Envisioning the Future
Client: National Western Center (NWC)
Services: Strategic Brand Visioning, Workshop Design, Facilitation
Challenge: How do we envision the future of the oldest and largest stock show in the U.S.?
Team: Curiosity Atlas – Me: Experience Design & Facilitation, Gretchen: Facilitation & Client relations, Shana: Graphics
The City of Denver is undertaking one of the most significant developments in the city’s history, reimagining the National Western Center as the country’s crossroad for agriculture, innovation, and entertainment. In partnership with Kulli Marketing, we asked what the future would hold for the development and what it meant for Denver. We engaged city leaders and stakeholders in developing a vision for the National Western Center that established working values, a purpose, and, most of all, honored the pioneering spirit of Denver.
The two-day workshop kicked off with an evening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. The night set a tone of unconventional inspiration with a talk by museum director Adam Lerner. During the reception, participants were asked to imagine themselves in 2030. The NWC is in full swing. What has just happened to land NWC in the news? Is it a noteworthy event, a groundbreaking innovation, reaching a milestone, etc.? It could be anything, as long as it was BIG.
The headlines also provided some insight into everyone’s aspirations for what the NWC will accomplish. Three key themes emerged as priorities:
Becoming a platform for global events
Serving as a pioneer in food systems innovation
Celebrating Denver and Western heritage
HOW
In advance of the retreat, seven pillars were identified as the foundation for HOW NWC would go about manifesting its purpose. We first explored each pillar through a series of short talks given by experts within the NWC community. The pillars then provided inspiration for brainstorming programs, events, and activities the NWC could foster.
Art
Community
Heritage & Place
Education
Entertainment & Sports
Innovation & Research
Commerce & Industry
WHAT
Participants divided themselves into teams to focus on individual pillars. Teams then brainstormed events, activities and programs in response to opportunity areas or ‘How Might We...’ challenges. The results are seven refined lists of programs identified as vital to the NWC reaching its purpose.
WHY
On Day 2 we explored the impact the NWC could create through the seven draft pillars. The programs identified as ‘vital’ provided insight into the NWC’s potential WHY—where the unique strengths of the NWC overlap with the needs of the world. With this insight and inspiration, teams prototyped their own Purpose Statements.
THE PITCH
To test the purpose statement prototypes, participants picked one statement and created a pitch to a potential partner. The organization was able to leverage the pitches from the workshop to gain community commitment, expand their support, and develop an action plan to hire an executive director to carry the vision forward.
