Pages: 10

This book focuses on designing, staging and managing experiences within the context of the events, tourism and hospitality industries. It presents an approach for successfully creating experiences for (potential) end users that is based on combining insights and methods from the world of design and the social sciences, while taking into account current and future developments in these industries and wider society. With respect to the latter, one of the key issues addressed and incorporated in the presented approach is sustainable development.

Pages: 157

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 30

This chapter introduces the reader to the concept of experiences. It distinguishes and discusses three types of experiences that could purposely be crafted and staged by organisations and professionals as the product they offer to paying customers or other types of end users: (1) peak experiences or memorable encounters, (2) extended or extraordinary experiences, and (3) transformative experiences or flow. A discussion on the rise of the so-called experience economy highlights the increased importance of experiences in economic transactions or other types of exchange of value between experience providers and end users. Crafting and staging successful experiences needs to account for the different needs and wishes of different (groups of) end users. These experiences are based on tangible products and services, but also on interaction with end users. Simultaneously, different end users are likely to react differently to (promises made with respect to) these various elements of the experience. Therefore, this chapter reviews theories, models, tools and techniques that could prove helpful to organisations and professionals in shaping these elements and designing, staging and managing the overall experience they offer to end users.

Pages: 28

This chapter reviews insights and theories from the social sciences, such as psychology and sociology, which could assist in understanding and predicting how different people will react to specific clues and stimuli incorporated in (promises made with respect to) experiences to be staged. It starts with explaining why we, as consumers or other types of end users, want experiences in the first place. This discussion is linked to how we pursue happiness and how our own personal values guide us in this search. Subsequently, the way we learn and memorise things are highlighted. This chapter then reviews some specific methods, tools and techniques that could assist in better understanding and predicting the behaviour of end users within the context of designing, staging and managing experiences, and the key role of the concept of personalities in doing so. Finally, it discusses the details of decision-making by end users in relation to the experiences they are willing or inclined to engage in, as well as the relevance of archetypes and personas in categorising types or segments of customers and other types of end users.

Pages: 33

The process of translating end users’ needs and wishes into the design for a product that could meet or even exceed their expectations is called the design process. This third chapter reviews various approaches, methods, tools and techniques from the world of design science, and their relevance for designing experiences. This chapter highlights the differences between descriptive and prescriptive design models, and explains the logic and added value of generative approaches to design. It then presents seven generic stages that cover the whole design process. For each stage, the main reference points to account for are explained and several methods, tools and techniques that could be applied to complete it are highlighted. A few examples of the methods, tools and techniques that are reviewed, are: objectives trees, the Experience Purpose Canvas, the Kano method, the fish-trap model, and rapid prototyping. Finally, this chapter establishes that designing experiences forms a particular design task with particular complications, which requires a dedicated approach to completing it successfully.

Pages: 37

This chapter presents a comprehensive yet hands-on approach to designing experiences, which is based on the seven generic stages presented and discussed in the previous chapter. This description highlights the particular characteristics of a design process specifically dedicated to designing experiences. The presented approach incorporates personas as the starting point for this process and as the common thread running through all stages of the process. The logic of this approach, the reference points for applying it, and the methods, tools and techniques that could be incorporated in the resulting design process, are illustrated through two case studies: (1) designing a dining in the dark restaurant, and (2) designing a gaming convention. The first highlights how to apply the presented design approach to designing experiences for multiple personas who go through the same touch points in their customer journeys, whereas the second shows how to apply it for designing more complex experiences that incorporate a collection of touch points that individual end users can choose from to shape their own individual customer journeys.

Pages: 27

This chapter focuses on managing the staging of experiences. It shows how correctly applying traditional insights, principles, methods, tools and techniques from disciplines such as quality management, process management, leadership, and selection and training could assist in ensuring that experiences are staged as they have been designed to be staged. It does so by first addressing the basic requirements that need to be fulfilled to ensure that touch points which together shape the customer journeys that end users go through meet the specifics laid down in the design process. Subsequently, it focuses on process quality, interaction quality, physical environment quality and outcome quality. The latter three represent the three categories of variables that jointly determine how end users perceive the quality of experiences staged for them and, thus, three key areas to focus on in managing the staging of experiences. The chapter concludes with a section devoted to aspects beyond the specific context of staging experiences and a warning with respect to carelessly applying the methods, tools and techniques discussed in this chapter within the specific context of staging experiences. While traditional management insights and principles can prove extremely useful for staging them, they are only part of the picture in staging experiences that are meant to do more than just bring satisfaction and profit.

Pages: 54

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 25

This chapter represents an important turning point within the overall storyline of this book. It addresses a key challenge that all organisations and professionals, also those staging experiences, need to address: sustainable development. This is done through first exploring the details of the concept of sustainable development. Subsequently, the relevance of sustainable development for the events, tourism and hospitality industries is highlighted and illustrated. Finally, this chapter explains how the two key developments addressed in this book – the rise of the experience economy and the increasingly urgent need to accelerate a societal transition towards a sustainable world – jointly have already changed and continue to change industries such as events, tourism and hospitality but also other industries. It shows how these two developments could be argued to contribute to the blurring of boundaries between industries and an increased fluidity of the business world and other parts of our socio-economic system. It also sets the stage for discussing the consequences of these developments with respect to the business models and (alternative types of) organisation models to be applied by organisations and professionals aiming to remain or be relevant and successful in today’s and tomorrow’s society.

Pages: 27

The transition to a sustainable world is not simply a matter of innovation or good will of individual organisations, professionals and citizens; it requires questioning, confronting and resolving the self-reinforcing mechanisms that are embedded in our current socio-economic system. This chapter zooms in on these self-reinforcing mechanisms – especially those linked to the economy/financial component of this system – and explains how these might delay, damage or even destroy initiatives to create sustainable alternatives to this system. It also addresses the crucial role of the business world in escaping this lock-in and the various ways in which businesses and professionals have so far tried to make a contribution to sustainable development. It then portrays the contours of organisation models and principles that are fully aligned with sustainable development, as well as some of the challenges involved with applying them, especially within commercial contexts. This chapter then moves on to establishing some key reference points for businesses – and other types of organisations for that matter – and professionals aiming to make a significant contribution to sustainable development of our societies. These reference points relate to the type of leadership required from those making decisions, implications for the way these organisations and professionals organise themselves and, crucially, the need to convince others to join and support them in their efforts. Finally, these reference points are translated into a specific type of intelligence to be applied by these organisations and professionals: sustainability intelligence.

Pages: 56

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 23

This chapter explores what is needed to turn the apparent link between experiences and sustainability into a healthy, thriving relationship. It presents four distinct levels of ambition organisations and professionals staging experiences could commit to with respect to incorporating sustainability principles in the way they operate: (1) addressing the environmental impact, (2) accounting for people, planet and profit, (3) creating economic value through creating societal value, and (4) going all out and contributing to the creation of viable alternatives to our current socio-economic system. For each of these ambition levels, this chapter discusses what is involved and illustrates them with examples from events, tourism and hospitality. Subsequently, how to attract, lure, entice, convince or seduce end users to actually engage in these (more) sustainable experiences is explored not only through drawing on psychological insights but also through tapping into the evolutionary foundations of human behaviour. This chapter concludes with the observation that staging and managing sustainable experiences is certainly not a mission impossible but it does require intentionality in the design of the experiences to be staged.

Pages: 25

This chapter illustrates how the comprehensive approach to experience design presented in Chapter 4 of this book could be applied to design successful experiences linked to the four ambition levels with respect to incorporating sustainability principles established in Chapter 8. For each ambition level, obvious routes and opportunities to integrate sustainability principles in the ultimate design are discussed and illustrated through examples from events, tourism and hospitality. This chapter also shows how applying all reference points presented throughout the first eight chapters of this book could assist organisations and professionals in events, tourism and hospitality, but also in other industries and sectors, in developing the organisation models and social technologies required for being and remaining relevant and successful in our socio-economic system of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Finally, it highlights that these models and technologies are likely to no longer be based on the traditional (capitalist free market) perspective of the Business Model Canvas but rather by the perspective represented by the Experience Purpose Canvas, and the resulting organisations will likely not resemble traditional for-profit businesses but community-oriented networks shaped by all relevant stakeholders of those communities.

Pages: 6

This chapter reflects on the competencies – defined as sets of knowledge, skills and attitudes or behaviours – that (future) professionals involved in staging experiences would have to develop based on the train of thought presented in this book. However, this reflection is not based on a detailed discussion of the backgrounds to the concept of competencies, presenting a long list of relevant competencies, and providing detailed explanations for each of them. Rather, this final chapter follows the same logic and reference points used for developing the comprehensive approach to experience design presented in Chapter 4. Therefore, it represents the denouement stage in the overall dramatic structure incorporated in this book; the final part of the reader’s journey in which all strands of the story come together, any loose ends are tied-up and all remaining secrets are revealed, in a casual way, to allow the reader to take a deep breath and relax after having come this far.