Starbucks Coffee Company
Leadership Experience 2025
CONTEXT
Starbucks and Touch have been creating transformational, culture shifting, and unforgettable experiences together for over 30 years. Two weeks ago, Touch was thrilled to help the Starbucks Coffee Company deliver the Leadership Experience 2025 (LE25) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company’s Back to Starbucks strategy depends on the passion and skill of every Starbucks coffeehouse leader, so bringing together partners from across US and Canada for a powerful, collective experience, to ignite their shared passion for coffee, customers, and community, was both the grounding vision and ultimate outcome.
OUR APPROACH
The event hosted over 14,500 Store Managers, District Managers, and Regional Managers from across North America for a spectacular three days that included keynote presentations from company executives and guest speakers, including CEO, Brian Niccol, the inspirational Will Guidera, outgoing board member, Mellody Hobson, and former chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz. The event also included celebrations and musical performances from Janelle Monea, Bruno Mars, and the irresistible DJ Tina T. Partners also had a front row seat to the semi-finals and finals of the 2025 Starbucks Global Barista Championships, where the company awarded Nobuki Shimode, of Japan, as this year’s Global Barista Champion.
The experience also included workshops, networking opportunities, a community showcase, and a signature 500,000 square foot custom coffee gallery all designed to deepen their love of coffee and their understanding of five dimensions of the carefully curated journey Starbucks coffee takes from the origin countries where it is carefully sourced through the meticulous processing, blending, roasting processes, arriving at the in-store experience where their coffee lands in cups of millions of happy customers all over the world, every day.
Touch worked with an incredibly engaged, thoughtful, and supportive group of Starbucks partners and managed a team of over 500 specialists at partner event logistics, AVL, transportation, catering and many other companies to produce a flawless event. Working from the ground up on event strategy, messaging, and content development, through all phases of planning, design, event pre-production, video production, and onsite production, across three venues (The Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Thomas & Mack Arena, and Allegiant Field) LE25 marks another signature moment of partnership helping to set the stage for the future success of the global coffee icon.
ROLE / Strategy, Content Development, Experiential, Design, Video & Motion Graphics, Live Event Production
Starbucks LE25 Highlights
Event Strategy
Every great event begins with a great strategy. Touch worked closely with Starbucks to identify opportunities to bring Back to Starbucks to life for coffeehouse managers and to help them see the critical role they play in their stores, with every partner, every customer, every cup of coffee, every day. Coffee is at the core of what defines Starbucks. So, with insights from the coffee team, we created integrated coffee moments across the experience to help partners see their place in a beautifully connected journey of coffee, from bean to cup. From coffee tastings to pop up cafe displays to a deeply immersive and expansive gallery experience, coffee was celebrated and honored everywhere you looked.
WELCOME Experience
The Welcome and Registration experience for LE25 was a sight to be seen. 14,500 partners converging on the registration hall at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in well organized waves, carefully scheduled to not overwhelm, and consistently met by cheering leaders, an army of gregarious volunteer Starbucks partners guiding them from place to place, along with beautifully designed, perfectly scheduled, dynamic digital signage that seemed to capture and express the spirit of the event, and the energy of Starbucks itself.
GLOBAL BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIPS (SEMI-FINALS)
This year, partners at LE25 had a front row seat to the Global Barista Championships. The semi-finals ran for the first two days of the event on stage at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, and broadcast live to a global audience of passionate coffee lovers over YouTube. Four finalists were selected to compete in the finals out of a field of 16 baristas from all over the world.
GLOBAL BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIPS (FINALS)
With coffee at the core of all that Starbucks does, it only makes sense that they would have a competition each year for the top barista in the world. Partners from all over the world compete in regional qualifying rounds to make it to the Global Barista Championships. And this year, it only made sense that the finals of the event kick off the event’s opening General Session. Four lucky finalists competed for the top spot. The winner, Nobuki Shimode, was awarded a first class trip from Delta Airlines to tour Starbucks Reserve Stores in Seattle, Chicago, New York City, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Milan.
General Sessions
Starbucks opted for an opening and a closing general session to bookend the experience. Our team worked closely with Starbuck CEO Kevin Johnson and the senior leadership team to build a dynamic opener that primed attendees to engage with the rest of the experience, including delivering a copy of the original Pike Place Store front door key as a symbol of their leadership and commitment to the company, both its heritage and its future. To close, we developed an uplifting session that made way for real commitments on the part of leadership and attendees.
ALL ABOUT OUR COFFEE
Every agenda included time in a 400,000 sq. ft. experience hall, built around a replica of Tryer Center, the company’s new innovation hub. Beginning with an immersive mission and values installation, the experience proceeded through every country where Starbucks sources coffee. In order to feature Starbucks’ farm in Costa Rica and the original Pike Place Market store, our team developed astonishing replicas of both for attendees to enjoy.
Activations
Summary of Activations.
Development SessionS
Driven by the conference objectives, development sessions were created to provide store managers with critical information and tools focused on preparing them to better serve their customers, lead their Starbucks partners, and understand and optimize their business—plus a special session focused on mental wellness. Six cycles of each session were held to accommodate all 13,000 attendees.
CELEBRATIONS
Following the closing general session at United Center, attendees exited to one of the arena’s massive outdoor parking lots for a unforgettable party. Our team transformed the lot into an all-out Chicago street festival, featuring dueling pianos, a silent disco, and a mainstage area for live music and DJ Tina T—as well as a craft fair featuring handmade items from local artisans and neighborhood-themed stations featuring food from across Chicago.
