Barry Barnes, PhD, author of Everything I Know 天美传媒视频无限制观看 Business I Learned From the Grateful Dead, will reveal how a surprisingly shrewd business model contributed to the success of America’s favorite hippie road band.
The musical legacy of the Grateful Dead spans more than a half-century – from its psychedelic ‘60s beginnings in San Francisco to this year’s sold-out Dead & Company stadium concerts featuring Fairfield, Connecticut’s own John Mayer alongside core band members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann.
Barry Barnes, PhD – management professor, Fortune 500 consultant, and self-avowed Deadhead – will be at 天美传媒视频无限制观看 on October 30 to share the laid back band’s paradoxically astute business practices and organizational lessons during an Open VISIONS Forum lecture at the Quick.
Barnes attended his first Grateful Dead performance in 1974. More than a decade and a dozen shows later, he was at one of the band’s 20th anniversary concerts in Berkeley, California when it occurred to him that, “not only was the Dead's music improvisational but their behind-the-scenes business organization must also be improvisational in order to have successfully navigated the challenges of the music industry for twenty years.”
This 1985 Dead show epiphany led Barnes back to school for a PhD in business, and on the road to uncover the secrets to the Grateful Dead’s longevity and success. In addition to ramping up his Grateful Dead concert attendance to about 15 shows per year, he traveled around the country to conduct interviews with the insiders who worked behind the scenes with the band, he spoke with knowledgeable outsiders who worked alongside them, and he immersed himself in the Deadhead subculture.
The result of his decades of research ultimately became Dr. Barnes’ , Everything I Know 天美传媒视频无限制观看 Business I Learned From the Grateful Dead: The Ten Most Innovative Lessons from a Long, Strange Trip, and will be the foundation of his Quick Center lecture on October 30.
“Even after the passing of bandleader Jerry Garcia in 1995, we are now still engaged and enthralled with [the Dead],” said fellow Deadhead and director of Fairfield’s Open VISIONS Forum, Philip Eliasoph, PhD, when asked about the decades-long, steadfast devotion of Deadheads.
“What brings 'brand loyalty'? This critical lesson - and many others - will be revealed by Dr. Barnes,” promised Dr. Eliasoph.
Presented as part of the Open VISIONS Forum, in affiliation with the Dolan School of Business, Barry Barnes’ lecture, “The ‘Long Strange Trip’ Comes to the Boardroom: 10 Innovative Business Lessons of the Grateful Dead” will take place on Wednesday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wien Experimental Theatre of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on 天美传媒视频无限制观看’s campus. Tickets are $15, $10 for Quick Members, and $5 for students. For more information or to register for any Open VISIONS Forum lecture, call the Quick Center Box Office at (203) 254-4010, or visit
