Where the field convenes
A working gathering for people who design experiences, held for the first time and hosted by the Transformational Travel Institute across Washington State.
Supported in part by the Port of Seattle Tourism Marketing Support Program.
The Transformative Experiences field's first annual gathering. Eight days, three phases, built around one question.
The Question
What conditions, design choices, and economic structures make an experience change people for the better and leave the places that host it stronger?
Why be in the room
Experiences are already sold as life-changing, with nothing to check the claim against. This week, the people who design them build that shared standard together, kept to about 150 people a day so every voice in the room counts. What you bring shapes how experiences are designed, how what they change is measured, and how value flows back to the places that host them. And it reaches far past the room: six open-access outputs put the work in the hands of anyone who designs experiences, free to use.
The Week
From January 2027
Pre-Symposium Resource Kit
The draft standards to review before you arrive. Online, with every pass.
April 4 to 6
Mountains to Sound Greenway Walk
About 30 miles on foot from North Bend to Issaquah, led by Walking Mentorship. 15 walkers.
April 6, evening
Community Stewardship Reception
Pickering Barn, Issaquah. Shuttles from downtown Seattle.
April 7 to 9
Symposium Convening
Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, Seattle. Ends at 1:00 PM Friday.
April 9 to 11
Camano: A Research and Education Gathering
About 25 people draft TTI's research charter. By application.
May and June
Follow-ups
Two virtual sessions for everyone who took part, then the published outputs.
Come for the whole week or any part of it. Each part has its own pass, ticket or application.
What you take home
Learn from the field
Sessions led by field experts and fellow practitioners, from Joe Pine's keynote to course case studies and Land as Co-designer. Methods you can use the week you get home.
Meet the people doing the work
About 150 people a day: operators, destinations, researchers, educators and funders. Connection Circles, shared meals and the Community Dinner leave room for the conversations that turn into partnerships.
Leave with work that lasts
Six open-access outputs, free for anyone to cite:
- The refined draft standards, crediting every Founding Participant
- The Symposium proceedings
- Field notes from the Greenway Walk
- The How Value Flows Back report
- Scoping for TTI's first State of the Industry Report
- The research operating model from Camano
find your path
Pick the goal closest to yours, whether you're here for the whole week or one part of it. The right-hand column shows what to book.
Shape the standards
You design or deliver experiences: tours, hotels and lodges, guiding, retreats and events. Mark up the draft standards before and during the Convening, and take home what works.
Symposium Convening pass$1,250
Put the Transformation Economy to work
You have a live project, venue or program. Hear Joe Pine's keynote, then work your project through with him on Wednesday afternoon.
Convening and Pine Workshop pass$1,800
Experience the place, not only discuss it
Walk about 30 miles of the Mountains to Sound Greenway with 15 others, arrive at the Reception at Pickering Barn, then bring what you saw into the Convening.
Greenway Walk, with the Reception, and the Convening pass$1,950 + $1,250
Back stewardship where the week happens
You lead a destination or community, or fund the work. See Washington as a live case, and join Issaquah's Community Stewardship Reception.
Symposium and Stewardship Pass$1,375
Study or teach experiences
Test ideas against practice at the Convening, then help draft TTI's research charter on Camano Island. Fellowship places are available.
Convening pass, then apply for the Camano Gathering$1,250 + $795
Take part when budget is the barrier
Community organizations, independent practitioners and people early in their careers can apply for places funded by sponsorships and ticket sales. Applications open October 30.
Equitable Access application$0, $150 or $295
Prices shown are the Founding Rate through November 30.
Four connected places that shape the week
Every part of the week happens somewhere with its own story of land, work and community.
April 4 to 6 · The Walk
Mountains to Sound Greenway
A National Heritage Area since 2019, the Greenway runs nearly 100 miles from Seattle to Ellensburg through working farms, community forests, wild rivers and Snoqualmie Falls. Walkers cover about 30 miles from North Bend to Issaquah, with nights at Salish Lodge and TreeHouse Point.
April 6 · The Reception
Pickering Barn, Issaquah
The Walk ends at Jakob Two Trees, the 14-foot troll Danish artist Thomas Dambo built from recycled wood, with a ponytail band made by the Snoqualmie Tribe. His story is about caring for land and water. From there, walkers arrive at Pickering Barn: begun in 1878, once the heart of Issaquah's largest dairy farm, and now on the National Register of Historic Places, where the evening looks ahead to Issaquah's next 100 years.
April 7 to 9 · The Convening
Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center
Daybreak Star stands on land reclaimed in 1970, when Bernie Whitebear and Native activists occupied the former Fort Lawton. The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation opened it in 1977 on 20 acres of Discovery Park, and it remains a home for Native culture and community in Seattle. The Symposium meets here as a guest.
April 9 to 11 · Research and Education Gathering
Camano Island
Part of the homelands of Coast Salish peoples, including the Kikiallus and Snohomish, Camano is a rural island of farms, forests and about 50 miles of shoreline in northern Puget Sound. The Gathering is hosted with the Camano Island Chamber of Commerce.
Inside the Symposium convening | April 7th-9th
Wednesday, April 7
Conditions
- A welcome to the land, as Daybreak Star advises
- Keynote: Joe Pine on the Transformation Economy
- Washington as a Case
- Field observations from the Greenway Walk
- Community Stewardship in Practice: four destination snapshots
- Connection Circles, walking in Discovery Park
- An experience led by Daybreak Star
Optional add-on: the Joe Pine Workshop, 2:00 to 5:00 PM, then dinner.
Thursday, April 8
Design
- Course case studies from practitioners
- Land as Co-designer, with The Nature Conservancy
- Standards Working Session: the room refines the field's draft standards
- Marketing Born Out of Place, supported by BVK
- An experience led by Daybreak Star
Community Dinner, Thursday evening. Included with every pass.
Friday, April 9
Distribution
- Philanthropy and Travel Mastermind, by invitation
- Optional guided walk in Discovery Park
- An experience led by Daybreak Star
- Closing circle and Founding Participant credit
The Convening ends at 1:00 PM.
The Joe Pine Workshop & Transformation Economy
B. Joseph Pine II has tracked how businesses create value since he co-wrote The Experience Economy in 1999. His latest book, The Transformation Economy, names the next step: people now look for help becoming who they want to be, and an experience is judged by the change it leaves behind.
Many experiences already make that promise. Pine's work asks what it takes to keep it, and it opens the question the Symposium is built around: which conditions, design choices and economic structures make that change real, and make it last for the people and places involved.
Wednesday morning · Everyone
Keynote: The Transformation Economy
Pine opens the Convening at Daybreak Star with where value is moving and what that asks of anyone who designs experiences. Included with every pass.
Wednesday afternoon
Afternoon · Discovery Park · Every pass
Connection Circles
Small discussion groups, each led by a topic expert, in Discovery Park around Daybreak Star. Every group cycles through the same set of questions on stewardship, peace and connection to nature. Each question builds on the one before, so the afternoon works as one connected conversation. Most of the room spends the afternoon here.
Why it matters
- Get to know your peers on a deeper level
- Learn from a topic expert in a small group
- Work through questions that only make sense together
Included with every pass
2:00 to 5:00 PM · Optional add-on
The Joe Pine Workshop
A three-hour working session with Joe Pine for up to 50 people. Each person brings a live project: an experience, a venue, a program or a destination offer. Together you:
- Name the change your experience is meant to make
- Design how you guide people toward it
- Decide how you would know it happened
Why it matters
- Direct feedback from Pine and peers on your own project
- A clearer promise you can design, market and stand behind
- Dinner with the group afterward, near Daybreak Star
$750, or $600 added to a pass. Runs at the same time as the Connection Circles.
Camano: A Research and education weekend
April 9 to 11, 2027 · Camano Island
This weekend is where TTI's research and education take shape. Over one weekend, about 25 people who study, teach and design experiences decide what TTI researches first, how that research runs, and what its training should teach. Together they draft TTI's research charter, and everyone in the room is named on it as a contributor.
It begins the afternoon the Convening ends, about 90 minutes north of Seattle, and is hosted with the Camano Island Chamber of Commerce.
Friday, April 9
Arrive
- Travel up from Seattle after the Convening
- Welcome dinner
- Opening frame: what the founding year is for
Saturday, April 10
Build
- What TTI's research must answer, and what its training should teach
- How the work will run: the research model and how partners take part
- Shaping first projects in small groups, or a walk on the island
- Dinner together
Sunday, April 11
Commit
- Drafting the research charter together
- Commitments for the year ahead
- Depart for Seattle
Who should apply
Researchers, educators, practitioners and advisors who want a hand in what TTI studies and teaches. Places are by invitation and application, for a mix of disciplines, places and points of view.
What you leave with
Your name as a contributor on TTI's research charter, and the operating model the group drafts, published for anyone to use.
Cost
$795, with fellowship places for those who need them. Ask for one when you apply. Applications open October 30.
April 4 to 6
Mountains to Sound Greenway Walk
About 30 miles on foot from North Bend to Issaquah with 15 walkers, ending at Pickering Barn.
$1,950, including the Reception
April 6, evening
Community Stewardship Reception
Local food, Washington wine and live music at Pickering Barn, with a talk on Issaquah's next 100 years. Shuttles from downtown Seattle.
$150, or with the Symposium and Stewardship Pass
April 8, evening
Community Dinner
Dinner for everyone at the Convening, with room for guests.
Included with every pass. Guests $200
April 9, morning
Philanthropy and Travel Mastermind
A small working session on the last morning of the Convening.
By invitation
Add any of these to your week. Full details for each are coming soon.
More of the week
FOUNDIng early rate ticket registration NOW OPEN…
Symposium Convening
$1,250
Founding Rate through November 30. Then $1,395.
All three days at Daybreak Star and the Community Dinner. Before the week, the Pre-Symposium Resource Kit. After it, two virtual follow-up sessions in May and June, and your name as a Founding Participant in what gets published.
Symposium and Stewardship Pass
$1,375
Founding Rate through November 30. Then $1,520.
Everything in the Convening pass, plus the Community Stewardship Reception in Issaquah. $25 of this pass is tax-deductible.
Symposium Convening and Pine Workshop
$1,800
Founding Rate through November 30. Then $1,945.
Everything in the Convening pass, plus the Joe Pine Workshop and dinner on Wednesday.
Single tickets and applications
- Mountains to Sound Greenway Walk: $1,950, including the Reception. 15 places.
- Community Stewardship Reception: $150, of which $50 is tax-deductible.
- Joe Pine Workshop: $750, of which $150 is tax-deductible. Pass holders add it for $600.
- Community Dinner, for guests without a pass: $200, of which $50 is tax-deductible.
- Equitable Access: sponsor-funded places at $0, $150 or $295 for community organizations, independent practitioners and people early in their careers. Applications open October 30.
- Camano Research and Education Gathering: $795, with fellowship places. Applications open October 30.
Registration closes March 20, 2027. Other ticket prices are not tax-deductible.
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Four tickets include a deductible amount: the Community Stewardship Reception ($50), the Symposium and Stewardship Pass ($25), the Joe Pine Workshop ($150) and a guest Community Dinner ticket ($50). Other ticket prices are not tax-deductible. You'll receive a receipt for every purchase showing any deductible amount.
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Ticket sales pay for the week itself: the venues, food, speakers and the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, which runs Daybreak Star and leads an experience each day. Together with sponsorships, they also fund scholarships and Equitable Access pricing, so more people can take part in the Symposium and its experiences. Ten percent of every sponsorship seeds the Stewardship Fund. Anything left over supports TTI's standards, research and training.
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Yes. The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation runs Daybreak Star and its programs, and you can give to it directly at unitedindians.org. We'll share any ways to support it during the week closer to April.
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Yes. The Walk, the Reception, the Pine Workshop and the Community Dinner each have their own ticket, and the Camano Gathering has its own application. Remember the Community Dinner is included with all Symposium passes.
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Every outdoor session has an accessible option and a rain plan. Tell us what you need when you register, or email connect@transformationaltravel.org.
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Everyone who takes part in the Convening is credited by name in the published draft standards and proceedings.
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Sponsorships and ticket sales fund places at $0, $150 or $295 for community organizations, independent practitioners and people early in their careers. Applications open October 30.
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You can email heather@transformationaltravel.org and connect@transformationaltravel.org
Questions?
