Thankfully it feels like a distant memory now, but Covid was a very challenging time for live events, and the outlook for any business that existed to bring people together was bleak. Concerts, sporting events, theaters, you name it, faced an uncertain future. A similar cloud of doubt hung over business travel. As Michael Dell famously noted, why leave home when you can fly across the world on Zoom Airlines? Until the pandemic ended, public health concerns would understandably keep people away from crowded venues and non-essential travel. But even longer term, the prevailing assumption was that life and work would remain fundamentally changed. The so-called experience economy was headed for a major reset.
It turns out the experience economy as traditionally conceived is indeed undergoing a seismic shift, but not in the way forecasters imagined. As long-time investors in this space, my colleagues and I at Providence Equity Partners have found that people emerged from the pandemic with a renewed appreciation for experiencing life in person. Today, both personally and at work, people are seeking more opportunities to come together, not fewer. And they are doing so despite another wave of uncertainty, this time due to the rise of AI. Once again, there are projections of a changed, digital-dominant world. Yet the reality is demand for experiences that bring us together “in real life” is booming.
