Last year, my nine-year-old daughter put skincare products on her birthday list. She isn't on social media, so I had to laugh to myself wondering if nine-year-olds are really talking about skincare at school. Jokes on me...because apparently that's the new norm.

I still have a shoebox wrapped in soccer ball wrapping paper because at the time the plan was to grow up and be a professional soccer player (I was a dreamer). Inside are my varsity letters, a Melissa necklace, a Girl Scout pin, the birth certificate for the stuffed cow I made at Build-A-Bear, newspaper clippings from my glory days in sports, a jacks game, ticket stubs, photos, and a pile of other little things that wouldn't mean much to anyone else.

All of my favorite pens live in a Stars Hollow coffee mug on my desk. Every time I reach for one, I'm reminded of the kind of experiences people are craving...the kind that feel a little like Stars Hollow. (Gilmore Girls...IYKYK.)

Attendees don't stop being consumers when they put on a lanyard. They're just like you and me, making the same decisions we make every other day. Is this worth my time? Do I want this? Will I actually keep it?

When my husband and I were first married, we lived in a small Nebraska town of about 700 people. No stoplights, only a few stop signs, and the closest Walmart was a half hour drive away. Newman Grove was the kind of town where people knew each other's names, what field they were planting, and probably what they had for supper the night before.