Michael Wood
Vice President - CreativeWynn Design & DevelopmentMichael Wood is Vice President of Creative at Wynn Design & Development, working across
the design and creative development of major luxury hospitality projects around the world. His
multidisciplinary work spans interiors, architecture, custom-designed furnishings and lighting, decorative arts, uniforms, graphics, and guest experience, guiding projects from concept
through realization. With more than 15 years of experience, Michael has designed for Wynn Resorts, The Walt Disney Company, Four Seasons, and other leading hospitality and entertainment brands. His approach combines creative leadership with a deep appreciation for design history, theatrical drama, cinematic composition, and allure. Working with leading artisans, manufacturers, and creative partners around the world, Michael translates ambitious ideas into environments with a distinct identity and point of view. Drawing from an eclectic range of references across design, art, culture, and history, his work explores the relationship between context, narrative, and atmosphere, creating interiors that feel layered, evocative, and entirely their own.
The ROE of the Room: How Emotional Design Becomes a Business Asset in Boutique Hospitality
Return on Emotion (ROE) is a framework for treating the felt experience of space as a measurable business asset, not a soft afterthought, but a strate
…Return on Emotion (ROE) is a framework for treating the felt experience of space as a measurable business asset, not a soft afterthought, but a strategic design decision with real revenue implications. This session introduces BDNY attendees to the fo
…Return on Emotion (ROE) is a framework for treating the felt experience of space as a measurable business asset, not a soft afterthought, but a strategic design decision with real revenue implications. This session introduces BDNY attendees to the four sensory levers that shape guest experience; light, texture, arrangement, and objects/artifacts and demonstrates how intentional deployment of each translates into loyalty, dwell time, social amplif
…Return on Emotion (ROE) is a framework for treating the felt experience of space as a measurable business asset, not a soft afterthought, but a strategic design decision with real revenue implications. This session introduces BDNY attendees to the four sensory levers that shape guest experience; light, texture, arrangement, and objects/artifacts and demonstrates how intentional deployment of each translates into loyalty, dwell time, social amplification, and rate premiums.
The boutique hospitality market is in a post-amenity race. Guests have access to extraordinary physical product everywhere. What they can't replicate at home — and what no app can manufacture, is the feeling a room gives them the moment they walk in. That feeling is designed. It is designable. And according to emerging research in neuroaesthetics and behavioral economics, it is measurable. This session gives BDNY attendees; designers, developers, brand strategists, and operators: a shared framework for making that case internally, winning the budget conversation, and designing spaces that earn their investment back through emotional impact.
