As co-author of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage (Harvard Business School Press, 1999), James H. Gilmore literally wrote the book that spawned worldwide interest in experience design, customer experience management, and experiential marketing. Tom Peters rightly called The Experience Economy "a brilliant, absolutely original book." Now published in ten languages, the book continues to find new readers across myriad industries as businesses find their goods and services commoditized, with customers increasingly spending their time and money on experiences-memorable events that engage them in an inherently personal way.

Gilmore's most recent book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), contends that Authenticity is the new Quality-that businesses must learn to manage authenticity as a distinct business discipline. Indeed, in a world of increasingly commercialized activity-intentionally staged and technologically mediated-people today want the real from the genuine, not the fake from some phony. For businesses and industries sensing the need to render greater authenticity, Gilmore and his co-author Joe Pine, offer unparalleled insights concerning this important new issue.

Jim is co-founder of Aurora, Ohio-based Strategic Horizons LLP. He is a "professional observer," sought by enterprises around the globe for his expertise in conceiving and designing new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. He is a frequent keynote speaker, as well as workshop facilitator and executive coach; a number of professional societies, trade associations, and individual companies also engage Gilmore to help design their overall events. Most interestingly, many organizations employ him to conduct "learning excursions"-peripatetic tours of exemplary experiences in the cities in which they convene conferences and events, followed by intensive debriefs to extract lessons learned from the touring.

Gilmore's ideas have been featured in numerous articles on business strategy and innovation for such publications as the Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Investors Business Daily, among others. He is also co-editor of Markets of One: Creating Customer-Unique Value through Mass Customization (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000).

Mr. Gilmore began his career with Procter & Gamble and then spent over ten years consulting with Cleveland Consulting Associates and Computer Sciences Corporation, heading up CSC Consulting's process innovation practice before starting his own firm. Mr. Gilmore is currently a Batten Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. He previously served as the 2002-2003 Dean Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Co-chair at the College of Family & Consumer Sciences at Iowa State University. Mr. Gilmore is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania-and an avid Cleveland Indians baseball fan.

Speeches by Pine and/or Gilmore typically run 25-90 minutes but vary depending on client needs. Each presentation is highly customized and reflects the needs and priorities of the client. Exploratory conversations with key client executives prior to the speech, along with their own research into the company and its industry, help tailor content. In each speech, Pine & Gilmore offer their latest thinking on the subject area and share the insightful exemplars that best suit the audience. Informal Q&A sessions supplementing the speech can also help promote greater interaction and understanding.

Individual speeches can cover any of a wide variety of topic areas - or focus on a particular area of interest, including:

1. Authenticity in Business
Pulled directly from Pine & Gilmore's latest book Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want. In a world of paid-for experiences, consumers increasingly question what is real and what is not. As a result, Authenticity is quickly becoming the new consumer sensibility - and key business imperative - determining what offerings consumers buy and who they buy those offerings from.
2. The Experience IS the Marketing
An unblushing look at the failure of traditional marketing and what will replace it. Pine & Gilmore share real-world examples, unveil their insightful Location Hierarchy Model, and make the case for the emergence of a new executive - the Chief Xperience Officer (CXO). Based on the new Pine & Gilmore e-Doc "The Experience Is the Marketing."
3. Welcome to the Experience Economy
A look at the competitive landscape through a new lens - going beyond goods and services to stage truly memorable experiences. An overview of the principles and frameworks needed to stage compelling experiences, with relevant, up-to-date exemplars that illuminate the ideas. Based on the book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage.
4. Work Is Theatre
A new model for staging business performance using the principles of theatre to fundamentally change how - and why - work is performed in the Experience Economy. Particularly valuable for molding company culture and attitudes in the workplace.
5. Going Beyond the Experience
Once an emerging phenomenon, the Experience Economy is now fully here - with increased competitive intensity and even some commoditization amongst experience stagers. The next step? Using customized experiences to guide individual change via transformations.
6. Understanding Customer Sacrifice
Understanding the gap between what customers settle for and what they want exactly. A model for rethinking the traditional metric of customer satisfaction and discovering hidden opportunities for innovation and differentiation. An expanded discussion based on the article first appearing in Context Magazine entitled "Customer Satisfaction is No Longer Enough."
7. Mass Customization
The most innovative companies are rapidly embracing a new paradigm of management - Mass customization - that allows them the freedom to create greater individuality in their offerings at desirable prices. Based on Joe Pine's pioneering book, Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition.
8. The Four Faces of Mass Customization
A unique perspective on understanding where, how, and for whom to customize. Four distinct approaches to mass customizing only where it counts. Based on the Harvard Business Review article of the same name.
9. Cultivating Learning Relationships
Using the knowledge gained from customer interactions to customize offerings and create true customer loyalty. Based on the Harvard Business Review article entitled "Do You Want To Keep Your Customers Forever?"

Jim's co-authored book, The Experience Economy, has been selected as one of the 100 Best Business Books of All Time by business experts, Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten.