Andrew Lacanienta

Andrew Lacanienta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Experience Industry Management at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. He is an experience wizard who designs, stages, and researches memorable and extraordinary experiences. By applying theory to practice Andrew strives to create engaging, active, and co-creative educational experiences for his students. The human experience is beautiful as it naturally unfolds, and, Andrew believes there is much beauty to be found as we intentionally design our human experience and the experiences we provide.

Workshops & Presentations

  • Experience Design – Adding more intention to the experiences we create

    60 min | Altar of Spirit

    Often times as experience designers we start to create our next retreat, somatic experience, song circle, festival, medicine journey, or other offering with passion, excitement, and specific goals in mind. More often than not, things work out beautifully and participants grow, connect, and enjoy. What if we had additional tools, templates, and frameworks in our toolkit to design our experiences with even more added intention, more focus on our participants, and more potential for transformation? This workshop will serve as “Experience Design 101” and provide a toolkit that will be invaluable as you curate, design, and stage meaningful and transformative experiences.

  • A vulnerable exploration of the song of life.

    90 min | Drum & Fire Circle

    The song of our life is most beautifully sung when curated, sung, and shared with others. This experience will invite participants to take a dive into their own human experience of life. Participants will engage in guided meditation and reflect on their first memories, what they hope to be remembered by when they pass into the next world, challenges, triumphs, and moments of change. Individually they will reflect on these transformative moments, cut a string that will serve as their “song line”, write their transformative moments on sticky notes, then place the sticky notes on the line in chronological order. The song line digs into our past, shows us beautiful patterns of life, and creates a sweet melody to share. In a practice of vulnerability, participants will debrief their song line with a stranger and in the process learn more about themselves and those they debrief with.