Experiential communications go deeper than traditional media to deliver full-on experiences that stick in the mind and lead to real transformations. And there’s no one better at experiential communications than Todd Street, this week’s guest on No More Bad Events. Join us as we dive into what takes events from bad to good and good to great.
Companies, Communications, & Cliffhangers (ft. Todd Street, toddstreet)
Learning from a leader in experiential communications
OPENING QUOTE:
“We're seeing the live experiences come back in a more authentic way, an opportunity to connect in a human way, to imbue a sense of the culture that these employees belong to. And that's what's required.”
-Todd Street
GUEST BIO:
Todd Street is the president and CEO of toddstreet, an experiential communications agency dedicated to delivering solutions designed to captivate and mobilize audiences. Established more than 30 years ago in New York City, toddstreet has acquired a legendary reputation as creative pioneers, experienced designers and producers that deliver nothing but bold moments through events and communications.
Links:
CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:
[5:35] - Creating Authentic Experiences: A Process
Todd’s system for can’t-miss events
If you want to create an incredible experience, you have to start with authenticity. And that begins with getting into the heads and minds of the audience— where they are, where they need to go, and what knowledge they need to acquire to get them there. Next, create immersive experiences that put those people into the story, not as viewers but as participants. They’ll walk out with a newfound sense of intimacy with a brand’s story or message.
[11:19] - How Virtual Will Change Live
Peeking into Todd’s crystal ball
Todd predicts that live events are now going to be shorter, focusing on the application of knowledge as companies have seen the financial advantages of communicating with their audiences in advance. That said, live experiences will come back more authentic than ever, connecting in a human way at levels we’ve never seen before.
[15:40] - From Event Planners to Cultural Facilitators
A shifting world & a shifting mindset
More than ever, events will now be seen as an opportunity to instill a sense of connection and culture. Todd shares how he and his team at toddstreet see themselves as cultural facilitators, creating immersive experiences that are authentic and where people can feel a part of something bigger than themselves, fueling a sense of accomplishment.
[18:54] - Todd’s Advice for the Next Generation
Choose a career, not a job
When you’re choosing a company to work with, evaluate the growth opportunities within that company. Find a company you believe in rather than just a job that’s available. A company with a strong cultural foundation and strong values will help you wake up charged and motivated to do and give your best every single day.
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ABOUT NO MORE BAD EVENTS:
Brought to you by eSpeakers and hosted by professional emcee, host, and keynote speaker Scott Bloom, No More Bad Events is where you’ll hear from some of the top names in the event and speaking industry about what goes on behind the scenes at the world’s most perfectly executed conferences, meetings, and more. Get ready to learn the secrets and strategies to help anyone in the event industry reach their goal of putting on nothing less than world-class events.
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ABOUT THE HOST:
A veteran comedian and television personality who has built a reputation as the go-to choice for business humor, Scott has hosted hundreds of events over two decades for big and small organizations alike. Scott has also hosted his own weekly VH1 series, and recently co-hosted a national simulcast of the Grammy Awards from the Palace Theater.
As the son of a successful salesman, he was exposed to the principles of building a business at an early age. As a comedian, Scott cut his teeth at renowned improv and comedy clubs. And as a self-taught student of psychology, he’s explored what makes people tick and has written a book (albeit a farce) on how to get through life. He’s uniquely positioned to deliver significant notes on connecting people and making business seriously funny. And who doesn’t like to laugh?
Learn more about Scott: scottbloomconnects.com
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SHOW CREDITS:
Todd Street:
We're seeing the live experiences come back in a more authentic way, an opportunity to connect in a human way, to imbue a sense of the culture that these employees belong to. And that's what's required.
Scott Bloom:
Welcome to No More Bad Events, the podcast for professional event organizers and anyone who wants to take their events to the next level. Each week, we'll hear from the best in the business and get an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes at the world's most perfectly executed conferences, meetings, and more. Together, we'll learn the secrets and strategies to help us reach one big goal.
Scott Bloom:
No More Bad Events. Our show is brought to you by eSpeakers and I'm your host, Scott Bloom. Let's get started. Today's show is sponsored by ImpactEleven formerly known as 3 Ring Circus, the best and most diverse and inclusive community built for training and developing professional speakers. They're not just elevating an industry we know and love, they work with hundreds of speakers to launch or scale their speaking businesses, earning tens of millions in speaking fees, landing bureau representation, securing book deals, and rising to the top of the field.
Scott Bloom:
If you're looking to take your speaking career to the next level, they'll help you make a bigger impact faster. To learn more and schedule a free intro call, visit impacteleven.com. That's Impact E-L-E-V-E-N.com.
Scott Bloom:
No More Bad Events is produced and presented by eSpeakers who believes in the magic that happens when the perfect presenter gets in front of your audience and moves them. The eSpeakers marketplace helps you find, connect with, and hire from the deepest catalog of experts who speak on the planet. The platform makes it easy to find, contract, and pay the expert who will ignite your audience to accomplish your meeting goals and exit to a standing ovation. For more information, visit espeakers.com/nomorebadevents. That's espeakers.com/nomorebadevents.
Scott Bloom:
Today, we'll be speaking with Todd Street, president and CEO of Toddstreet, an experiential communications agency dedicated to delivering solutions designed to captivate and mobilize audiences. Established more than 30 years ago in New York City, Toddstreet is legendary. They are creative pioneers, communications and production agency royalty, a powerhouse in the events industry. Because contrary to avoiding bad events, Todd's approach has always been about what makes a better event.
Scott Bloom:
His current work and future visions, take us on a journey from looking at producing content-rich abbreviated personal events to producing compelling cliffhanger like episodic series. You're going to want to listen because he shares some great perspectives. Let's get right into it. Tell us a little bit about Todd Street, the person and Toddstreet, the company, the experiential communication agency. Because I knew you back. I mean, your company has evolved over the years. We've been working together for, what, over 20 years, maybe even 25 years. Why don't you just take us through where the company started or where you want to pick up from and where it is today? Because I know it's definitely evolved over the years.
Todd Street:
Yeah, it's interesting. We started out as Todd Street Productions and what we evolved into over our 34 years in business was realizing that we're doing way more than production. What we are really doing is creating experiences for audiences where we communicate key messages to them, whether it's a brand story or whether it's a new marketing initiative, if we're launching products on behalf of companies, if we're motivating sales forces, if we're inspiring audiences and making them more intimate with a brand.
Todd Street:
There's a message that needs to be told and we tell it through experiences. So it's not about producing it per se, but it's about the creative strategy and the ideation and how you implement it to move your audience to take action.
Scott Bloom:
Yeah, because in my mind, I was always going TSP, TSP, Todd Street Productions. And then I know that you evolved and you're a lot more. And I love your value proposition. We do more than tell your brand story. We bring it to life. Tell me the name of the podcast, No More Bad Events. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. But everyone is looking to have that amazing event. How do you bring the brand story to life, let's say at a conference or a meeting? I bet you'll tell me it doesn't just start there, especially with the relationships you have with your clients. So why don't you walk me through that?
Todd Street:
I think the way we start out is to create an authentic experience for our audiences. But before we do that, we have to really get into the heads and the minds of the audiences and where they are and where they need to go to or what information or knowledge they need to acquire to either become attached to the brand or to accomplish their goals.
Todd Street:
So we start with the audience first and we understand who they are and their demographics, and what experiences they might have had to date. And then we create immersive experiences that really put them into the story, so they embody it. And through that experience, they walk out with a newfound sense of intimacy with that brand story or that message. And most importantly, confidence. Confidence to execute on their goals and achieve them.
Scott Bloom:
Yeah. I love this concept of helping to not only to build culture, but to get everyone on board. Client's expectations have changed over the year. Let's just go back to 2019, 2020, these last two years have really made us all look at things differently. How have you approached the last two years? Any benefits that came out of it? I mean, it was a huge disruption. I know you folks are always doing things a little differently. Was there anything that you took out of it and go, "Okay, because of this, we had time to rethink things or were you moving in the direction we're going now as a direction that you would've been at regardless of what happened over the last two years of the pandemic?
Todd Street:
Well, it's interesting because I think the work environment across the industry has changed completely. So that's been more of a change for employees and the workforce at large globally. It's been more the cave syndrome, if you will. People have suffered from isolation and they want to get back together. For us, as experiential communications company, I think not much has changed. We had already adapted to that remote policy and we are progressive in the way we operate.
Todd Street:
And to that end, we had already started to... We were doing broadcasts for larger marketing and leadership messages. There are so many different ways to communicate. And we were quite familiar with so many of the virtual platforms of how to reach whether it's through a campaign or through videos, or like I said, broadcast meetings. So as things turned for the workforce, we were poised to just bring those solutions right to our clients and just continue to implement them. The only difference was from our operational aspect was we were doing it remotely as opposed to together in a studio perhaps.
Scott Bloom:
I've always felt that you guys were always on the cutting edge. You were always doing things a little different. Is that you driving it? Do you have a creative team that you just trust? Are you surprised at times some of the great ideas. How do you keep on coming up with great ideas and keep your clients going, "Hey, we want to stick with you. You're always making us look better. You're always giving our audiences a great experience."
Todd Street:
I think creative solutions or innovations come from keeping your eyes wide open and adapting to change and being poised to embrace change at all times. We operate on a policy that there is no bad idea because all creative contributions either solidify a direction that we're headed in. If they're not strategically meeting the goals or they add and enhance it. I think our approach is to understand the audience and understand what's going to motivate them, educate them and instill a sense of confidence to achieve their goals, and then approach it with strategy of how we take the entire idea or a part of it. It's not about delivering tactics, it's about delivering an entire experience.
Scott Bloom:
Well, here, let me ask you this. What is your feeling about virtual meetings? Because what you folks did over there with some of the virtual events that I was involved in with you folks, you created a mini movie. You had drone cameras. You were going through a corporate headquarters. There was movement. You did shoot it more like it was a television show. You weren't so concerned that people were like, "Well, this has to be live or anything like that." You produced a good event. something that someone would be able to watch on their screen.
Scott Bloom:
Things were moving. Different ways of having people give their presentations with added dimensions. Do you think that, that is going to translate even to a live event? Is there ways to take what that produced element that you saw that you've done in your virtual events and bring that to a live event? I mean, how are live events going to change now?
Todd Street:
I think live events now are going to be shorter, really focusing on the application of knowledge where I think so many companies have seen the financial advantages of communicating with their audiences in advance and disseminating those messages for acquisition of knowledge. I think we are seeing the live experiences come back in a more authentic way, an opportunity to connect in a human way, to imbue a sense of the culture that these employees belong to. And that's what's required because there are so many ways to get information to people in very compelling ways.
Todd Street:
As we all know, everyone learns differently. So if you're not hitting every different touchpoint, whether it's podcast or videos, or group discussions or chats, or walk and talks, not everything has to be on a laptop screen in advance. So there are ways to have group telephone calls or just to connect with your people one on one.
Scott Bloom:
I was on the website and I saw some... I always like just design wise style wise, you guys always knock out of the park that way. And just on a personal note, I noticed your companies has a problem called, We Care, 125 days of community service donated each year. How long has that been around? We're talking about having them being authentic and that human connection. I guess that sort of extends in this volunteer world. What have you folks been involved with lately and what have you learned from it?
Todd Street:
The We Care has been foundational to our culture. I think it's really important. People look at philanthropy as an opportunity to donate money. And while we do that and I do that personally I also love the sense of taking our skills and seeing how we can help companies better themselves or achieve their efforts where they may not have the investment of money.
Todd Street:
So it's something that has been foundational to our philosophy of how we operate. It's a sensibility of how we care for people at large. I think that's why we're so successful in what it is that we do. But it also fosters a great sense of teamwork too amongst ourselves. So whether we're working at a food kitchen or we're doing a walkathon, or whether we're donating our skills as producers or stage managers or creating videos, it gives us great pleasure to do so.
Scott Bloom:
I know you drive a lot of that, because I know you're someone who likes to give back. I mean, it's worked successfully with your company. It's part of your culture. It should be part of every company's culture, to be honest with you. Do you try to recommend those type of... I mean, as you said there is a lot of team building. Do you try to recommend or offer events where people can come together and do something for a community? Is that something that's part of your thought process when you're creating an overall event and they're looking for a team building event, you try to lead with something that's altruistic and more heart-centered?
Todd Street:
Yeah. I think that's where events are headed to now. They're abbreviated times together now. And I think they'll continue to be shorter, more succinct and clear, but it is like you said, an opportunity to instill a sense of connection and culture, first and foremost. I think we hear more than ever the word cultural facilitation. And we see ourselves as cultural facilitators in a way because we're creating immersive experiences that are authentic, where people can connect and just feel a part of something bigger than themselves, fuel a sense of accomplishment. Every day, they're working together as a team to accomplish a goal. It's not working in isolation.
Scott Bloom:
What I've always been impressed with your organization is you have a lot of long term relationships with your clients. They trust in you, they believe in you. What do you do better than some of the other companies? And more specifically, I don't know if you have this kind of pressure, but you're doing great meeting after great meeting. Do you feel that sometimes there's that anticipation each time to do one step better? Obviously, you want to try to create a great event each time, but do you feel the pressure of having to top yourself at times?
Todd Street:
No. And I don't think it's about us doing better than the next company. I think it's a matter of the people. I've said that from the onset of this company. It's about the people. In fact, that was our first marketing promotion because every company brings different people to the table and a different sense of priorities and a different appreciation for the opportunities or what the challenge ahead is.
Todd Street:
Our people are different than everybody else. At the heart of this is the relationship and the trust and the respect of each other, and the respect of what everybody, not only on our side, but the client side as well brings to the table. And who's going to collaborate best together to achieve the best outcomes?
Todd Street:
So it's not one company is better than the other. It's really comes down to the foundation of the relationships that we establish. And that's why we're so successful with our clients.
Scott Bloom:
I know your son, Evan works for you now. He's seen his dad in this business and probably I'm sure he had some college intern at one point, but whether it was your son or someone else coming into the industry, what's the best advice that you would be able to give to that person?
Todd Street:
I think the best advice what I would give to my children or anybody else's is to understand not only what opportunities lie ahead for you, but the challenges of the position to evaluate the growth opportunities within the company. And to make sure that it's not something just to grab a job, but you're doing a company that you believe. A company with a strong cultural foundation with strong values and work ethics that you're going to be proud of each and every day. You're going to wake up charged and motivated to go in and do your best and give it your best every single day.
Scott Bloom:
Are you charged every day? What keeps you going? You've been doing this a long time now. I'm sure at some point you could cash out. What keeps you going every day?
Todd Street:
The people. The people at this company are what keep me going. The relationships that we've cultivated over the years and the trust. And the opportunity to always challenge ourselves, always look for what's new and how to bring creative solutions, creative strategies to our customers and see them benefit from the collaborative ideation that we achieve and then taking audiences together.
Todd Street:
It's a great challenge to wake up every single day and know that you have all these opportunities. And each one represents a different audience, demographic or segment. I'm big on diversity of thought. I think that speaks volumes about a company and what they provide. And in creating creative strategies, it's very exciting to approach each day and say, "Here's a different challenge with a different industry, with different set of priorities and a different goal." And there are so many different ways to meet those challenges.
Todd Street:
That to me is a great inspiration to be able to integrate ideas and tweak them to help you meet that creative or to help you meet that goal.
Scott Bloom:
Well, that's inspiring. I mean, I'm hoping people who are listening to this is to realize that they have that they have that ability. They're in that position to change people's lives, to impact them, to move them forward. But what I've gotten from talking with you today, Todd is just this idea of that we've learned or we need to be more authentic with our audiences. We need to connect with them better. Yes, there will be virtual, but that will be its own experience, whatever that might be, whether it's a broadcast or a production. And the live events will be the live events.
Scott Bloom:
But as you were saying that because of this disruption, because we had to do things different like on Zoom that even the presenters now are ditching the old way of presenting and really sort of trying to be their authentic selves, communicate with their audience and make that better connection because that's what everyone needs at this point.
Todd Street:
Right. Well, if you think about it, now, we've all been exposed intimately to each other's lives.
Scott Bloom:
Our homes, yep.
Todd Street:
[inaudible 00:23:00] Right? Our homes, pets. Our family members walking behind us or knocking on a door. It's all acceptable now. There used to be a time where people were so uptight about anybody making a noise or anything along those lines. And it's fine. We have a way of... When we were pitching virtually, often we would always begin with welcome to our home because that's what we were doing. And I think that's how we approach all of our opportunities. I think that's been foundational to our success.
Todd Street:
We approach things as to build relationships and to build a deep sense of understanding of who the audience is and who the client is and what they're trying to achieve together. And then we come in with the creative strategies and collaborate with them to actually enhance them and improve them, and curate them to make it an immersive experience for the audience whether it's live and/or virtual.
Todd Street:
So there is not one particular anecdote or tactic that makes a meeting good, great, or bad. It's about understanding how to deliver and reach that specific audience with a strategy. And that strategy oftentimes incorporates a campaign, if you will, with a momentum of touch points. It provides an opportunity for people to learn differently as we all do. We all hear things differently. I think that's the basis for how things move forward and how you achieve great events.
Scott Bloom:
Thanks, Todd, for spending some time with me. It's always great to catch up with you and hope to see in person sometime soon. Do we have anything coming up, you and I?
Todd Street:
I think so.
Scott Bloom:
Oh, good.
Todd Street:
Yeah.
Scott Bloom:
Let's make that happen. I think you're the main guy there, so you can make that happen.
Scott Bloom:
That's it for now. I've been your host, Scott Bloom, corporate event emcee and comedic keynote speaker. And of course, your connoisseur of connections. If you'd like more information, you could find me at scottbloomconnects.com. Or you could book me directly for your next event on eSpeakers marketplace at espeakers.com/marketplace. And if you like what you heard, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Scott Bloom:
If you love what you heard, drop as a review and don't forget to share with your friends. For show transcripts and show notes with resources to help you get even more out of the show, visit nomorebadevents.com. No More Bad Events is produced and presented by eSpeakers and we're grateful to our sponsor ImpactEleven for helping us make our show possible. Thanks for listening. Now, go out and make your event a good one.