(Photo credit @acreativegangster )
#TECHTOPIC
Since my brief stint as Dir of Marketing/Membership for early networking startup TheSquare.com, I have always been interested in the symbiotic relationship between online platforms and offline experiences. It could be for connecting friends, networking for jobs, educating others, or finding new curling buddies. The two articles I highlighted below both discuss the evolution of experiences. While ‘content was king,’ the future is about engagement. (We’ve seen Facebook shift from just providing a place for you to share content with others to supporting vast growth in groups & online communities).
And the experience economy can range from wellness experiences to education to pure fun. Part of WeWork’s attraction was the physical place it customized to bring together fun & work for entrepreneurs who were spending so much time alone with their laptops. And while that company went off the rails for many reasons, places like Luminary and Chief seem to be succeeding by focusing on specific populations (namely women). It will be interesting to see if/how the rise in the COVID-19 virus & resulting quarantines will affect this rapidly growing niche that is navigating online/offline human interactions.
Want to learn more?
Investing in the Experience Economy - my former student Mercedes Bent (now VC Partner at Lightspeed) just wrote a great article on the experience economy
Content Used to Be King. Here’s What’s Next - writer & founder of online events platform discusses the idea ‘content was king, now it’s engagement.’
#WATCHING
“The Man” by Taylor Swift was a surprisingly awesome video. See if you can name all the cultural references seen in the video.
(Cheat sheet can be found here: What Taylor Swift wants you to see in ‘The Man,’ her gender-bending takedown of the patriarchy.)
