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B. Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore are cofounders
of Strategic Horizons LLP and coauthors of The Experience Economy. Each year they host thinkAbout, bringing together creative and independent-minded individuals for two days of exploration and vivid interactions. |
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Michael Benedikt, director of the Center for American Architecture and Design, teaches and practices architecture in Austin, Texas, where he holds the Hal Box Chair in Urbanism at the University of Texas. In his essay-book, For an Architecture of Reality, Benedikt argues “it falls to architecture to have the direct esthetic experience of the real at the center of its concern.” He calls for “High Realism” as “an architecture that stands against, or in contrast to, the culture-wide trend to ephemeralizaton and relativism.” The bound volume exemplifies in its physical form the very components of such realness – presence, significance, materiality, and emptiness – that Michael advocates. |  |
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Tracy Metz works as a correspondent for the Dutch daily newspaper, HRC Handelsblad, covering sundry happenings related to architecture, urbanism, and landscape design. A Californian living in Amsterdam for some thirty years, she is of course fluent in Dutch, but also in observation. Metz is most recently the author of Pret! Leisure en landshcap published simultaneously in English as Fun! Leisure and Landscape. The book examines how “free time” and “fun” are having a farreaching effect on the development of both cityscapes and the countryside. With regard to her own city residence, Tracy observes how Amsterdam’s dependence on tourists leads to a degree of contrivance, of staged authenticity, where she and her fellow residents serve to render realness for the city’s visitors. |  |
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William Ian Miller, dubbed by the Library Journal as “an expert on the unsavory,” is the Thomas G. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, and holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. in English, both earned at Yale. But he’s really a medieval historian. Miller’s tomes The Mystery of Courage and The Anatomy of Disgust have enjoyed critical acclaim throughout the world. His most recent book, Faking It, contends that we are all faking it much more than we care to admit. William calls the book an examination of “a world of posing and shams, anxieties of exposure, and a fear that the genuine may be just another sham whose cover is too tough to be blown.” |  |
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Mary E. Boone heads Boone Associates, a consulting firm specializing in improving the performance of individuals and organizations through innovative approaches to communication and collaboration. Boone’s most recent book, Managing Inter@ctively, addresses the challenges and competencies needed to achieve results in an increasingly networked world. Mary’s research makes clear that inside enterprises Communication = Change; and in dealing with external customers, businesses need to move from “Tell and Sell” to “Ask and Engage”. |  |
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Tom McGehee heads The WildWorks Group, specialists in staging collaborative work experiences – utilizing dynamic work environments, visual scribing, and real-time capture of output – that outperform traditional workplace decision-making. A former U.S. Marine, McGehee served as Vice President of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s Accelerated Solutions Environment™ before starting his own firm. He is author of Whoosh: Business the Fast Lane. We have employed his skills in visually documenting the past two thinkAbout events, yielding favorable experiences we can best describe as “Disneyland meets Parris Island”. This year, we invite Tom up on stage with us, and with Mary. |  |
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Dinesh D’Souza is the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow with the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. D’Souza’s first book, Illiberal Education, brought to public attention the rhetorical excesses and strong-armed tactics of political correctness. His most recent work, What’s So Great About America, includes his examination, as a prominent conservative, of authenticity’s emergence as a dominant ethos in American culture. This study provides invaluable perspective on the societal impact to result across the globe from increased experiential commerce. Interestingly however, The New York Times Book Review called the book “a thoughtful discussion of the character and historical significance of the United States” and “an indictment of American cultural conservatism”. |  |