Baton Rouge collaborative design firm ThreeSixtyEight’s quarterly event Assembly Required brings local and national speakers to the city in order to help different members of the Louisiana community come together.
The next Assembly Required, slated for November 10, will focus on Masters of the Story, sporting six different speakers so far with more to be announced in the coming weeks. These speakers will share with attendees how important storytelling is in all sides of industry.
ThreeSixtyEight’s chief executive officer Kenny Nguyen said Assembly Required challenges the idea of a conference by breaking down the walls of different communities to get people talking and collaborating.
“Networking groups can end in the dreaded point where you know everyone in the room,” Nguyen said. “Innovation happens when different communities interact. When you are able to see the world in different ways by meeting new people, your approach of attacking challenges and problems you’re passionate about can change in ways you never thought possible.”
In addition to multiple speakers Assembly Required is known for having the audience’s dinner prepared and cooked by a local chef, a business fair featuring sponsors and local businesses who have also prepared unique food times to spark conversation among attendees, raffles and many opportunities to network with people in the community.
The first two Assembly Required events were sold out successes, and ThreeSixtyEight hopes to continue giving audiences unique experiences at each event. Nguyen said the theme of each conference is the foundation for the rest of the event. The first two events focused on women in leadership and innovations in food respectively. Assembly Required’s quarterly regularity is a method ThreeSixtyEight uses to combat complacency and to keep inspiration in audience members, Nguyen said.
“You inspire your audience at your event, they leave inspired, yet when they get home their daily grind slows down their progress,” Nguyen said. “We want attendees to get as much inspiration and new connections as possible throughout the year.”
Nguyen followed up by saying, businesses have a difficult time tracking lasting effects in the days, weeks and months following conferences. ThreeSixtyEight has devised a giveaway aimed at circumventing an issue in order to gauge the lasting inspiration in the months between Assembly Required events. Each attendee has the opportunity to get a voucher for coffee that enables him or her and another attendee to go out for coffee to continue collaborating after the event. When the attendees register the codes on their vouchers it allows ThreeSixtyEight to see how the event keeps collaboration up post event.
The venue at which each Assembly Required takes place is chosen based off of the theme of each event. For the masters of the story theme, ThreeSixtyEight chose Baton Rouge Community College’s Magnolia Theatre, a location built for telling stories. In the past, the innovations in food event took place at a culinary school at which Assembly Required used most of the campus to immerse the audience. Local Chef Ryan Andre cooked dinner for the audience on site. For the women in leadership event, ThreeSixtyEight converted a library meeting space into a stage production.
“We love choosing venues that people normally don’t expect to visit during a conference,” Nguyen said. “For innovators in food we used every part of the school to add to the experience.”
Assembly Required begins at 2 p.m. on November 10, and tickets can be ordered here.
Get to know some of the speakers here:
Jon Youshaei
Youshaei is YouTube’s as the head of creator product marketing, and is the author of acclaimed comic series Every Vowel about millennials and their workspace. Every Vowel has been featured in many publications including Time and Forbes.
At Assembly Required Mr. Youshaei will be speaking to the audience about what makes videos go viral on the internet.
“There’s randomness and luck, but there are specific ways to increase your chances of going viral through the type of content and consistency at which you post post them,” Youshaei said.
Katie Greenman
Greenman is director of programs, storyteller and facilitator at Dear World, a message-spreading portrait company that inspires people to share their stories and listen to the stories others have to share.
“The range of stories behind our Dear World portraits is everything from grief, loss, pain, resilience, fear to humor, joy, love, goofiness and excitement,” Greenman said. “As our project and exposure has grown, we’ve been excited to find out more and more unique and personal moments from people who are eager to use their portraits as a window in.”
After the presentation, Dear World will be taking portraits of attendees, allowing them to share their stories and experiences as well.
Sarah Anthony
Anthony worked on HBO’s critically acclaimed music documentary mini-series “The Defiant Ones.” She was in charge of the budgeting and scheduling, crew hiring, and arrangement of interviews and other shoots.
The show covers the relationship between Dr. Dre and record executive Jimmy Iovine through years of interviews and footage from the duo’s storied careers.
“As a team we all worked together to craft interview questions and comb through research,” Anthony said. “As for deciding what goes into the final cut, that’s always hard, especially when you have so much material to choose from!”