Music · Speaking · Stewardship · Travel
Exploring how people, culture, and place shape one another through stewardship, storytelling, travel, music, and history.
About Brian
Brian Applegarth is the founder of Applegarth Intelligence and works across destination stewardship, cultural tourism, museums, hospitality, music, and public storytelling.
His perspective has been shaped by international study, longer-term residencies in Japan, Italy, and Barcelona, extensive travel, museum collaborations, hospitality, music, tourism systems, and a lifelong curiosity about how people experience, participate in, and shape the places they call home.
Cultural Projects
Selected projects exploring how communities preserve, interpret, and share stories connected to place, identity, history, and lived experience.
A cultural heritage trail and destination storytelling initiative connecting the people, places, and stories that shaped Northern California's Emerald Corridor, from Santa Cruz to the Emerald Triangle.
Visit thecannabistrail.com →Co-curator of Outlaws of the 20th Century: Rum Runners & Pot Farmers (Kelley House Museum) and Grass Roots: Cannabis from Prohibition to Prescription (Museum of Sonoma County, Smithsonian Affiliate).
Kelley House Museum → Museum of Sonoma County →Founding architect and creator of California's first state fair cannabis exhibition and awards program, recognized with multiple IAFE awards.
Projects including Cannabis Pride Celebration, Outlaw Nation, destination storytelling programs, educational exhibits, timelines, maps, and public history initiatives.
Cannabis Pride → Outlaw Nation →
Selected Works
A regional destination cooperative initiative encouraging visitation during California's fall shoulder season travel window while highlighting agricultural heritage, local culture landmarks, and destination experiences.
View project →A destination storytelling initiative exploring Oakland's role in cannabis history, culture, equity, and experience.
Watch →A visitor experience program connecting travelers with participating businesses, attractions, and educational experiences in Modesto.
View project →Contributor to foundational visitor-facing content including the Field Guide to Cannabis in San Francisco, Guide to Cannabis Culture, and destination information supporting visitor education and experience.
A public awareness and destination campaign developed with The Oakland Cannabis Trail highlighting equity, inclusion, and community participation.
View recognition →Creator and instructor of a hospitality-focused educational course developed for College of the Desert, exploring emerging visitor expectations, tourism opportunities, and service considerations.
Speaking & Events
Brian speaks to associations, destinations, hospitality organizations, cultural institutions, conferences, and community leaders exploring how people, places, and systems navigate periods of transition.
Drawing from work across tourism, hospitality, museums, emerging industries, cultural storytelling, and destination stewardship, his presentations focus on the human, social, and institutional dimensions of change.
Signature Topics
Stewarding Place Through Change
How communities, organizations, and destinations navigate growth, disruption, and transition while preserving identity, legitimacy, and community vitality. Drawing from the themes of Learning Under Pressure, this presentation explores what it means to steward people and places when the path forward is uncertain.
Community Vitality in an Era of Disruption
Understanding the human side of tourism, economic development, visitor economies, culture, and place stewardship. This presentation explores how participation, lived experience, identity, and belonging influence the long-term vitality of communities and destinations.
Stewardship in the Age of Intelligence
How artificial intelligence, information abundance, and accelerating change are reshaping organizations, destinations, institutions, and decision-making. This presentation explores the emerging role of stewardship in a world increasingly shaped by intelligent systems.
Selected Engagements
For the most up-to-date information on appearances, follow @briancapplegarth and @bapplemusic on Instagram and Facebook.
Booking
Available for keynotes, conferences, moderating, workshops, retreats, and community conversations.
Selected Interviews & Podcasts
Film & Documentary Work
Brian's film work focuses on the people, places, and movements that shape culture over time. Through documentaries, short films, interviews, and archival storytelling, his projects explore community history, identity, activism, tourism, social change, and the evolving relationship between people and place.
A documentary exploring the overlooked human stories behind medical cannabis legalization, including LGBTQ+ activism, the AIDS crisis, Dennis Peron, Proposition 215, and the grassroots movement that reshaped public policy in California and beyond.
Watch →A collection of short documentary films exploring Northern California cannabis history, heritage, pioneers, agriculture, healing, and community. Selected works include The Trippet Standard, The Boy with Brain Cancer, Roots of The Emerald Cup, and The Holistic Healer.
View series →Contributor and participant in NBC Bay Area's documentary exploration of California cannabis history, cultural evolution, tourism, and public memory.
Watch →Filmmaker Mark Kitchell's feature documentary project exploring the history, culture, activism, land, and legacy communities of Northern California's Emerald Triangle.
Learn more →Festival Screenings & Recognition
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Music & Performance
Music has long been one of Brian's creative outlets. Drawing inspiration from singer-songwriters such as John Denver, Cat Stevens, Don McLean, Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine, and James Taylor, his performances blend original songs with carefully selected classics rooted in storytelling, reflection, and human experience.
Performed in listening rooms, hospitality venues, community gatherings, and cultural spaces, the music offers another way of exploring themes that appear throughout his work: place, memory, relationships, gratitude, change, and the experiences that shape us.
Selected Original Songs
"Original songs in the tradition of John Denver, Cat Stevens, Don McLean, John Prine, Gordon Lightfoot, and James Taylor." Brian Applegarth
Available For
Catalog & Licensing
Selected original songs available for film, documentary, hospitality, tourism, arts, community storytelling, and creative media projects.
Music inquiries: appleandtheelusive@gmail.com
Writing & Ideas
Through books, articles, newsletters, and long-form writing, Brian explores the intersection of destination stewardship, community vitality, cultural tourism, hospitality, identity, and the evolving relationship between people and place.
Book
Setting a Baseline for Stewarding Places Through Change. Explores what it means to navigate complexity during periods of uncertainty, disruption, and transformation. Drawing from experiences across tourism, hospitality, emerging industries, and community systems, the book offers a framework for understanding how people, places, and institutions evolve under pressure.
Buy / Download the BookPlatform
Brian's destination stewardship platform, focused on helping communities, destinations, and institutions better understand the forces shaping place, participation, visitor economies, and community vitality over time.
Through research, frameworks, stewardship intelligence, and longitudinal observation, the work helps destinations navigate change while maintaining legitimacy, representation, and long-term community well-being.
Visit Applegarth IntelligenceNewsletter
For more than a decade, Brian has documented the evolving intersection of travel, tourism, hospitality, culture, and cannabis through the Cannabis Travel Newsletter.
The publication shares observations, destination intelligence, cultural tourism insights, travel discoveries, and emerging conversations shaping visitor experiences and place-based economies.
Subscribe on LinkedInPress & Recognition
Coverage across tourism, hospitality, culture, destination development, museums, cannabis history, and public storytelling.
Forbes
Cannabis Tourism Is Now a $17 Billion Industry
Los Angeles Times
Drive the Cannabis Trail
San Francisco Chronicle
California State Fair Cannabis Experience and Cannabis Trail coverage
Additional Coverage & Recognition
Connect
For speaking, moderating, interviews, cultural projects, stewardship work, and collaborations — or to discuss music performances and bookings.