The economy and culture has shifted, and the expectations of event attendees have shifted right along with them. At last year’s CEIR Predict conference, Jim Gilmore, Co-Founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, delivered a session that challenged every assumption about what in-person gatherings are for. In The Experience Economy: Compelling Experiences That Go Beyond Mere Services, Gilmore made the case that the era of the service economy is giving way to something far more demanding – and far more rewarding – for those willing to rise to meet it.

Let’s examine some of the essential takeaways from his session as we prepare to answer that question at the upcoming CEIR Predict Conference on 10–11 September 2026.

INSIGHT #1: The smartphone is now your biggest competitor.

Jim drew a striking line in the sand: events are no longer competing with other events. They’re competing with the couch, the phone and the infinite scroll. The digital ecosystem has so thoroughly disrupted the traditional value of in-person attendance that simply showing up and delivering content is no longer enough to justify the trip.

• Attendees now arrive expecting the same instant access to information and entertainment their devices already provide, raising the baseline dramatically.
• The real competition is not another conference down the street. It is home-based, phone-based culture where convenience and solitude have become the default.
• Events that fail to offer something irreplaceable online will increasingly struggle to justify attendance in a world that defaults to digital.

TAKEAWAY: For event professionals, the question is no longer whether your event is better than last year’s, it’s whether it’s better than staying home.

INSIGHT #2: Events must shift from delivering input to generating output.

One of Jim’s most direct challenges to event organizers was this: if your entire value proposition is delivering information to attendees, you have already lost. In a world where information is free and ubiquitous, the unique advantage of in-person gatherings lies not in what people receive, but in what they collectively create.

• Flying attendees to a venue just to give them information they could access online is a losing proposition. The reason to gather must be to accomplish something that cannot be accomplished any other way.
• The most impactful events empower participants to co-create, problem-solve and produce tangible results that they leave with ready for application as soon as they return to the office.
• Formats like live prototyping, design workshops and collaborative sessions transform passive audiences into active contributors with genuine ownership of outcomes.

TAKEAWAY: The events that will thrive are those that leave attendees with something they built together rather than just something they heard.

INSIGHT #3: Time well spent beats time well saved.

Jim emphasized that services are bought because they save time and experiences are chosen because they make time feel worth spending. That distinction is the crux of everything. As convenience-driven services have become commoditized (ex: curbside pickup, telemedicine, on-demand everything), the organizations that win are those converting saved time into something genuinely memorable and meaningful.

• True differentiation in today’s experience economy hinges on emotional resonance, not operational efficiency. Aim to be the best use of someone’s time, not just the fastest.
• Businesses that design for deep engagement such as inspiring connection and personal transformation build the kind of loyalty that transactional interactions never can.
• The goal is not “time well spent” but “time well invested.” This is an even higher standard that demands events deliver outcomes participants can point to long after they leave.

TAKEAWAY: Ask not whether your attendees left satisfied; ask whether they left changed.

INSIGHT #4: Customer sacrifice, not satisfaction, is the hidden barrier to growth.

Traditional satisfaction metrics only measure the gap between what attendees expected and what they perceived they received. That gap, Jim warned, can look deceptively healthy even as deeper needs go entirely unmet. When people consistently accept less than they truly want, they stop asking for more. That complacency is the enemy of innovation.

• Customer sacrifice is the difference between what attendees settle for and what they actually desire, and most organizations are blind to it because their satisfaction scores look fine.
• Identifying and eliminating these hidden sacrifices unlocks breakthrough value. This requires leaders to proactively observe behavior rather than simply survey it.
• Reimagining offerings to bridge the gap between compromise and the ideal experience converts customer insight into a durable engine for competitive differentiation.

TAKEAWAY: Stop measuring whether attendees got what they expected and start uncovering what they stopped asking for.

Don’t Miss Out on this Year’s Predictions!

Transform your events from services people tolerate into experiences people seek out, talk about and return to year after year! Sessions like Jim Gilmore’s are exactly why CEIR Predict is the annual gathering that executive leaders can’t afford to miss. Get the strategic frameworks, cultural intelligence and peer conversations that will help you design events worth attending because at CEIR Predict, the industry’s leading thinkers don’t just describe where the experience economy is headed – they show you how to lead it.

Click here to learn more about this year’s CEIR Predict and secure your seat!

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