Experiential production moves quickly by design. A temporary space may need to function like a permanent one, a live event may come together in days, and an ambitious creative concept still has to meet the realities of budgets, schedules, permits, engineering, and construction.
Few people understand that intersection as clearly as executive producer Irene Ashu.
In this episode of Foundations, MODAA co-founders Rosie Abramyan and Patrick Ahounber sit down with Irene to discuss her path from professional dance to executive production, the discipline required to lead high-pressure projects, and the future of experiential spaces. Their conversation also reveals why producers, designers, and contractors achieve better results when collaboration begins long before construction.
Meet Irene Ashu
Irene is an executive producer whose work spans experiential production, live shows, social and television content, and theatrical projects. Her career has placed her at the center of projects where creative direction, logistics, construction, technology, and audience experience all have to come together often on extraordinarily compressed timelines.
Her route into production was not conventional. While studying economics and international studies and later earning an MBA in marketing, Irene was also dancing and touring professionally. After rupturing her Achilles tendon during a major project, she began reconsidering her place onstage.
That injury became a turning point. Irene transitioned into tour management, stage organization, and production management, bringing with her an understanding of both sides of a live experience: what talent needs to perform and what a production team must coordinate behind the scenes.
“I have the vantage point as talent, and then the vantage point as production,” Irene explains in the episode.
That dual perspective became the foundation of her career.
Production Is Choreography at a Different Scale
Irene’s background in dance continues to influence the way she manages people, timing, space, and movement. Choreography taught her to see how dozens—or hundreds—of individual actions combine to create one seamless experience.
The same principle applies to experiential production. A producer may be coordinating talent, fabrication, staging, lighting, content capture, vendors, permits, budgets, and client expectations at the same time. Every component has its own cue, but all of them must serve the larger vision.
As Irene puts it, experiential work can encompass “construction, design, live stage, music, [and] content,” with teams effectively delivering multiple interconnected projects at once.
That makes adaptability essential. Irene describes production teams as a fire department: when a problem appears, everyone has to respond quickly, understand their role, and help redirect the plan.
Why Contractors Belong in the Conversation Earlier
One of the episode’s most relevant lessons is also one of the most practical: construction expertise should enter the process before a design is treated as final.
In traditional experiential workflows, an agency may develop a concept, complete renderings, and sell the creative direction before bringing in the general contractor or fabricator. At that point, the construction team may discover dimensions that do not work, structural elements that cannot be built as shown, overlooked infrastructure, or a budget that does not reflect the actual scope.
Irene has seen that process evolve. More producers and agencies now recognize that a general contractor can improve a project during pre-construction—not simply execute it afterward.
That early collaboration can help teams:
- Identify structural or logistical problems before they affect the schedule
- Price the actual scope more accurately
- Make informed value-engineering decisions
- Coordinate permits and building systems sooner
- Protect the design intent while improving constructability
- Reduce expensive redesigns during fabrication or installation
MODAA’s own commercial construction timeline reinforces this principle: the planning phase is when a project is most flexible. Once construction begins, every change carries greater consequences for budget, schedule, and execution.
For Irene, direct feedback from a contractor is not resistance to creativity. It is information that makes the creative work stronger. When an experienced partner identifies a problem, her response is to bring the team together, adjust quickly, and keep moving.
From Temporary Pop-Ups to Permanent Brand Spaces
Irene traces a major industry shift to around 2017, when brands began investing more heavily in spaces that felt permanent, even when they were designed to evolve.
Instead of spending repeatedly on isolated pop-ups, companies began considering environments that could support several functions: retail, content production, product testing, employee demonstrations, leadership meetings, and community programming.
This shift changes the definition of experiential production. A branded environment is no longer only an event backdrop. It can become a flexible piece of long-term infrastructure—one that must perform operationally as well as visually.
It also makes the relationship between experience and construction more important. A successful space has to create an emotional response while accounting for everything behind the walls: plumbing, electrical systems, accessibility, safety, structural requirements, and long-term maintenance.
Technology further expands what these environments can do. As MODAA explored in How Technology Is Transforming Luxury Construction, visualization and intelligent building systems can improve decision-making, communication, efficiency, and the final user experience.
Sustainability Is Becoming the New Standard of Luxury
The clearest prediction Irene makes in the episode concerns sustainability.
Brands are facing more questions about where materials come from, where they go after an installation, and whether a short-lived build justifies its environmental impact. As a result, clients are increasingly asking production partners and contractors to explain their building practices, material choices, reuse strategies, and long-term plans.
“The new luxury is sustainable,” Irene says.
That may mean creating permanent or semi-permanent spaces that can be adapted instead of demolished. It may mean designing modular components that travel between markets, repurposing sets from previous campaigns, sorting construction debris, or partnering with companies that give temporary materials a second life.
Sustainability is therefore more than a finish specification or a marketing statement. It begins with the lifespan and purpose of the project itself.
For brands, the question is shifting from How impressive can this look today? to How much value can this space continue to create?
Leadership Under Pressure
Although the conversation covers major industry changes, Irene’s most enduring advice is about the way people work.
She credits much of her growth to strong communities, demanding mentors, and teams whose standards pushed her to improve. She also emphasizes coachability: the ability to accept direction, remain curious, and learn even when a role feels smaller than the destination someone has imagined for themselves.
Her career has required optimism, but not blind optimism. The work is a balance between believing a difficult idea can be executed and understanding the consequences when a decision, approval, or milestone is delayed.
That balance is familiar in construction. Great teams do not eliminate every challenge. They communicate clearly, identify the next best action, and solve problems together.
The Future Is Collaborative
The future of experiential production will not belong to a single discipline. It will be shaped by producers, designers, contractors, fabricators, engineers, technology partners, and clients working together earlier and more transparently.
Irene’s career demonstrates what becomes possible when creative ambition is matched by operational discipline. Her perspective also reflects the purpose of Foundations: to pull back the curtain on the people, decisions, and working relationships behind memorable spaces.
Watch the full conversation with Irene Ashu on Foundations to hear more about her journey, her experiences producing complex live and branded environments, and her vision for more permanent, adaptable, and sustainable spaces.
WATCH THE EPISODE ON YOUTUBE — https://youtu.be/QRHYw4JPs9s
Irene Ashu: https://www.instagram.com/ireneashu/?hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ireneashu/?isSelfProfile=false
Explore more conversations with industry visionaries on the Foundations podcast page.
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