Image courtesy of flickr/rodrigofavera

While the rise of the online world remains one of the premier (consumer) stories of our time, URBANYand the EXPERIENCE ECONOMY /LIVING THE LIVE, with their decidedly ‘offline’ overtones, are enormously impactful too.

This incredibly powerful tandem of mass urbanization and experiences has resulted in an orgy of real world activities and happenings that are all about mingling; from countless cultural and not so cultural events, concerts, festivals, and seminars, to a burgeoning and truly global bar/dining/party scene, to a Warholian retail renaissance, to tourism & travel now being one of the world’s largest industries, employing approximately 220 million people and generating over 9.4 percent of world GDP. In short, people have always, and will for a long time continue to enjoy interacting with other warm bodies.

The mobile web has eradicated any wired person’s dilemma whether to be offline in the real world, or being online but stuck in one location (in a room, or worse, in a basement). Offline is now online, and online is offline. More on that below (‘An info-layer on top of daily life’).

A quick side-step: Traveling (and thus meeting up) has of course become easier, cheaper and yet more sophisticated on a global scale. Forget recessions, strikes and Icelandic volcanoes: the NO-FRILLS CHIC travel-eco-system now includes low cost airlines from the Middle East to Asia, and funky Yotel/CitizenM style hotels from Taipei to Toronto. Making it possible to go anywhere and meet anyone, at low costs, without having to sacrifice too much comfort.