and interactive challenges in which every mechanic was wired to a real principle of decentralised digital identity. Heat-sensitive props, Infrared-revealed clues, a wall of AI-generated agents, NFC-triggered interactions — each step made an abstract idea tangible by making players live it. The room itself was a designed argument, every prop and interaction in service of a single idea about the future of identity.

AI-generated visuals and audio ran throughout, setting the tone with each phase and building the tension for a high stakes mission. After exiting, players moved into a reveal space where Accenture's team connected the experience to real-world identity risks and the work being done to address them.

Over five days at SXSW 2026, more than 300 participants spent up to fifteen minutes inside the experience, generating substantive leads for the Accenture team and multiple invites to upcoming events. Watch this space!

ROLE

Creative Lead — concept, narrative, experience design and technology

TEAM

Creative Producer & Experience Design: TJ Ryan
Visual Designer: Emi Daly
Writer: Peter Crawley
Tech consultants: David Meagher & Evan Greally

Created at Accenture’s The Dock

CONT@CT

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