XP Land, the authoritative voice dedicated to covering the business of experiential, has shared an exclusive Q&A with Erica Boeke, founder and CEO. Here, she shares her thoughts on why the experiential sector is booming and how she sees it evolving in the future.
Boeke is the force behind initiatives like the XLIST, the 100 most visionary leaders shaping the future of live events, and XP Fronts, an annual event for those in the industry to discuss big ideas and even bigger experiences.
Previously, Boeke ran brand and experiential teams at Condé Nast and Fast Company, marrying the art of live storytelling with the business of revenue-generating events like the WIRED Store, GQ Lounge, Fast Company Innovation Festival and the Teen Vogue Summit.
A graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Boeke is also a former editor at the San Francisco Giants magazine. She is the author of two books and optioned a TV series about the summer she and her dad ushered for a minor league baseball team.
With XP Land, she’s on a mission to level up the experiential space — providing millions of XP professionals with tools and resources to help them create even more meaningful experiences.
Q: How do you define experiential?
A: Experiential is clear to me — live experiences of all forms on all platforms. It’s a huge industry that includes the Super Bowl and NY Fashion Week and brand pop ups and also Sephoria, attractions like the new Star Wars ride at Disneyland and the Museum of Sex, and of course concerts/festivals of all kinds, plus immersive theater like Sleep No More (RIP) and also a Snoop concert on Fortnite. It’s all live, and it’s all magic!
I think people get confused about the word “experience,” which could be consumer experience or even user experience, which could very well be focused on a retail customer or a digital user. But at XP Land, we’re working to define this powerful industry (projected to be $3.2T by 2032!)
Q: What is it about experiential that lights people up? Why do people seek experiences?
A: I think it’s that moment you experience something larger than life, beautiful, moving, or even sad, and you look to the person next to you (whether you know them or not) and say: did you see that?! Experiential creates connection and introspection. I feel that is essential to our experience as humans.
COVID showed us that being together and connecting in person was what we missed most. It showed us that experiencing life together is as essential as the air we breathe and the water we drink. I honestly get teary thinking about it.
Q: What are some of your favourite experiential moments over the years/of all time?
A: My favorite experience I ever created was the very first Teen Vogue Summit in LA. Seeing these young women find “their people” and knowing they stayed in touch for years to come makes me feel and appreciate the power of gathering.
I also loved when we took four seemingly ordinary people, got them to share their stories and special talents, and turned them into storytellers for an audience of 100 C-Suites at Cannes Lions for 72andSunny. People laughed, cried, sang, and danced. It was low-tech and all magic.
Clik here to view.
My favorite event was the Infinite in Montreal. I had a communal VR experience, took a trip to the International Space Station, and experienced the “overview effect” that astronauts feel.
I also have to say that, as cheesy as it sounds, someone once talked me into going to Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Mind you, I am a New Yorker who lived nearby for 15 years and never went.
But although I did not wait outside for 8 hours in diapers and was at a VIP party at the Hard Rock Café of all places — standing in the rain, listening to Imagine by John Lennon, chugging some champers straight out of the bottle with friends, in the crossroads of NYC, knowing the world was watching and celebrating along with me gave me this feeling of connection with the world that I can’t describe.
That’s the power of experiential.
Q: Experiential has seen a lot of growth over the past five years. What do you make of that? Where are we going?
A: I think it’s the combination of COVID showing us what we missed (gathering), social media fueling the fire (FOMO), and brands and IP coming to the world of experiential (hello, Stranger Things and Sephoria).
It goes back to one of our XLISTers and one of our favorite experiential creators, Es Devin, who says: “Every audience is a temporary society.”
So experiential is really in the business of fandom, where people are always looking for new ways to engage in the stories or brands that they love. Why watch a story or buy something you love from a brand when you could participate in it and become a character yourself?
Q: What are key trends you see emerging in experiential? Are sustainability or AI affecting experiential leaders’ choices and outputs?
A: AI is a tool that helps experiential creatives, creators, and marketers move faster and expand their ideas more quickly. When Sam Altman himself says there will be a huge market and premium on “human, in person, fantastic experiences” in the next 5 to 10 years, I think we should all be encouraged to use AI to enhance, expand and expedite what we’re doing!
I wish sustainability was more of a trend. Mostly, people are still making up for lost time, spending money on experiential travel and not asking questions like: “What is my carbon footprint if I fly to another country for a concert?” But Gen Z and Gen Alpha do care, and hopefully, that trend will continue.
Another trend I see is “small is the new big.” Intimate events, curated with thoughtful UX, win big over huge, massive crowds.
Q: blooloop is focused on the visitor attractions industry. How do attractions factor into the experiential ecosystem?
A: It’s a big part of what we talk about — and an important spoke in the giant wheel that is experiential — from theme parks to museums and even family attractions.
Going back to the Hollywood example, I think we see more trends in bringing IP to attractions, whether the Star Wars ride or the new Universal Epic Universe in Orlando opening soon. And then you have museums and institutions trying to reinvent themselves or bring a fresh experiential approach.
And more experiential-first “startups” like Meow Wolf, now expanding into NYC! It’s an exciting time for experiential attractions, and it’s only growing. What aligns all of us is that our work is designed to make people feel things, get goosebumps, and create core memories.
Q: What is XP Land, and why did you create it?
A: For me, it all started with Prince. My first concert.
That night in 1989, watching The Purple One at the Forum in LA, I felt the electricity of being part of something bigger—a powerful moment because it was shared. It wasn’t just the music (or Sheila E.’s glow-in-the-dark drumsticks — it was the energy, the connection, the feeling that everyone in that room was experiencing something unforgettable together.
Clik here to view.
When the world shut down during the pandemic, it became clear how much we needed those shared experiences. We craved the collective joy of live events—the moments that can’t be fully captured or recreated. That’s why I started XP Land. I wanted to shine a light on the creators and visionaries who bring people together and make us feel more alive through live experiences.
XP Land is the platform that defines and elevates the entire experiential industry. It is a place for the makers, the dreamers, and the doers who understand that shared, in-person experiences have a power all their own. Because at our core, we all seek moments that connect us and remind us of our shared humanity.
I, along with this fantastic team, built XP Land to serve the industry we spent our careers building, to create authoritative and inspiring content, as well as valuable resources and tools for the 27M people who make the magic.
We bring together experiential creatives, creators and business leaders to bold brands and visionary venues.
The XLIST is our definitive list of the most creative visionaries in experiential, as selected by our editors and our esteemed Council. It was established to recognize and celebrate the wildly creative and brilliant minds who are pushing the boundaries of live experiences.
Q: How does XP Land hope to change the experiential industry?
A: We don’t want to change it. We want to sit at the center and connect the people making the magic all across the industry. We are seeing the convergence of all our verticals — sports events are taking a cue from fashion shows, culinary meets music, and B2B events are giving B2C vibes. It’s all coming together, and XP Land is at the center.
Q: How can others get involved in XP Land?
First, join our community at XP Land, and you’ll receive our newsletter and be invited to our gatherings. Next, nominate yourself or others you’ve worked with to the XLIST here.
XP Land is offering 50% off XLIST nominations with the code BLOOLOOP50. The deadline is April 18, 2025.
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