The programming that wraps around your event.
The Creative Lab is a three-part wraparound experience for large events. We build the speaker preparation, community connection, and storytelling work around the event you are already producing.
Your event is the centerpiece. We build the experience around it.
Most large events bring speakers and audiences together for a few hours, and then everyone goes home. The Creative Lab changes that. We wrap your event in structured programming: a creative activation the night before, shared attendance at the event itself, and a post-event debrief that culminates in our signature Storytelling Adventure Experience™.
We have run it around TEDx Portland multiple times, are producing it for TEDx San Diego in August 2026, and have run it around The Moth in New York City. The format works for any large event where the ideas on stage deserve more than a single sitting.
The program can be customized to your timeline. Three days is the standard. Two days works. We build around what your event needs.
Three parts. One complete experience.
The Creative Lab wraps around the event you are producing. Each part serves a different purpose. Together, they turn a single event into something your speakers and audiences carry forward.
Creative Activation
Pre-Event / Late Afternoon + EveningThe evening before (or the afternoon of) the main event. Dinner, icebreaking conversation, and a creative activation to get the group ready for the weekend. Speakers meet the people who will hear them. Attendees meet each other. The room warms up before anything happens on a stage.
Attend the Event Together
The Main EventThe group attends the main event as a cohort. A TEDx event. A Moth Story Slam. A Pecha Kucha Night. A South by Southwest session. Whatever the event, the group experiences it together, with shared context from the Creative Activation and a debrief waiting on the other side.
Debrief + Storytelling Adventure Experience™
Post-Event / Following DayThe group reconvenes for structured discussion and reflection. What landed? What surprised you? What will you carry forward? Then the day opens into SSA's signature Storytelling Adventure Experience™: nature-based story-finding, story architecture with Cathey Armillas, and live drilling with the group. This is where the ideas from the stage stop being performances and start becoming material your speakers and audiences can use.
For organizers: We can invite you to the debrief session to hear curated, real-time feedback from your audience. Or we can provide a summarized report of the discussion afterward, so you walk away with actionable insight about how your event landed, without influencing the room while it's happening.
If you produce the event, this is built for you.
You book the venue, you book the speakers, you run the show. The Creative Lab gives you structured wraparound programming that elevates the entire event without adding to your production load. We design it, staff it, and deliver it.
Your keynote speakers are leaders and subject-matter experts, not professional speakers. The Creative Lab teaches them to tell the human story inside the business story. Your event goes from informational to unforgettable.
Whether it is a summit, an annual conference, or a curated speaker series, Creative Lab wraps your programming in community. Speakers arrive prepared. Audiences arrive connected. And the ideas carry forward past the closing session.
Also available for individual speakers
If you are a speaker, not a producer, preparing for a keynote or high-stakes presentation, the public Storytelling Adventure Experience™ is open for individual registration.
Your speakers are in hands that have been on the TED stage.
Cathey ArmillasCathey has coached both TED and TEDx speakers onto stages worldwide for 25 years and has stood on the TED stage herself. She created the How to Rock a TED Talk program and authored A Kids Book About Public Speaking.
She does not teach from a podium. She walks alongside speakers through whatever environment they are in and helps them hear the story only they can tell. That same methodology powers every Creative Lab and every Storytelling Adventure Experience™.
Clients include speakers at TED, Nickelodeon, Nike, JP Morgan, OHSU, and Tillamook.
Creative Lab locations
Columbia River Gorge, Portland, Oregon
The original Creative Lab home and the birthplace of the Storytelling Adventure Experience™. Multnomah Falls, old-growth forests, and one of North America's most dramatic landscapes. The Gorge has a way of stripping away the noise and making space for what a story is really about.
New York City, New York
Creative Lab has run in New York around The Moth for corporate teams and event producers. The methodology translates. We find the immersive environment that works for the city and the cohort.
Creative Lab can be built for your location. Book a call to talk through what that looks like for your event.