This money changes value based on where you spend it
Pawel Halicki
Even without the AR overlays, the kinetic lights are mesmerising. The dance floor senses every footstep and gives it back a ripple of gold under someone's heel, blue under someone else's spin. The star of the evening spots them across the room and makes his way over.
— You actually made it. I was starting to think I’d only see you next year.
— Of course. Although it’s getting harder every year to find you something you don’t already have.
— That sounds suspiciously like you’ve given up.
— Quite the opposite. We’ve heard about your trip.
— And we put together a tiny gift.
They pass him a gift bag. A bit puzzled, he pulls out a knitted beanie with LEDs woven through the wool.
— A beanie? That’s… unexpected. But thank you!
She gives her partner a look.
— Oh, shoot. — He snatches it back and stuffs it into his coat pocket. — Sorry, it’s mine. Keep digging.
Intrigued, he reaches deeper into the bag and pulls out a flat brown box, unties the ridiculous glittering ribbon and takes out a flexible screen rolled like an old map. The blank surface wakes in his hands, already rearranging itself around his route.
— A map?
— Yes. But not just any map.
— I asked everyone in our offices along your route for the places they’d actually send a friend.
— Thank you! This will be so useful.
The three hug and share a smile. He unrolls it further, activating markers dotting his whole route.
— Wait, but that’s not everything.
— See the cashtag in the corner? Tap it.
He touches the symbol. A balance blooms beside it.
— We loaded some aimcash onto it.
— Oh, come on. This is way too much. Can I move it into my travel wallet?
— Sure. You just can’t cash it out.
— Right. One of those.
— It’s one of the spend-only currencies. You can move it between wallets, but the conditions stay attached.
— This money changes value based on where you spend it.
One of the markers lights up 1.8×.
— One point eight?
— Don't get excited. Check the exclusions. Spend a hundred here, and it buys you a hundred. Spend it in a town they’re trying to bring visitors back to, and the same hundred might buy you a hundred and forty. Museums before the crowds arrive. Restaurants between lunch and dinner. Trains they’re trying to fill.
— So the multiplier can change by the hour?
— By the minute sometimes.
— And the shop still gets a hundred and forty?
— Sure. Whoever sets the boost sorts out the difference behind the scenes. City, or region, or rail operator, depends on who wants you there.
She proudly points at the markers dotting the map.
— We marked all the spots and areas with the best boosts. The current multipliers are right there beside each marker.
— Can I use it for the rental car?
— Not this batch. We bundled low-carbon travel into the aim.
— Naturally.
— And if you do turn your overlays back on while you're there, the same layer follows you around.
A faint pulse runs across the map. Some markers flip from 1.4× to 1.7×.
— Wait. What just happened?
— An update. Your little seaside town just jumped to one point seven.
— The whole town?
— Hotels, restaurants and the ferry. Short-term rentals probably aren’t in this round.
— While we're standing here?
— Happens all the time.
— Why?
— Could be empty hotels. Could be a cancelled train group. Could be rain tomorrow. You'll find out when you get there. Some people just spend time chasing the spikes.
A woman in a sleek black dress steps through the dance floor and gently tugs on his hand.
— Birthday boy, my parents want to see you.
— Sorry. Parents. I’ll find you later. Actually, hang on.
He double-taps his wrist. Their sleeves answer with a soft green pulse.
— There. You're vouched at the bar. Abuse it responsibly.
Another pulse travels across the map in his hand. Somewhere along his route, a flock of markers jumps from 1.2× to 1.8×.
— Seriously?
— Told you to keep checking. The ferry's half-empty next week.
— I wasn’t even planning to take the ferry.
— Happy birthday!
The star of the evening disappears, swallowed by a crowd ready to dance the night away.
Memories to build from this future:
Go back to the last time you walked into a café or a bar at the quiet hour, after the lunch crowd and before the evening one. Every table free, music playing to nobody, the person behind the counter genuinely pleased to see a face. You got the good seat without asking, and they talked to you like a regular. You stayed longer than you had planned, because the whole place felt like it had been waiting for you.
Now, hold on to that feeling of being wanted somewhere:
Go back to a regular afternoon when you sent a friend a treat as aimcash that held value only at the place you had both been meaning to try.
What changed about treating people once money could carry a place and an hour, not just an amount?
How did your friend respond to a treat that came with a place and a time already in it?
What did a treat come to mean once it could only turn into an experience but never back into cash?
Try to recall a regular month when your team’s budget went further on whatever the organisation wanted more people doing that week, from training to helping another team.
How did your team tell what the organisation wanted more of from where its money went furthest, before anyone announced it?
Which things did your team time to a boost, and which did it do when it was ready, whatever the budget said?
What changed across teams once the same boosts started pulling everyone towards the same priorities at the same time?
Think back to a regular year when your organisation could see places dynamically competing for different kinds of activity by changing what its money was worth there.
Which kinds of activity were easiest to redirect once locations could compete for them in real time?
What did your organisation start considering about a place beyond cost once incentives became temporary and constantly changing?
Which decisions did you deliberately protect from the incentive layer, even when another option became financially more attractive?
Before we move on from this one.
If doing what your region needed more of made your money go further, what would change about how you plan your week? What would you be glad to be nudged towards first?
And is there anything from this one that echoes other sessions?