SHED
Deliverable: Immersive Employee Experience Strategy, Design, Implementation
In 2017, Starwood Retail Partners and Riley Group, Inc. created Live 360° to bring a true sense of community back to Starwood’s malls. We elevated great malls to spaces where authentic, local experiences happen. We packed 28 properties with activities that connected visitors to their neighbors, passions and ideas, facilitating meaningful guest engagement.
In 2018, Starwood decided that award-winning programming was now a top priority for all employees. At its annual 2019 conference, Starwood envisioned hosting a Live 360°-anchored experience, which Riley Group spearheaded.
The experience leveraged the spirit of Live 360° while calling for greater change in all parts of the business. Our goal was to create a one-day training experience immersing employees in powerful, entertaining, on-trend experiences. Employees would let go of old ideas about how they define, design and lease space, and embrace the new realities of retail. We called the concept SHED, catalyzing the process of letting go of the past to make room for new ideas. It was both a call to action and a reference to the physical space that defines a mall. What could we put into “the box” to make it relevant (and exciting!) for our communities?
The best way to open attendees’ minds would be to show them how exhilarating trends like wellness, technology and conscious brands really are. We transformed a 5,000 sq ft ballroom into a 12-room, interactive installation. Each carefully concepted, designed, and named room connected to a trend and was designed to leave a lasting impression.
We created the SHED brand and visual communications system from scratch, including a large 3D logo and a navigation system. We also developed a SHED video to kick off the experience. Starwood and Kehoe Designs, an event design company, collaborated with us to execute the concept.
Nearly all attendees surveyed rated the experience as “the best part” of the conference, with a majority of exhibits ranking a 4 or 5 out of 5.
We were further honored to have this event recognized in 2019 with a Platinum Hermes Creative Award for Internal Communication Design. You can read more about this and other recognitions our projects have received on our Awards page.
One room was “Time to Blossom" where attendees made bouquets to benefit the community. At “Me Me Me”, visitors mastered the art of the selfie. Attendees made their own leather bracelets, threw axes and chatted with a service robot. The experience ultimately challenged everyone with the goal of building a brand worth following.
We created the SHED brand and visual communications system from scratch, including a large 3D logo and a navigation system. We also developed a SHED video to kick off the experience. Starwood and Kehoe Designs, an event design company, collaborated with us to execute the concept.
“I sincerely believe the Starwood audience came away from the SHED experience enlightened and challenged to reimagine our future, particularly the way we think about our communities and spaces.”