Moving from a Service Economy to an Experience Economy: How to Make Your Meeting and Events Unique and Interactive Experiences

Everyone knows that exhibiting great service is an important component for any meeting or event. But, as important as that is, it's no longer differentiating or necessarily memorable for people who attend your meetings. The exception is poor service, which is often remembered for a long time to come. Nowadays, businesses are focusing on the overall experience they can deliver to customers and employees as a way to stand out from the crowd. Management advisors B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore first identified the idea of an experience-focused business model as the natural evolution from our service economy of the past several decades. This article draws on their work and applies experience economy concepts to meetings and events.

First, let's look at some examples that will clarify this concept.

• Rainforest Café is a chain of restaurants that serve food like any other restaurant. But they also sell an experience. At the Rainforest Café you sit amidst a misting rainforest and periodically, the animals come alive and treat you to a show.
• At Disney parks one doesn't merely ride rides. Each visitor is a "guest" and is treated to an overall magical experience.
• Visit an Apple Store and you don't just buy technology, you get to experience technology in a hands-on environment.

When you're planning to make your meeting or event a memorable experience, there are many considerations. First, how will the audience participate? Will they be passive observers or active participants? Generally, the more active and engaged, the better the experience, with an opt- out opportunity for people who want less active participation. For example, if you want to give people a chance to participate in a group exercise, allow them to volunteer. That way the audience members themselves determine the degree of active versus passive participation they wish to have.

There are several aspects to creating a memorable experience including these:

• Create themes - Think about the high school prom. The planning committee's theme is carried through all aspects of the event. This is a good idea when you're creating an experience at a meeting or event, too. The theme can easily let people know what the focus of the meeting will be, and can direct the agenda, activities, decorations, food, and all other aspects of the event. As an example, if you're organizing a meeting to discuss the future of your company or industry, consider a futuristic theme. At one meeting in the legal industry, the organizers created a short, funny, Star Trek-like movie to depict the law firm of the future. It was memorable and highlighted topics to consider when planning for the future.
• Provide cues and takeaways - What are the cues and clues that you'll give to reinforce the experience? For example, at Rainforest Café, instead of saying "Your table is ready," hosts tell diners, "Your adventure is ready to begin." You can give cues through so many aspects of your meeting, starting with the invitations or brochures, carrying through to the setting, decoration, backgrounds of slides, etc. Takeaways are the indelible impressions people will take with them and remember after the experience ends. 
• Eliminate the contradictions - Get rid of anything that diminishes, contradicts, or distracts from the theme or experience. If, for example, your meeting is trying to deliver a customer service experience and your meeting guests are greeted by a surly employee at the reception desk, you are creating an entirely different experience than you intend.
• Incorporate giveaways - What will people take home with them to reinforce and remember the experience? At one meeting, the focus was on teamwork and getting employees from disparate parts of a company together. The company assigned employees to color-coded teams along with other employees they don't usually have a chance to work with, and staged a series of team competitions and activities. Everyone was given a t-shirt in their team's color to wear and take home afterwards. The t-shirt became a reminder of that day's experience. 
• Engage all five senses - Think about all of the different ways you can reinforce the theme through the senses. For example, suppose you staged a sales meeting with the theme "It's a Jungle Out There," in which the experience was geared towards helping people understand how to survive successfully in the competitive industry. The meeting room could have tropical plants, misting machines, and piped in animal sounds; food can be cleverly named after jungle animals; place cards could direct people to tables named after jungles around the world; and attendees could be given a camouflage-colored shirt or cap to take home.

An experience occurs when a company intentionally engages customers and employees in a way that creates a memorable event - what you can you do to turn humdrum meetings into well-remembered events?