It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since we kicked off our first thinkAbout gathering to delve into the innovative practices and immense challenges of the emerging Experience Economy.

In that short time, we’ve seen thinkAbout evolve from a cozy gathering of early trailblazers into a uniquely provocative event that today draws an amazingly diverse group of thinkers and shakers for two days of energetic insight, stimulating conversation, and thoughtful fun.

This year we unveil something truly special: thinkAbout U | an intellectual dormitory

On September 25+26, we’re taking over an entire hotel – the stylish Hotel Avante in Mountain View, California – and for those two days running we’re turning it into our very own intellectual dormitory to richly explore the strategies and practices for staging compelling experiences.

The concept is elegantly simple: great ideas stem from great conversations.

That means there will be no official speakers at this thinkAbout. Instead, participants will “own” each room and direct the discussions within. You will self-direct your own experience. Throughout the day, self-organizing groups will assemble and disassemble at will around topics they most want to pursue. To jump-start these conversations, a number of the hotel’s gathering places will be themed around issues crucial to the business of staging experiences, namely:

• Building Experience Businesses – generating revenue and profits from the staging of experiences
• Directing Human Performances – helping workers perform on the business stage
• Transforming Individuals & Companies – building on experiences to transform customers
• Exploring Authenticity – getting real in a world filled with paid-for experiences
• Relating 1:1 – using Mass Customization to create personal, memorable interactions
• Learning to Learn – building learning skills via movement, observation, and inactivity

While there’ll be no formal presentations, we have invited a number of folks to help us along the way. You’ll have the opportunity to interact with – and be provoked by – talent from previous thinkAbouts: Gary Muszynski and Sally Harrison-Pepper. You’ll gain insights from representatives of our Experience Stagers of the Year (EXPY) winners: Amy Nedoss of The American Girl Place, Robert Stephens of The Geek Squad, and Chip Conley of JDV Hospitality (who, not coincidentally, created the wonderfully inspiring Hotel Avante).

In addition, you’ll also generate creative sparks in rubbing shoulders with some kindred authors: Martha Rogers (co-founder of the Peppers & Rogers Group), co-author of The 1:1 Future; Tim Sanders (Chief Solutions Officer, Yahoo!), author of Love Is the Killer App; and Pat Esgate (Executive Editor, Entertainment Management) of The Entertainment Marketing Revolution. With this ensemble’s interactions, our own exchanges with you, and a number of other Pine & Gilmore provocations, you’ll find yourself thinking in wonderfully new directions throughout the event!

We’ve put together a most stimulating learning experience. You’ll find a lot more details about our intellectual dormitory inside the enclosed “bluebook”, so take your time examining it. But then act fast to become a part of thinkAbout U! Since we’re taking over the entire Hotel Avante, we can only accept the first 72 participants who register, so space is rather limited.

thinkAbout U: No canned presentations. No talking heads. No status quo.

Do join us.