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For the past 10 years,
Pine & Gilmore have hosted thinkAbout, an experience
about experiences. This year, the event returns to the unreal reality of Las Vegas.
Pine & Gilmore answer a few real questions. |
Why Las Vegas? Or, rather, why again?
Pine: Vegas is, quite simply, the experience capital of the world, which is why we gathered there the first time in 2001.
Gilmore: We’ve had a certain underlying logic to our selection of cities the past few years: Keystone, Colorado, in 2005
to correspond to natural authenticity; Camden Yards in Baltimore in 2006 to align with original authenticity – and
particularly all things Retro. Last year, we thought Nashville matched exceptional authenticity. This year we return to Vegas for referential authenticity.
What do you most enjoy about thinkAbout?
Gilmore: I think we do a great job of staging provocations that trigger rich exploration of various experience and
authenticity issues. But it’s how participants play off each other in response to the stimuli that always amazes me.
Pine: It’s definitely the people. While it’s gratifying to have our books read, our ideas embraced, and companies changed as a result, at thinkAbout we see it live!
What do you think participants most value about the event?
Pine: Memorable interactions, newfound relationships, and practical ideas – probably in the reverse order. I remember turning to Doug Parker, our Managing Partner, last year during the second day debrief and saying, “This event may very well have to go on forever – everyone just gets so much out of it!”
Tell us about your Experience Stager of the Year, or EXPY, award.
Pine: The bestowing of the award is the capstone to the event, where we recognize one company that best exemplifies the principles of experience staging. Just naming our past winners provides the list of companies to examine for success today: American Girl, Robert Stephen’s Geek Squad. . .
Gilmore: Before it was ever a glint in Best Buy’s eye, I might add.
Pine: Exactly. Chip Conley’s Joie de Vivre Hospitality, LEGO, the Cerritos Public Library, ChartHouse Learning for its Fish! video, HOK Sport Venue Event, Cereality, and TST, Inc., for its Engineerium.
And the Experience Management Achievement, or EMA, award?
Gilmore: We began giving this award out a few years ago to thinkAbout alumni who have made the greatest experiential impact on their industries. Sonia Rhodes of Sharp Healthcare and Gary Adamson of
Starizon received the award for their groundbreaking work in healthcare; then Jeff Kallay of TargetX for his efforts in reinventing college tours; and last year Steve Dragoo of Service Solutions Consulting for his work in enhancing shopping and dining experiences in the food industry.
What is the key point in your book, Authenticity?
Pine: That whenever experiences come to the fore, issues of authenticity follow closely behind. Today, people want the real from the genuine – not the fake from some phony. The number one imperative for businesses, therefore, is to
render your offerings to be perceived as authentic.
When did the concept of authenticity first hit home for you?
Gilmore: When we spoke at events after the publication of The Experience Economy, so many people saw the staging of experiences as fake. To some, buying experiences in and of itself was inauthentic. Others had no problem with experiences, but objected to the term staging. It became clear that the dominant filter through which people were evaluating the emerging Experience Economy concerned what’s real and what’s fake.
How do you come up with insights about what’s happening in the world?
Pine: Jim once gave me this Frank & Ernest comic strip of these two bums, with the caption, “Our occupations? I am a student of the contemporary scene and my friend, here, is an observer of the passing parade.” That’s what we are! We see what’s going on in the world – not what will happen, but what is already happening that most people do not yet see. Then we develop frameworks that enable others to see it too and determine what they should do about it.
What are you thinking about now, beyond what you’ve already had published?
Pine: I’ve been increasingly thinking about how technology enables companies to meld the virtual and the real into new and different kinds of experiences. It’s a frontier that I believe will explode in the coming decade.
Gilmore: Conversely, I’m focused on humans being more human in the face of these technological intrusions in our lives.
Why are some enterprises slow at adopting the ideas you propound?
Gilmore [laughing]: They don’t send their best and brightest to thinkAbout!
