Alan Geiss
Creating Moments People Remember
Experience Strategist & Designer
What I Do
Hi, I’m Alan. Time is our most valuable currency, and great experiences are the receipts we cherish after the moment has passed.
I help brands and organizations create lasting connections by staging experiences shaped by what their audience really wants.
If you want to create an experience that lingers in memory and earns your audience’s time, let’s bring it to life together.
Set the Stage
How I Make a Difference
I begin with the brand’s promise and the audience’s needs, then carefully design the format, flow, and cues to create an experience that truly deserves their attention.
Rehearsal
Protect the Ugly Baby: give early ideas room to mature before subjecting them to a full critique.
Align the team: align creative and production around a clear direction, roles, and a buildable plan.
Showtime + Debrief
Experience QA: scan for misliagnment and off-brand cues before they drain momentum.
Observe and refine: observe real behavior, iterate quickly, then capture learnings for next time.
“Work is theatre & every business a stage.”
-Pine & Gilmore, The Experience Economy
Set the stage: clarify the job the audience needs done, brand intent, and how success will be measured.
Choose the format: select the appropriate experience category for the occasion.
Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull calls early ideas "Ugly Babies" because they often start awkwardly. I use this concept to remind myself that promising ideas require time and support.
What I would add is that ugly babies can also exist in developed experiences. They emerge as misalignments or off-brand cues that disrupt the flow of the experience.
My job is to help shape these ideas through open discussion, adapt them to the audience, and keep refining them until they are clear, meaningful, and ultimately lead to time well spent.
What’s an Ugly Baby?
What’s Next
A preview of upcoming projects.
Exploring Japan’s Experience Economy
Volume 1 Coming Soon
Vibing with Your Career
Guest talk, staged like a DJ set
The Billboard
A student-first newsletter worth opening
Community Pop-ups
Creating a third place
What if building community didn’t depend on having a perfect schedule? We hosted seasonal drop-in pop-ups with little surprises and used a Celebration Collage to build momentum. Over time, the space turned into a daily gathering spot.
Experience Archive
A collection of experiences that everyone should know about
A collection of experiences that everyone should know about
Experiences People Loved
What if career advice felt like a night out instead of a lecture? We staged a guest talk as a DJ set, then kept the momentum going with a live Q&A and applications for 1-1 mentoring, drawing a record number of attendees.
How do you make a room of strangers feel comfortable fast? We designed participation mechanics that helped newcomers mix, move, and stay.
What if a program newsletter acted like a billboard instead of a bulletin? We led with one student’s story each month and the format earned consistent opens and clicks across 300+ readers.
What if sustainability didn’t require willpower? We designed the mixer so the default choices were green, then used a quick pledge wall and stickers to spark conversation and action.
Premiering March 2026
Semester Kickoff: Connection by Design
Four Stations That Made Belonging Easy
Sustainability Week Social
Making “Going Green” Easy
