A commentary by Kenneth Wardrop on “Designing and delivering compelling experiences: insights from the 2008 democratic national convention”

Citation

(2010), "A commentary by Kenneth Wardrop on “Designing and delivering compelling experiences: insights from the 2008 democratic national convention”", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 1 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijefm.2010.43401baa.005

A commentary by Kenneth Wardrop on “Designing and delivering compelling experiences: insights from the 2008 democratic national convention”

Article Type: Commentaries From: International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Volume 1, Issue 2

by Robin D. Pentecost, Natalia Zlatevska and Sudhir H. Kale

As the Chief Executive of a Destination Management Organisation, I found this case study of the “experience economy” and the concept of an eight attributes model (planning, resourcing, targeting, anticipating, enabling, emphathizing, framing and engaging) of interest in relation to shaping the visitor product. Also the idea of designing and delivering the customer experience based on “taking a close look at their target market to identify the attributes desired by stakeholders”.

However, I felt that while the case study focus on the United States Democratic Party National Convention in August 2008 was intriguing, the exploration of the applicability of the model from a practitioner perspective would have been assisted by an analysis based on broader set of case studies. I struggled to relate the model to my experience of festivals and events and destination promotion. It was therefore perhaps not the most convincing example or case study to explore the theory behind the model. However, I do subscribe to the thesis that visitor experience should be considered as a focus of value creation in the visitor economy.

Of interest to me is how applicable the model would be to a mature destination, festival or attraction such as Edinburgh rather than in a controlled environment such as a political convention, or destination casino? An exploration utilising the model of the challenges of shaping the customer experience where there is a broad customer base drawn from diverse cultural backgrounds, and the implications for understanding customers and their perceptions would be of interest to me.

The holistic nature of tourism consumption means that for city destinations there is no ability to control the visitor experience, unlike the environment of a destination theme park, casino, hotel or resort. The challenges of empathizing to create a sense of shared experience given visitors diverse range of interactions on a visit to a city-based destination is generally totally random. The counter point to this is of course, the importance of authenticity in the visitor experience and the sense of the real rather than created interaction.

The statement in the case study “The precise recipe for a successful experience however remains largely elusive” jumped out at me. The list of experience ingredients and how they are brought together in a recipe for success is of huge interest to practitioners and is worth further research.

16 April 2010

Kenneth Wardrop

Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance Ltd, Edinburgh, UK