STORY 2019 Recap
Image Source: storygatherings.com
This year, Brand Strategist and Copywriter, Maria cleared her schedule, packed her bags and headed to Nashville for STORY — an immersive, two-day conference-style gathering designed to inspire, challenge and equip artists, creators and storytellers who work in a variety of industries.
STORY recap by Maria Royal.
Schermerhorn Symphony Center | STORY Day One
For those who haven’t already heard of it, what is STORY?
STORY is a two-day conference-style event hosted every year at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville for diverse creatives united by the common thread of believing in the power that stories possess. Every year the gathering adopts a new, thought-provoking theme designed to stretch, inspire and empower attendees through meaningful performances in an immersive atmosphere.
If you enjoy traditional conferences or workshops that offer ‘best practices’ and ‘networking windows’, this is not your bag. On the other hand, if you're looking for personal creative fuel, something experiential to attend with your team, or a supportive community of talented people to connect with, it makes sense that STORY has developed a reputation for being like "TED for Creatives".
Is STORY registration exclusive to writers?
Nope. In the words of Harris III, STORY’s director and curator, “Our community consists of poeple who work in creative industries like writers, photographers and filmmakers. But we also have a lot of speakers and communicators. People who run social media and work in nonprofits. We have chief creative officers and lead creative teams from Fortune 500 companies. People from Pixar to Disney, some of the largest tech companies in the world like Pinterest and IBM…” and the list goes on.
A great quote captured in the room.
What was this year’s [2019] theme?
This year, STORY attendees were invited to step into liminal space — the space between no longer and not yet. A theme that anyone with a pulse can relate to, this year’s focus revolved around the fact that there is magic to be discovered in the spaces between, despite all of the fear, anxiety and frustration that comes along with time spent in liminal space. Through that lens, we heard relevant messages from some notable story tellers —
Linda Woolverton
Image Source: storygatherings.com
Between the damsel-in-distress expectation and a desire to develop a strong female protagonist for Disney…
Famous Disney scriptwriter, Linda Woolverton was committed to telling different stories with strong female protagonists. She shared what went into the making of Beauty and the Beast and Alice and Wonderland, and how insanely important it is to find ways to “put yourself in the center of the story” because your essence is what makes your story different.
She also left the writers in the room with a refreshing end note, explaining that “writing is re-writing.”
Jeff Hall
Image Source: storygatherings.com
Between being told he’d never walk again and performing modern dance on stage…
30+ year performing stage artist, dancer, actor, choreographer and circus director, Jeff Hall is recognized for his spectacular athleticism and avant-garde performance style. He shared a story of remarkable achievement. An ultimate frisbee pro turned dancer, Jeff took the audience from his tragic accident and diagnosis for never being able to walk again to his ultimate redemption. And spoiler alert, he did it without speaking.
Ken Black
Image Source: storygatherings.com
Between what’s expected and uncommon delivery
Former Nike VP of Digital Design Future and Olympic Creative Director, Ken Black walked us through a presentation centered on the benefits of using design thinking to “do common things in uncommon ways,” paralleling his point with a story about the launch of Air Jordans. He explained his team’s intent for creating the most powerful story about history’s best basketball player — not the intent behind shoe design. In his words, “people didn’t realize we had completely changed the rules.”
STORY’s theatrical and experiential weekend opener
What about STORY inspired you most?
There were so many great speakers, and I couldn't possibly list them all here. Beyond impressive presentations and anchoring memory points, what inspired me most about STORY was the fact that the team was brave enough to zoom out and integrate talks focused on real world political and societal issues into the lineup.
We heard from Ekansh Tambe, a sophomore in high school who set out to use his developing photography skills to tell the stories of conflicts at the US/Mexico border. With the hope of humanizing these deep issues dominating the headlines today his recent travels have taken him to the border between North and South Korea and beyond.
We also heard from the owner of Onsite, an internationally-known emotional wellness brand. Miles Adcox spoke about the growing importance of prioritizing mental health in the creative workplace and why creatives with powerful imaginations are susceptible to anxiety and depression.