Dennis Walthers Turns AI Into Personalized Brand Experiences at Interactive Dallas, Launches PhotoBoothCanvas

DALLAS, USA, November 2nd, 2026, FinanceWire

The experiential technology founder helps event planners create customized, rentable activations, and brings branded design tools to photo booth operators through PhotoBoothCanvas.

Dennis Walthers, founder and CEO of Interactive Dallas, is expanding the company’s range of AI-powered brand activations for corporate events, trade shows, conferences, product launches, sponsor activations and private events. Alongside that work, Walthers has launched PhotoBoothCanvas, a new complementary business that helps photo booth owners create themed and branded overlays for their photos.

Interactive Dallas customizes and rents interactive experiences that event planners can tailor to their audience, goals, theme and branding. Rather than positioning itself as a standard photo booth rental company, it focuses on experiential technology, using AI, personalization and interactive storytelling to give guests an active role at live events.

From Attention to Participation

Walthers brings more than 20 years of leadership in sales, marketing and experiential activation to that work, including roles at D-Link Systems, Cisco Systems and Polaroid. That background in technology and business shapes a simple view of what makes an activation work.

In his view, a strong activation does three things. It gives people a meaningful role in the experience rather than asking them to watch. It connects clearly to the brand’s message. And it creates something worth remembering or sharing after the event ends.

“The value of an activation isn’t just the picture or video,” Walthers said. “It’s giving people a personal connection to the brand and something that keeps that connection alive after the event.”

Three Activations, Three Business Purposes

The company’s AI photo experiences show how that thinking plays out. Guests pose individually or in groups, and within seconds AI generates themed portraits, with no green screen needed. Each image can carry a company’s logo, colors or message, turning a moment of fun into a branded keepsake guests are likely to keep and share. For a trade show booth, it is also a practical way to draw visitors in.

At Southwest Airlines, Interactive Dallas used its AI Booth to support a brand campaign for greater legroom by turning guests into superheroes. Featured as a televised brand activation story on Jimmy Fallon’s On Brand, the experience gave participants personalized, Southwest-themed images, giving them an active role in the experience and a branded keepsake to take with them. The example illustrates Walthers’ approach, matching the technology to the audience, the brand message and the practical demands of the event.

Iris photography takes a more personal approach. Guests have a close-up image of their own eye captured and turned into a distinctive piece of art. Because no two irises are alike, every result is one of a kind, which makes it a natural fit for sponsors who want attendees to leave with something memorable that carries their brand.

Cinematic Freeze Frame experiences place guests inside customized scenes with a dramatic time-freeze effect. The setting and action can reflect a sponsor’s campaign, sports theme or brand story, creating a short video guests can share after the event.

How Planners Should Choose an Activation

For event planners weighing their options, Walthers recommends starting with the result rather than the technology. The first question is what the brand wants the audience to do, whether that is visiting a booth, sharing content, joining a mailing list or simply spending more time with a sponsor.

From there, planners should consider brand relevance, so the experience feels connected to the message rather than added on, and personalization, which gives each guest a reason to take part. Practical factors matter just as much, including the space available and guest throughput, since an activation that creates long queues can frustrate the very audience it is meant to engage. Finally, planners should decide in advance how success will be measured, so the activation can be judged on real outcomes.

AI as Part of the Brand Story

Walthers sees AI as a way to make attendees part of the brand story rather than spectators to it. Real-time personalization allows a brand to place each guest inside its theme, campaign or world, creating content that feels individual rather than generic. He has discussed these ideas, including AI-driven photography and personalization, on the Event Experience podcast from event technology company Bizzabo.

He is equally clear that technology alone is not enough. Thoughtful creative direction decides whether an AI experience feels on-brand, and reliable execution decides whether it works smoothly on the day, when hundreds of guests may be waiting their turn.

That focus on branded visual content led to PhotoBoothCanvas. The new business provides an AI-powered overlay generator that helps photo booth owners design transparent, branded and event-ready overlays in minutes, for weddings, corporate events, holidays, 360 booths and branded activations. For operators, it simplifies one of the most time-consuming parts of preparing a custom event, while giving clients graphics that match their theme and branding.

About Interactive Dallas

Interactive Dallas is an experiential marketing company founded by Dennis Walthers that customizes and rents interactive experiences for corporate events, trade shows, conferences, product launches, sponsor activations and private events. Its activations include AI photo experiences, iris photography, digital graffiti walls, interactive LED experiences and cinematic Freeze Frame video. More information is available at interactivedallas.com. Walthers is also the founder of PhotoBoothCanvas, an AI photo booth overlay generator available at photoboothcanvas.com. More about Walthers is available at denniswalthers.com.

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