UNITED PURPOSE

OUR MISSION:

To bring together high-caliber individuals through unforgettable experiences  that inform, inspire, and connect.

We have a talent and passion for designing experiential, immersive programming that ignite the senses and engage the intellect. Our events are not your typical affairs. They are unusual, informative, interactive, convivial, and most of all, fun. They are purposefully designed to make meaningful connections across a diverse array of cultures, professions, and interests. And they always produce a more united sense of purpose, productivity, and community. 

APPROACH:

We have earned a city-wide (NYC) reputation for world-class programming among those who value the unique and embrace the unusual. In a city with so much going on, there is a lot of the same stale and static experiences. We settle for nothing less than unforgettable.

Formats:

We work with clients to design formats that challenge the traditional ways we receive information and inspiration. If checking your iphone while someone on a dais drones on is your thing, we probably aren’t for you. But if you believe in the element of surprise and the power of play, than we’ll be a perfect match. 

NETWORK:

We put our extensive network to work for whatever your occasion requires. That means astronauts, artists, musicians, technologists, fashionistas, marketers, professors, diplomats, adventurers, politicians, playwrights, zen priests, authors, filmmakers, scientists, activists, chefs and more. 

ART & MUSIC:

We believe in tapping into the power of music and art to convey thoughts and ideas, and we always treat food with the spotlight it deserves, meaning no cheese cubes or soggy wraps. Our chefs invent meals inspired by the topic or experience at hand, always organic and farm fresh.

SPACES:

We don’t just know how to hold space, we also know where. If you don’t have a location picked out, we can help you access some of New York’s most iconic institutions, private residences, scenic rooftops, cultural neighborhoods, and culinary hangouts.

SERVICE:

We are adept at designing bespoke experiences based on the client’s needs and resources. Here is a sampling of our most requested and well-tested services:  

• Services:

  • Curated Dinners

  • Panel Experiences

  • Field Trips

  • Retreats
     

• Functions:
  • CLIENT RELATIONS: 
    • Aimed to connect, inspire, and motivate, we work with your specific agenga and design an experience that will deepen bonds, build concensus, and/or generate business.
  • TEAM BUILDING & LEADERSHIP TRAINING
    • Our M.O. for team building events is that the participants never know it is happening. We focus a lot on people and personalities and help teams and leaders to do the same.  
  • EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING/IDEA EXCHANGE
    • When introducing new ideas to an organization how it is done is as important (if not more) as the idea itself. We create immersive learning experiences that feel more like play than they do work.
  • DISRUPTIVE THINKING/CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING WORKSHOPS
    • We all hit plateaus, it is a bi-product of having a cohesive and stable team. We help bring back some creative tension by changing things up. This may be by dropping a bio-engineer in the session, or it may be choosing to hold the session at the lego factory. Whatever it is it will promote new ideas, innovation, and rewarding new tools for your team to call upon.

 TEAM:

We are United Purpose. Comprised of a diverse team with experience ranging from brand building, fortune 500 marketing, luxury e-commerce, to our nation’s counter terrorism strategy- creative problem solving with an edge is intrinsic to who we are and what we do.

Since partnering in 2011 we have gained extensive knowledge through our experience with building community and designing quality experiential programming.

• We have hosted 50+ events

• Built a community of 1500+ high caliber individuals and over 3000 served

• We have built an extensive network of speakers, partners, and spaces

• Our experiences are bespoke based on the client’s needs

• The ROI’s are endless -from building connections that landed funding and a world-wide release for a feature length documentary, to job placement. Inspired adventures seeded by inspirational topics have ranged from DNA testing for lineage study to hiking to Everest Base.

OUR VISION:

A world where everyone has the support, space, and resources to develop themselves to their highest potential while maintaining a healthy, balanced life.

CASE STUDIES:

•   The Power Of Mass-Scale-Movements at Foursquare Offices

In order to explore the power of Mass-Scale-Movements, we designed an experience that brought leaders together from diverse topics and time periods such as:

• Occupy Wall Street & Brazil Uprising - Pete Dutro (Finance Lead of Occupy)

• Turkey - Erin Mazursky (New Rights Group/Formerly of Purpose)

• South Africa, Anti Apartheid - Tseliso Thipanyane (Columbia Law School)

• Women's Movement - Amy Richards (The Makers)

• Arts & Music - Mark Krawczuk (Lost Horizon Night Market)

We have all been to panel discussions that become ego showdowns where the audience grow quickly disengaged and then bored. To counter this we turned the format on its head and created a reverse-panel where each panelist was assigned 25guests prior to the event. They were tasked with sending prep materials and links to the group so everyone was informed.

We wanted to be sure that the guests felt completely involved as we know from experience that 15minutes of Q & A at the end doesn't work. After an hour of mingling at the event the panelists called their 25 guest team over and they spent an hour discussing their topic. The role of the panelist was to stimulate the conversation and gather their opinions and insights.

Musical Performance to focus the diverse groups energies.

• Krister Linder - Amazing world music with a voice that brings together nations.

  • Performed as opening for Beyonce at the UN

The actual panel served the role of sharing back the learnings from each group. We then shared learnings and explored commonalities in order to better understand how mass-scale-movements work and can work better. Since everyone participated in the discussion the results were an engagement we had never seen before.
 

• GEveryone @LRN, crowd-sourced ideas were fed directly to the G8 Summit
 

G-everyone was an experiment in how people around the world can come together, innovate and work to address our big challenges in real time.

On the eve of the G-8 Summit in 2014, while global leaders met in the UK to address global issues, G-everyone invited local communities to bring their own ideas to the table.  

We curated a remarkable group of 100+ diverse leaders and partnered with UN Foundation, Mashable, Design Gym, and host LRN for a power packed evening.

G-everyone aligned with UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s G-8 focus creating an open dialogue around his main themes of “open economies, open governments and open societies”.

Guests were broken up into work groups that were guided through a design-thinking session.

The evening focused around three questions:

1. How can innovation stimulate your local economy?

1. How can technology make your government more open?

1. How can online communities help build healthier societies? 

Our goal was to increase and inspire participation and constructive engagement in the political process. We worked to champion how everyday people can affect real social change.

• Out of This World, Film Screening "The Overview Effect" at Redbull Studios NY
with a panel of the Director, two Astronauts, a Futurist, and a Zen Buhddist Priest

• Guy Reid (Overview Director)

• Ron Garan (Most acclaimed of the astronauts in the film - Awaiting final confirmation)

• Michael Massamino (Nasa Astronaut, Professor at Columbia)

• Angel Kyodo WIlliams (Zen Buddhist Priest)

• Elizabeth Thompson (Exec Dir of Buckminster Fuller Institute)

As humans we frequently get too caught-up in the daily minutia of our lives to consider how our actions and behaviors are collectively woven into the larger fabric of the universe.  Our event will draw inspiration from a screening of the short film “Overview” to highlight how interconnected we are with each other and the greater world around us. Overview tells the story of Astronauts whose unique view from space transformed their perspective of the planet and mankind’s role upon it as one without borders or boundaries. In addition to the film, we will have a panel discussion featuring famed explorers, philosophers, and innovators who will share insights about extraordinary experiences they’ve had which gave them newfound perspective on what it means to be alive. Throughout the evening, guests will also have opportunity to take part in a number of thought-provoking experiences that utilize all 5 senses (and maybe their 6th) to get them thinking differently about their habits, perceptions, and purpose.

Purpose Portraits:

Hero's Ball

We thought it was time to bring some purpose back to Halloween so we traded in the serial killer and sexy cop outfits for a our greatest heroes. What was born was a night of purpose and panache filled with art, live music, tap, and spoken word. Hack'O'Lanterns, Custom Haikus, Hero Portraits and more. We partnered with tech innovator General Assembly and hosted the ball at the Tribeca Grand Hotel.
 

• Performances by:
  • Omar Edwards, Legendary tap dancer
    Omar is as world class it gets. He spent 3 years on Broadway with Bring Da Noise. Recorded with Mos Def and Common. And for all you old folks out there, you may remember him as the Sandman at the Apollo Theater.
     
  • MuMs - Hip Hop Poet and freestyler
    You may recall him as The Poet, from HOB's OZ.
     
  • OVEOUS is an internationally recognized and award-winning Spoken Word Artist who has been featured on Showtime at the Apollo, as a HBO Def Poet, on CurrentTV, and is a Grandslam Poetry Champion.

• Musical Performances by:
  • Ant Marshall - More than just a world renown DJ, Anthony Marshall is widely celebrated for being the co-founder of Lyricist Lounge, which served as a career platform for the likes of Mos Def, Eminem, 50 Cent, Talib Kweli, Slick Rick, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Notorious B.I.G., Q-Tip, Common, The Roots, Black Eyed Peas and many more. So yea, he knows how to turn a party out.
     
  • No Small Money Brass Band is one of NYC's most hip-shakinest, booty quakinest African and Carribean infused brass dance bands to ever hit the states.

• The Heroes' Last Supper - You know the age old question, "if you could plan a dinner for anyone throughout history who would it be?" Well Photographer Nat Norwood (the man behind the Purpose Portraits) will be making it possible. He will be shooting group portraits in the Theatre all night so grab Amelia, Oprah, and Cecil B. DeMille and get ready for your close-up.

•   A Subversive Tour of The Met w/ Museum Hack
Followed by a Victorian Picnic in Central Park

•   Global Family Reunion exploring genealogy w/ Author A.J. Jacobs (Editor at Large for Esquire)