XP Land - The Art, Science & Impact of Experiential

Ones to Watch
XP Land’s top winter 2023 events and experiences
Resources
23 experiential statistics for your 2023 events

The Breakdown
The art and science of experiential activism
Monday, January 16, was MLK Day here in the US. The federal holiday is also our country’s only National Day of Service, encouraging Americans to volunteer in their communities and act on Dr. King’s social justice legacy. Much of that social justice work gained…

Field Guides
Explore all of XP Land’s Field Guides

Editors’ Picks

Resources
The Coolest Experiential Jobs Hiring Right Now
What to XPect
Are 2023 concerts and music festivals pricing out fans?

What to XPect
6 insider tips for creating your own immersive storytelling experience
When I think about what an immersive production can and should be — and consider the myriad of shows and experiences I’ve seen — the work of OddKnock Productions stands out the most. The Denver-based organization was formed by Brendan Duggan, Parker Murphy, and…
The Breakdown
How to invest your surplus EOY brand budget into 2023 experiences
Another year, another budget to spend before the clock strikes midnight on January 1. Of course, we can’t ignore the sweeping tech and media layoffs dominating the business landscape right now. According to Vox, “Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg cut 11,000 employees, or 13 percent…
What to XPect
The XP Land Experts’ 2023 Experiential Predictions
If necessity is the mother of invention, then 2023 is ripe — dare we say pregnant? — with experiential opportunity. No other industry brings such creatively diverse professionals together for a common cause: To make life just a little more exciting. In 2022, experiential…
The Breakdown
XP Land’s Favorite Activations and Events of 2022
For better or for worse, 2022 was the year we all took our masks off and went out into the world again, vaccination cards safely tucked at home… somewhere. As experiential writers and professionals, the XP Land team was able to experience our passion…
Ones to Watch
Top 2022 holiday season events and experiences
Holiday events don’t have to be the same familiar players year after year. While we love a trip to the ballet to see The Nutcracker or (waiting in a two-hour line for) ice skating at Rockefeller Center, there are plenty of new and nontraditional…
What in the XP Just Happened?
Let me tell you something about my fandom: The highs and lows of BravoCon 2022
Bravo super fans are as thick as thieves and will protect each other until the end… of the weekend. Last week, more than 30,000 people attended BravoCon — the network’s second annual fan experience — at the Javits Center in New York City. That’s…
XP Insights
The best new experiential stadiums in the world: Fall 2022 edition
It’s fall again, which means: sports (at least to us). To honor the season, we’ve updated our stadiums roundup to include a look at three innovative or newly opened arenas, catering to esports and gaming, the FIFA World Cup, and yes, even the NFL…
In My Experience
How to activate your next festival with the ease and care of Austin City Limits
The last time I went to a music festival, I was a footloose and fancy-free twentysomething. I woke up late, threw on some glitter, grabbed my keys and was out the door. Last weekend at Austin City Limits (in where else, Austin, TX) was…
The Breakdown
9 of the worst music festival fails (and what experiential pros can learn from them)
Music festival tickets are expensive. It’s rare to find general admission tickets for less than $100, and those don’t come with much more than entry inside. Only when you purchase a VIP, platinum, or insert-elite-ticket-name-here pass for three to four times as much will…
Q&A
If you create it, inspiration will come: Q&A with writer and creator, Trish Harnetiaux
A playwright, filmmaker and experiential creator walk into a bar… No, it’s not three people, just the multi-hyphenate, multi-talented Trish Harnetiaux — and she probably knows the bartender, so the first round is on the house. I first met Trish on a Zoom call…
Q&A
The artist is present — and ready to collab: Q&A with artist Domonique Brown
Even in the age of multi-hyphenates, Domonique Brown presents an impressive oeuvre. A visual artist with an MBA, Brown has shrewdly positioned herself at the nexus of culture, art and commerce, and the results speak for themselves. Not only has she produced a fabulous…
Ones to Watch
Rage against the greed: Experiential lessons from the Woodstock ’99 documentaries
Which music festival do you think of when you hear Woodstock? Your perception of the event may be colored differently depending on your generation. That’s right, I’m “talkin’ bout your generation,” cue The Who. Most of us — from Boomers to Gen Z —…
XP Insights
What could the future of Austin events look like?
After two years of Covid-related tumult, big-time events are back, hopefully for good. But what do people want from experiential events now, and what are the trends we’ll see more of in the next few years? This summer, the headlines about Austin, Texas, covered…
In My Experience
Inside Out(side Lands Music and Arts Festival 2022)
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”- Mark Twain Last weekend, San Francisco’s highly awaited Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival returned at last, bringing roughly 220,000 Bay Area music fans together for three days of live music in…
What in the XP Just Happened?
Sticking it to the man for 75 years: The best and worst of my first Edinburgh Fringe Festival
On a stage in Scotland’s capital city, a Cockney-accented actress playing a parody version of Ariel from The Little Mermaid stands next to a statue of Prince Eric with one *large* difference from the film (yeah, it’s exactly what you think). This is just…
Resources
Defining XP: What it is (and a bit on what it’s not)
The experiential world doesn’t have neatly defined edges. For some, it may represent “party planning” and the custom invitations, floral arrangements and DJ booths that come with that role. For us, experiential (or XP) is the magic that happens at the intersection of art,…
What in the XP Just Happened?
Going full out at Cheer Live, and why the show-to-experience formula is such a hit
When my pandemic obsession, Netflix’s Cheer, announced that the Navarro squad would head out on a Summer 2022 tour, I knew I could, I would, I must find a show to attend. Originally, I tried to convince a group of friends to venture out…
XP Insights
What the hell is artvertising (and how do we implement it in experiential?)
Marketers love silly naming conventions. Maybe it’s the creative in them — that artistic force that says, why be straightforward, when we could flex our originality and confuse people at the same time. Sales and marketing alignment? Nah, let’s call it smarketing. Displaying ads…
Resources
The Coolest Experiential Jobs Hiring Right Now
We are pleased to announce that IRL events are back, baby. With that being said, 2023 is shaping up to be an eventful year filled with great opportunities – for everyone. The experiential industry is the place to be and we predict that it…
Q&A
Unlocking the magic box: The future of NFTs and XP with Joel Comm
Nobody can fill a room with charisma and energy quite like Joel Comm. The speaker, best-selling author, podcaster and entrepreneur not only helped emcee last month’s NFT.NYC, but also put together a crypto-meets-comedy educational session for NFT newbies (right after a Q&A with filmmaker…
If You Experience One Thing…
What’s your favorite summer XP? And why is it minor league baseball games?
Major League Baseball gets all the attention. Sure, there are World Series games on the line, but with the average ticket to an MLB game going for $35 (and that’s before $12 beers, $10 hotdogs and $30 merch to look the part), where do…
In My Experience
High seas and higher demands: My introduction to post-Covid cruising culture
The first rule of cruising culture, I learned last week, is that you always talk about cruising culture. It was all anyone would ask on Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady — my first cruise since I boarded a rickety Carnival ship to various Señor Frog’s…
What in the XP Just Happened?
From Bored Apes to decoy Doggs: Inside the NFT.NYC zoo
As an experiential creator and strategist, I often find it tough to attend an event and not think about how I would have executed it. From weddings and bar mitzvahs to conferences and music festivals — I’m in tune with what’s going on behind…
XP Profiles
Take charge and gracefully interrupt: Media trainer Tim Braun’s guide to moderating
Over the last month, media trainer Tim Braun has taught us the skills needed to speak at IRL events and how to master the art of the virtual panel. But moderators just might have the most difficult public speaking gigs of all. Whether presiding…
What in the XP Just Happened?
Why do we still need film festivals in a streaming-first world?
It used to be that a film festival would screen dozens of independent movies, and studios would show up, buy the best ones, and release them into the world. But that’s just not enough anymore. Like all events and experiences, we expect the film…
What in the XP Just Happened?
You had to be there: Our favorite (and least favorite) XP from Pop-Up Magazine’s night in Brooklyn
The program said it would be “a night filled with dark skies, whisper networks, hip shaking, bluffing, inheritance, freestyling, lingering looks and more.” A collection of loose phrases that meant as little to me then as they do to you now, but this is…
What to XPect
The State of Wine and Food Festivals in a Covid World
In the Before Times, some friends and I took the train up to Hudson, NY, for a long weekend in the mountains. Decked out in our finest Brooklyn Does Upstate autumnal attire, we kicked off the trip at a food festival and chili cook-off.…
XP Insights
Give the Teens What They Want: 4 Predictions for VidCon’s Return to Live Events
We’re closing in on June 22, 2022 — and hoping third time’s the charm for VidCon. After canceling 2020’s conference and then postponing, and ultimately canceling, 2021’s (Delta strikes again), the teens are finally heading back to SoCal (back in Cannes-aheim, to be exact,…
XP Insights
Is experiential still the future of retail?
When I think of national holidays, retail sales and discounts come to mind before I can even recall the reason we’re celebrating with a day off from work. I know Memorial Day weekend is the best time of the year to buy a new…
Q&A
We exist to create beautiful experiences: Q&A with Gabrielle Muse
No experience or activation exists without the thoughtful insights of a strategist. So many of us, especially in the experiential world, would just be out here screaming ideas into the ether with no thought of audience, marketing or budgets. Strategists, somehow, ensure that creativity…
XP Profiles
Sponsored by me to sell me: Authentic brand alignment with artist and author Adam J. Kurtz
For multi-hyphenate artist Adam J. Kurtz, brand partnerships are part of what it means to be a modern working artist. And he approaches working with brands with the same joy and dedication he brings to making his own books, stickers, pins, and many other…
What to XPect
Updated August 2022: The Top 7 Summer 2022 Events and Experiences
It’s clear this is going to be an amazing summer filled with activities. Why? Because everything costs too much damn money and high cost = high demand. Commercial flight prices remain sky-high (LOL?) as airlines work to replace all of the staff they lost…
News
In defense of the Met Gala’s frivolity (even this year)
We all got a jarring dose of reality on the first Monday in May, while we were just trying to lose ourselves in photos and videos of gorgeous celebrities in kooky outfits. I won’t get into the leaked SCOTUS draft opinion (or my opinion…
Resources
Point / counterpoint: Is the boondoggle dead?
What comes to mind when you think “boondoggle?” A waste of time? A waste of money? Crafts you used to make at camp? While the traditional definition may have fallen out of the lexicon (except on conservative Twitter, of all places), in the experiential…
In My Experience
Welcome to the Live Music Renaissance
There were so many experiences I missed from the Before Times, while I paced my apartment during the height of the pandemic. Long, loud dinners with friends — the kind where you close down the restaurant and have to find an open bar to…
If You Experience One Thing…
7 pandemic era innovations we (now) can’t live without
Two years and 104 newsletters ago, the world came to a screeching halt. The pandemic began with nervous chatter and vague rumors about quarantining for “two weeks,” then quickly turned into a frenzy that changed everything about our world. Our go go go lifestyles…
Resources
Earth Day 2022: Fostering experiential sustainability in three (not so easy) steps
Happy Earth Day, but don’t get too comfortable. Put that green-frosted cupcake down! Events and experiences might be one of the least sustainable industries out there. Attendees take planes, trains and automobiles to get on site. Cases of branded water bottles sit unopened. Carefully…
Q&A
Nonprofit fundraising events get a post-Covid makeover: Part 2 of our conversation with FSF’s Peter Arnold
It used to be that the decision to hold a fundraising event, and what kind, was determined by the numbers. Nonprofit pros evaluated the figures that keep their mission alive, like revenue potential, expenses, labor and time. However, the past couple of years have…
Q&A
Glam Goes Global: Q&A with Condé Nast’s VP of Global Events, Cara Crowley
At Vogue’s 2022 Forces of Fashion conference in New York, Kim Kardashian shared that her 8-year-old daughter doesn’t spare her mother’s feelings when sharing her point of view. “North is very opinionated when it comes to what I’m wearing,” Kardashian said. “She’ll always complain…
In My Experience
It’s Giving Weekend 1: My First Coachella Music Festival
Well, what happened at Coachella certainly didn’t stay at Coachella. I attended my inaugural Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last weekend and experienced the welcomed return of festival culture first-hand. The truth is, I never imagined myself on the grounds of the Empire…
Q&A
Managing pure art and brand art: Q&A with founder, artist and executive creative director Martin Grasser
“Sorry I’m late,” said Martin Grasser the first time we met over Zoom. “I’m drawing a baseball player.” I expected to see barely-there pencil marks forming the base of what might eventually look like a batter in motion. Instead, Martin picked up his iPad…
Q&A
Reflections from 2022’s Fashion Scholarship Fund Gala with Executive Director Peter Arnold
What images come to mind when you think of a fundraising gala? Windowless ballrooms? Rubber-chicken dinners? Cash bars? Yeah, we’ve all been to events like that. But no one is going to put up with boring and self-congratulatory fundraisers in a post-Covid world. Especially…
In My Experience
Bad Vibes and Forced Surprises at the 2022 Oscars
I was excited for the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday night — another relic from the Before Times reemerging from its Covid slumber. I curled up on the couch in my stained high school lacrosse hoodie to judge gorgeous clothes that cost more than…
In My Experience
A tale of two SXSWs: An Austin transplant reflects on the festival’s return
When writer Jillian Anthony visited Austin, Texas, for her first SXSW in 2019, she loved it so much she eventually moved there. In 2022, she tells us what SXSW — back in person after three long years — looks like from the eyes of…
Q&A
What’s new for SXSW 2022?: Q&A with chief programming officer Hugh Forrest
There’s no festival in the world like South by Southwest. Founded in 1987 by staffers at the Austin Chronicle, the festival brings the best in music, film, tech and culture to the booming creative hub of Austin, Texas. After being canceled in 2020 and…
In My Experience
Viva Las Experiential: The best (and worst) XP from my weekend in Vegas
No city in the world baffles me more than Las Vegas — I have no idea if I love or hate it. There are so many elements of the city that intrigue me. Getting all dressed up to drink a $25 cocktail before a…
Backstage
The show behind the show: 5 lessons for managing speakers and talent at events
Backstage at an event is experiential inception. From the green room to the press room, it’s a custom concierge experience with the weight of the world on its shoulders. While event producers power walk through industrial kitchens and whisper-scream at each other into their…
News
Miami is the most innovative city for experiential right now
With year-round summer, no state income tax, and notoriously lax Covid protocols, does Miami’s experiential boom have staying power? It started with a tech boom. Which started with a billboard in San Francisco. (Well, kinda.) Miami mayor Francis Suarez posed a question to San…
Q&A
When art is income: Navigating brand relationships with Bradley Theodore
Brand and artist partnerships work for many reasons. First, the artist has the chance to expand their audience beyond what they could ever achieve solo. Additionally, the brand can prove its relevance and authenticity to consumers by both supporting the arts and achieving a…
This just in: Event swag your guests will actually want
We’re not saying we go to events for the swag (*ahem*), but we’re also not saying we don’t. Whether you love it, hate it or fall somewhere in-between, swag is an omnipresent part of the experiential… experience. But please, have mercy, not another canvas…
The XP Land Guide to 2022 Experiential Awards Season
2022: New year, same pressure to submit last year’s work for experiential awards so you can be recognized by your industry and capture new business. Back in the day, we displayed trophies and plaques in our office lobbies. Today, it’s even more important to…
Resources
What does FOMO look like in 2022?
In the Before Times, when we increasingly spent money on adventures and travel, experiential pros created FOMO (fear of missing out, an explainer no one needed) as a marketing tool. And damn, did it work. By selling the experience economy, these savvy marketers-in-disguise toiled…

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