Key Takeaways from the AGE 2026 About the Future of Pub + Club Design
Our team spent time at the Australasian Gaming Expo (AGE) in Sydney last week, we noticed a clear shift in the future of gaming, hospitality and entertainment, and it has significant implications for how pubs and clubs should be designed.
Our big takeaway is that: the successful club of the future will be about more than gaming, food and beverage.
It will be about creating a compelling customer experience, stronger dwell time, greater flexibility and a venue people actively choose to spend time in.
For club executives and venue operators, six key design shifts are emerging:
1. Experience is becoming the differentiator
Clubs are evolving into hospitality and entertainment destinations, competing for customers alongside restaurants, bars, hotels and lifestyle venues.
Experience-led interior design can create stronger arrival moments, defined precincts and environments that encourage customers to stay longer.
2. Technology needs to disappear into the design
Cashless systems, loyalty platforms, digital engagement, security and data-driven technology are becoming increasingly integrated into the customer journey.
The design challenge is to make technology seamless, intuitive and unobtrusive, rather than allowing it to dominate the environment.
3. Flexibility is critical
Venues need to work harder across different trading periods and customer groups.
Furniture, lighting, acoustics and spatial planning should allow spaces to transition from morning coffee and casual dining through to events, sports viewing, live entertainment and late-night trade.
Flexible design creates opportunities to maximise the use and commercial performance of existing floor space.
4. The gaming environment is evolving
The gaming floor is becoming more integrated with the broader hospitality experience.
Acoustic control, lighting, materiality, seating and spatial planning can all contribute to creating a more comfortable and less transactional gaming environment, while improving the connection between gaming, F&B and social spaces.
5. Food & beverage is becoming a destination
F&B is no longer simply a supporting function.
Distinctive restaurant and bar concepts, stronger visual identity and varied dining environments can create additional reasons for customers to visit, stay and return, beyond gaming.
6. Social spaces are increasingly important
Lounges, communal seating, outdoor areas, sports viewing and informal gathering spaces are becoming central to the modern club experience.
These spaces support connection, community and dwell time, while allowing venues to cater to changing customer expectations and demographics.
The commercial opportunity
The next generation of successful pubs and clubs won't necessarily be the venues that fit the most into a floor plan.
They'll be the venues that create the most compelling customer experience within it.
This is where strategic interior design becomes commercially important.
Effective pub and club design needs to consider much more than finishes and aesthetics. It should respond to:
Customer journey and experience
Dwell time and customer behaviour
F&B performance
Venue operations
Flexibility and adaptability
Technology integration
Acoustics and ambience
Brand positioning
Customer demographics
Revenue-generating opportunities
Refurbishment and capital investment strategy
For club executives, interior design should be considered part of the commercial strategy, not simply an aesthetic exercise.
At X+O, our approach to hospitality, club and venue design combines commercial strategy, customer experience, operational requirements and design to create spaces that work harder for both the customer and the business.
The question for the industry is no longer simply:
"What can we fit into this space?"
It's:
"What experience do we want our customers to have, and how can the venue design help deliver it?"
The future of pub and club design is about creating experiences that drive visitation, dwell time, engagement and return visits.