TEDxBroadway: Why Look 20 Years Into the Future?

Twenty years ago, the World Wide Web barely existed, the Soviet Union had just collapsed, MTV’s The Real World, considered the precursor of reality TV, was a few months away from its debut, Times Square was a dangerous and run down place, the total value of China’s economy was only about half a trillion dollars a year, Al Qaeda’s declaration of war on the United States was a few years away, and a “mobile” was still something you hung on a baby’s crib to keep him happy as he fell asleep.

The fact is, that no matter what industry or group you represent, a lot has changed in the past twenty years—but what if instead of looking 20 years back, we looked 20 years ahead?

That’s exactly what those of us who are organizing the inaugural TEDxBroadway have asked.  With Damian Bazadona of Situation Interactive and Ken Davenport, Broadway producer and entrepreneur, our goal with the daylong conference is to get some of the smartest, most progressive people in and around Broadway to contemplate a single intriguing question:

What’s the best Broadway can be in twenty years?

We’ve drawn in speakers from inside and outside the community to paint a picture of what’s possible and to answer that question through the lens of their expertise  in fields like economics, customer service, architecture, cultural trends, demographics, as well as theatrical production, management and marketing..

As we go through the process of putting this together, we’ve learned some things that could be applied to any industry or group about why it’s useful to look 20 years into the future:

1.  Creating a positive vision prevents just stumbling into the ‘default’ future. As human beings, we assume the future will be pretty much like the present, but with smaller, better iPhones.  We draw a line from past to present and continue it forward.  Is that the future we want?  If not, we’ll need to design a new one.

2.   Anticipate the surprises. Look at the list of big changes at the top of the page.  Most of them were not predicted, but they weren’t exactly hidden either.  You may not be able to identify the next World Wide Web, but thinking about what could disrupt your corner of the world might give you an edge or a head start when that disruption is in its early stages.

3.  Make the future get here sooner. I’ve heard that early cell phone developers were inspired by the “communicator” on Star Trek.  They saw it on the show and asked “how could we make that actually work?” You probably don’t need William Shatner to help your industry or group thinking this way, but who knows?  He might be helpful.

4.  Excite the young and aspiring. Where do the talented, ambitious, interesting people of twenty years from now want to be spending their time?  Thinking big and bold about the future and talking about it in a public forum means they’re more likely to want to go where the action is.  That could be your industry or it could be something else.

5.  Untangle yourself from the problems of the present and see what happens. If history is a predictor, many of today’s headaches will be irrelevant in 20 years.  Sure, they’re be replaced by new ones, but the problems and issues that bedevil the day to day work that goes on in any industry will at least partly be relics of the past.  By tuning into that, It’s possible to put them aside momentarily and get focused on the big stuff, the stuff that wins long term value.

So next time you have the chance, take a day to get your tribe together and think about the world of 2032.  And don’t just think about it: tell the best possible story for your industry or group.

Will it play out that way?  Almost certainly not.  Will it fall short in many important ways from that vision?  That’s just about guaranteed.

On the other hand, some things will be better than you can legitimately hope for, and the plot twists along the way are more likely to work for you than against you… Especially if you spent some time in 2012 thinking about them.

TEDxBroadway is this coming Monday, January 23rd at New World Stages in New York.  You’ve still got time to register so go already!

Why You Should Go to TEDxBroadway

As we round the corner into the new year, one of the things on my mind is the upcoming event, TEDxBroadway.

Last summer, I co-conspired with Ken Davenport and Damian Bazadona to come up with a Broadway conference that would be fundamentally different from others that had come before it.  The first thought we had was that it would be organized as a TEDx event, which means that it’s an independently organized event (by us) licensed by the TED organization that so many of you know and love and of which I have been an active participant for several years now and of which Goldstar is a partner.

We did this because we thought it was important to make the scope of the discussion broad.  Broadway isn’t just an industry that creates and sells theatrical productions; it’s a place, and that place has a lot of stakeholders and has the potential to have a lot of impact.  So our Broadway conference, we decided, wouldn’t be about “Broadway” but about Broadway.

Then we felt we had to ask a specific question that the day would answer.  After some deliberation, it was this:  What is the Best that Broadway Can be in 20 years?  And that is what the day is devoted to talking about.

Why this question?  There are two ways of looking at the future.  The first is that you see the future and a kind of inevitable extension of the present.  It’s the future that feels inevitable, and whether good or bad, is already on the way if you don’t do anything differently.

The second way of looking at the future is to create it the way you want it.  For Broadway, we thought it would be exciting to envision the best possible future as a way of making it possible for people to actually live into that big, bright possibility.  In other words, if you’ve never pictured what great is, how do you expect it to appear?  MLK said “I have a dream” and he described it because he knew that if people could picture something different and better, they might be able to live up to it.

Then we decided that 20 years was the right time frame because it’s difficult to imagine that far out.  As human beings, if we’re asked  to think about the future, we automatically think about 2 or 3 years from now.  Maybe 5.  This allows us to be comfortable with today, but just a little different.  Maybe an iPhone 7 or reality shows about camping and haircutting instead of cooking and singing.

But 20…it literally boggles the mind, and it takes a lot of imagination to think through what might be.  Add to that the near certainty that whatever you’d come up with will be wrong.

And if you disagree, ask yourself how many people were predicting the World Wide Web, the rapid and total end of the Cold War, a 65% drop in violent crime in America, a worldwide war on terrorist organizations, Kim Kardashian and all she represents, and so many other fundamental realities of how we live today.

So we gathered some really interesting people to talk about this subject from a range of angles.  We were especially interested to get people from outside the theatre business who had little or no experience with it, except as a fan or ticket buyer and mix and match those people with other speakers from within the Broadway world.

Randy Weiner, producer of Sleep No More, is going to be talking about creating content that breaks down every imaginable barrier.  Frank Eliason, famously formerly of @comcast cares fame now SVP of Social Media with Citibank and one of the Godfathers of using Twitter for business, is going to talk about what the future is really going to demand of customer service.  Steve Gullans is going to tell us about a distant future in which marketing is more like a disease spreading than it is selling and advertising and what happens when everything around you sees and hears what you say.  Juan Enriquez, a TED talks favorite, will probably freak us all about looking at the big picture economically.

And more.  15 to 20 presenters and performers all together.  All of whom will be answering the same question in different and fascinating ways.

What’s the best Broadway can be in 20 years?

Want to hear what people think about that?  Want to help us answer?

Then I invite you to reserve your get your spot now for TEDxBroadway.  This year, it’s open registration because we want to build a community, but in future years, existing community members will have priority, so get on in there!

It’s going to be a powerful day, and we’d love to have you!

8th Annual Thanksgiving Appeal

Eight years ago, we realized that since Thanksgiving week is kinda slow in the world of ticket sales, we could put the promotional power of Goldstar (what little we had then) to work to support our local homeless services organization, Union Station.  Goldstar members raised over $2000 that year, and we loved it so much we did it the next year, in LA and our then new cities, San Diego and San Francisco.

Today, we’re launching the 2011 version, in 16 cities to almost 2,000,000 Goldstar members.  It’s very exciting, and we’re hoping to break the $100k barrier in total funds raised between now and Sunday.

How can you help, you say?

Go to the Thanksgiving Appeal page or just go to the Goldstar web site and select “Thanksgiving Appeal” at the top of the site, where you normally see your city.  Then donate to the organization in your city, or wherever you’d like.

The thing about the holidays is that for the vast majority of us, even in difficult economic times, we get a moment to stop and reflect on the true blessings in our lives: enough to eat, a warm place to sleep, the ability to pursue a career and enjoy some leisure time.  Even when times are hard, most of us still have the luxury of a roof over our heads and a certainty that when we’re hungry, food will be there for us.  More than that, most of us aren’t plagued by things like mental health trouble or drug addiction on top of not having food or shelter.  Can you imagine the feeling of being under a burden like that?

This is the only time in the year Goldstar does something like this, so we go pretty big on it.  If you’re a Goldstar member, you’ll get an email reminder about this later in the week, but why wait?  Go now and spend 5 minutes to help somebody else’s holiday be a little better by supporting one of these great organizations.

And do me a favor: spread the word!  We don’t do this for money or for PR.  We do it just to do it, and if you think this is a good idea, please do pass it along.

Thanks!  Jim

TEDxBroadway: What’s the Best Broadway Could be in 2032?

I haven’t had a chance to write about this yet, so today’s the day!

I’m happy to announce TEDxBroadway and invite you to join us in New York City on January 23rd.

Here’s the basic idea: 20 years ago–gasp–was 1992, and if you were to compare Broadway, its environs and the world around us today to the world of 1992, the contrast is pretty startling.  Do we expect more, less or about the same rate of change between now and 2032, which is the same amount of time ahead of us as 1992 is behind us…double gasp.

Well, I’ve never heard any smart money on “less change” so let’s begin to think about that.  Broadway is a place with numerous stakeholders and its vitality have a huge impact not just on theatre or mid-town Manhattan, but on the intellectual life of the country and world.  Many people talk about things that are “wrong” with Broadway and many talk about the things that are “right” with Broadway, but here’s perhaps a more intriguing question:

What’s the BEST it could be?

Ken Davenport, Damian Bazadona and I started talking about how to frame this event, and we decided to challenge the speakers and the group to come up with ideas on multiple fronts for the very best possible outcome.  We may or may not see all of it come to pass, but if you never envision the best, the chance of seeing it happen is pretty close to zero.

So we’re gathering a diverse group of interesting people to think about this from a lot of different perspectives.  Jordan Roth of Jujamcyn Theatres, Bill T. Jones, choreographer and performer, Juan Enriquez, economist and all-purpose genius, Frank Eliason, customer service maven, Patricia Martin, fascinating author, and more.  Even our pal Neil Patrick Harris is doing a presentation on his thoughts, though it will be in video form because he’s filming that day.

A bunch more presenters will be announced, and it’s happening at New World Stages (appropriately enough).  It’s half a jam-packed day, and the ideas are going to be big and provocative, and fun.

The theatre’s not huge, and even though we’ve announced it, we haven’t publicized it much yet.  So get your tickets while it’s easy!  It should be a great day.