The second generation is where the locus of value creation takes place through and in the individual, this is called experience co-creation. Prof Venkat Ramaswamy is an exponent of this. A good example is Lego factory where the Lego fans develop their own products and Lego puts them on for sale with their picture on the box and the developers receive a commission of 5%.
The 3rd or the 2,5 generation is where people completely are self directed, they are self expressive and in the control seat and organsations and commercial companies only play a facilitating role. Gerd Leonhard describes the decline in the music industrie in his latest book The End of Control (Leonhard 2007). Examples are deep change processes with individuals( psychotherapy, a sabbital), going on your own journey. Open innovationare examples of 2nd and a streak of the 3rd generation.
So the differentiator is the amount of control and the amount of self directing people have in their own process of creating meaning. Another misunderstanding is that it is either or, you can see mixed forms, and the one is not better then the other.

2. What is a meaningful experience?

A meaningful experience is a relevant emotional encounter for the individual.
Experience in the sense of Erfahrung is a continuous interactive process of doing and undergoing, action and reflection, cause and effect, that has a meaning for the individual in several contexts within his life. A meaningful experience enables the individual to see the world and/or himself in a different way.
An experience in the sense of Erlebnis is an immediate, relatively isolated occurrence with a complex of emotions that make an impression and represent a certain value for the individual within the context of the specific situation.(Snel 2004) see table 2.2 of our book p 28. Important notion is the difference between erlebnis and erfahrung(see definition) in English there is only two meanings to the concept of experience.The pilot is experienced or you totally undergo something.

3.What are the prerequisites for businesses to create meaningful experiences?

Businesses should be very aware that our landscape of experiences are changing and the rules of the game are changing. If you look at the life cycle of an individual or a family they are shaped by emotional turning points. Life is more than business and transactions. If businesses take the needs of people in their own social cultural context serious then there changes are better to create meaningful propositions. They should reflect how they can play a meaningful role in the life of their customers instead of the other way around.This requires principles as honesty, openness, transparency, engagement, sustainability, from cradle to cradle etc.

4. How does a company make money from providing meaningful experiences?

I believe that companies that are not creating meaningful experiences won’t make any money in the long run! Companies will always make money by selling their products, commodities as long as there is a need for them. Business are organized around efficiency and around their own values not around customer experiences and customer value.

5.How can the theory be transformed into the day to day reality of a business?

A lot of our theory is deducted form the day to day business, psychology and philosophy . We developed a 5 stage experience creation model in Chapter 6 of our book. The first stage is to think outside the box, the second stage is to create an emotional customer value chain, this differs completely from the primary processes!, business are organized around efficiency not around customer experiences, third stage is redesign your processes, fourth train and develop your people, and the 5th stage is , where are your profit zones, how are you going to make money?

6.Traditionally, the experience economy is often restricted to industries such as film, tourism and design. We now see an increasing number of global businesses - ranging from IT-service companies to dustbin producers - actively engaging in the Experience Economy. What do you see as the main obstacle for a “non-experiential” line of business trying to engage the experience economy?

The Hypocrisy is great, everybody would like to do window dressing and make their business into an experience because that is hot now.There are two basic principles to meaningful experiences; 1. does it make my life easier, does it create more convenience so I can be focused on the real important things, 2. does it create excitement and makes my life more important for myself an to others. Susanne Piet author of the Emocode(2007) differentiates markets of phantasy and romance, identity, authenticity, safety and spirituality.
Appendix
Table 1.1 Descriptions of the Experience Economy

Source Key concepts Perspective
Toffler, 1970
The Future Shock Dematerialisation, the psychologising of the economy. The experience makers. From material needs to intangible needs. Change, transcendence, novelty, diversity. Socio-economic perspective

Schulze, 1992
Die Erlebnis-gesellschaft, Kultursoziologie der Gegenwart New communities form on the basis of meaningful experience. People want a good life and to have fun. They focus more on their own experiences. They think of meaningful experiences as something that can be produced on demand. Culture-sociological approach
Pine & Gilmore, 1999
The Experience Economy The progression of value from commodities to products, services, and experiences. According to Pine, experience is a new distinguishing economic offering that differs from goods and services. Business is a stage and customers and employees are the actors. Marketing,
commercial
management

Wolf, 1999
Entertainment Economy

Entertainment is the key differentiator Marketing, commercial management
Jensen, 1999
The Dream Society

The story behind the product is what counts. Jensen distinguishes markets for:
1. adventure
2. love and friendship
3. care
4. self-identity
5. peace of mind
6. beliefs and convictions.

Intangible aspect
Business orientation

Kotler, 2003 Marketing Management
By orchestrating several services and goods one can create, stage, and market experiences. Marketing

Rifkin, 2000
The Age of Access

Possession is not longer important, but rather access to experiences. At first, culture determined the economy, but now the economy practically determines culture.
There is a danger of everything becoming commercialised.
Sociocultural

Nijs and Peters, 2002
Imagineering Creating worlds of perception. The American answer is not reproducible. The creation of authentic experience concepts of meaning is an art of management: the art touching the heart. (‘Imagineering’ is Disney terminology).

Marketing

Ter Borg, 2003
The Economy of Sense The process of creating meaning. This used to be merely an incidental product of the economy. People are increasingly turning to the economy in their quest for creating meaning.
General social, philosophical
Piët, 2004
De emotiemarkt We discover that meaningful experiences do not make us happy. The unbridled fun industry is only for an immediate ‘experience of happiness’.
After the ‘meaningful-experience’ economy there are five new markets for: security, romance, identity, meaning and authenticity. We are on the way towards finding other ways of attaining happiness. Sociocultural,
Marketing
Prahalad & Ramaswamy,
2004 The Future of Competition The use of interaction as a basis for co-creation is at the crux of our emerging reality. Individual customer.
Personalized co-creating experience.
Economic,
management