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Bob Rogers and Charlie Otte are busy orchestrating the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Standing over a floor plan for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library -- which will open in 2003 in Springfield, Illinois, with a design owing as much to the wonderful world of Disney as to the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian -- they take turns laying a sheet of tracing paper on top of the plan and jotting down scenarios for how library visitors will experience the shooting at Ford's Theatre.

The problem is when to actually shoot Lincoln. The assassination will replay over and over throughout the day. But Rogers and Otte can't control when visitors enter the room, or what will be playing when they enter. What if visitors miss the crucial moment?

Otte, 44, muses about not using a gunshot at all. "In the previous room, the [Civil] War has just ended, so there's a lot of cheering and fireworks," he says. "The audience's mood is lifted. Everyone's having a good time. In the box are Abe and Mary. We all know that Lincoln gets shot. We just don't know when. It's very foreboding."

But Rogers, 50, thinks that the climax is essential. He pulls out a marker and sketches a different version on a piece of trace. He draws a seating chart for the president's box and narrates what happened: "Booth talks his way past the guard, lingers a moment, shoots the president, catches his spur in some bunting as he jumps to the stage, and breaks his leg. If he hadn't broken his leg, he might never have been caught."

The historical moment is too dramatic just to suggest impending tragedy. It seems as though Rogers, founder and chairman of BRC Imagination Arts Inc., will win this particular debate. Besides, as team member David Bradstreet, 36, observes, "One of our biggest constituencies is kids on field trips. And kids want action."

BRC Imagination Arts is at the epicenter of a trend that's shaking the foundations of museums, libraries, science centers, shopping malls, cultural centers -- and virtually every aspect of the business world. Customers have more choices than ever, higher expectations than ever, and more marketers competing for their attention than ever. So how do you break through all of the clutter and capture the attention of customers suffering from sensory overload? By creating experiences that are so distinctive, so compelling, that they stand out in a crowded landscape. These days, companies and organizations want to embrace the power of Disneyland and create their own "brandlands" -- destinations (both real and virtual) that deliver a memorable message by telling a compelling story. Says Rogers: "The world doesn't have enough magic and wonder."

Two consultants -- James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II -- popularized that idea in their widely read book, The Experience Economy (Harvard Business School Press, 1999). Bob Rogers and his colleagues have been designing memorable experiences for nearly 19 years. BRC may have earned its reputation designing exhibits for Epcot and for various world's fairs, but the Burbank, California-based creative shop is now applying theme-park-style technology, special effects, and storytelling techniques to projects like the Lincoln library; a Volkswagen factory in Dresden, Germany; a cultural center for the Sapmi people in Karasjok, Norway; the Texas State History Museum, in Austin; the venerable Franklin Institute Science Museum, in Philadelphia; and the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, in Fort Worth, Texas. On hold is a project for the Los Angeles Police Department called "Behind the Badge: The LAPD Experience." Disney had Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland; the projects that BRC now works on are corporate brandlands, cultural discoverylands, and learninglands.