Steve!

We solemnly swear that we have been up to no good. Next week will be full of surprises and we’re getting pretty excited about the possibilities. Watch the teaser above to get a sneak peek into the upcoming changes.

In the meantime, catch up on what we’ve been up to this week:

• Meet the executive team of The Starr Conspiracy
• Read more about the many ways we make things happen here
• Meet some of our quirky, crazy, and cool employees
• Check out the recap of Fort Worth’s Arts Goggle on South Main

We can’t wait to share our secrets next week. Come back Monday. We’ll have something to show you.

Follow The Starr Conspiracy on Twitter to get the news first.

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This last weekend was ArtsGoggle, the art and music festival that erupts twice a year on the Near Southside. ArtsGoggle has been going for about 10 years, and it has really grown, especially during the last few years. The event used to take place solely on Magnolia Ave., The Starr Conspiracy’s current home. But over the last four years, the festival has spiderwebbed to other parts of the neighborhood, including Park Place Ave., Jennings Ave., Eighth Ave., and TSC’s future home, South Main Village.

The first few years South Main started getting in on the ArtsGoggle action were fairly quiet. There were fewer businesses to participate, and people weren’t as willing to stray from the party on Magnolia Ave. It wasn’t until the Fall 2010 ArtsGoggle that South Main really got going, spurred by a Better Block project, where a group of vandals forward-thinking young people took the initiative to paint bike lanes and a crosswalk on one block of the street the night before ArtsGoggle. Then, during the event, there was a taco truck, vendors set up along the street, and live music, and what few businesses were there — Trinity Bicycles, Robert Kelly Architects, and The Miller Lofts — opened their doors, hosted artists, and gave away drinks and snacks.

Since then, the event on South Main has just been growing as more businesses have opened and the neighborhood has garnered more attention. During the event, trollies will even shuttle you from Magnolia to the action on South Main.

This year, there was plenty to see and do in South Main Village. The Salon Upstairs, Amphibian Stage Productions, Stir Crazy Baked Goods, Thumbtechs, The Gallery at Lander’s Machine Shop, and Shipping & Receiving all participated, food trucks and vendors were set up along the street, and Shipping & Receiving had live music on its outdoor stage all evening long.

And TSC’s new headquarters will be in the middle of the South Main Village action during the fall event. The vibe on South Main during ArtsGoggle is definitely different from that on Magnolia. While Magnolia can be downright insane during the event’s peak time, South Main’s vibe is a bit more chill, but there’s still a lot to do and see. If you’re around, be sure to check out ArtsGoggle in the fall and, if you haven’t already, check out South Main and stop by TSC’s new HQ.

Photo credits: Better Block and Fort Worth South Inc.

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As you probably already know, we often talk about how the employees at TSC aren’t your typical, run-of-the-mill kind of people. We can be a little intense, we can be a little silly, and we can be really crazy when it comes to enthusiasm — both in and outside the office.

A lot of companies will tell you that they support a work/life balance, but at TSC, we practice what we preach. As a group, we’ve been known to drink together, play together, and most important, we show up for each other in our work and sometimes even in our personal lives. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

My philosophy on why we’re such good friends is that we all bring something different to the table. For instance, Lou Chapman, besides being a fantastic writer and content strategist, is also a trained Anusara yoga instructor. Copy editor (and frequent blog poster) Steph Buchanan not only checks out our words all day, she belts out lines of her own when she’s performing as the lead singer in Fort Worth favorite, The Diabolical Machines.

Many of us had other careers unrelated to marketing or enterprise software before joining The Starr Conspiracy. Account manager Stacy Edwards earned her master’s in Public Administration from NYU Wagner School of Public Service before bringing her organizational skills and passion to TSC, and in her free time has started up a farmer’s market right here in the Near Southside neighborhood. Partner Dan McCarron worked in the music industry and managed Afroman. That’s pretty cool. And hell, I left my first job to travel for three months in a 1986 Winnebago across the western United States before landing back in Fort Worth as a copywriter.

The point is, we all bring something to the table because we all get to share our individualism in the workplace. It’s what I love about our culture. And as we celebrate the employees of TSC on the blog this week, I’m excited that soon we’ll have a new evolution of our brand, one that reveals even more about who we are and what we’re capable of doing together as a team.

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Everyone here at The Starr Conspiracy has different ways of getting work done. Collaboration happens in many forms in creative environments. The Starr Conspiracy is no exception, so we try to give our agents a variety of ways to create, collaborate, and share.

Here are a few ways we all get together that take advantage of all our agents’ different work styles:

• The Daily Huddle: Whoomp! There it is! Maybe you read about our daily huddle in The Wall Street Journal, or maybe you’ve just heard about it through the grapevine. Or maybe you have no idea what it is or what it has to do with a Tag Team song. Regardless, each morning at 11:45 we gather for 15 minutes to regroup and share important updates from different departments, brag about our co-workers’ amazing feats of creative genius, and, of course, talk about how great the new Star Trek movie was. Even our virtual employees are able to get in on the huddle action via Google+ Hangouts, though it’s always better when they can attend in person.
• Google+ Hangouts: When agents can’t be in the office in person, Google+ Hangouts are the next-best thing. We’re all already Google Talk ninjas, but when someone’s on the road, inviting a co-worker to a hangout can make meetings quick, productive, and easy.
• The Foosball Table: Agents usually start prowling for a foosball challenger later in the day, when they need to step away from their desk and clear their head. The same goes for our pingpong table, the Nerf guns, and all the other strange toys that reside in our office. Within a few minutes of distraction, people have new ideas, feel more relaxed, and have a fresh perspective on whatever project they’ve been working on.
• The Whiteboard Room: At The Starr Conspiracy, we know how to mark up a whiteboard. If you haven’t been to our office, you really have no idea. We’ll even draw on tables when we can — sometimes our glass-tabletop doodles are work-related, but sometimes they’re just for fun. Sharing on a screen or in a project plan isn’t always enough. Sometimes you just gotta draw. Why mess with a PowerPoint when you can draw a Venn diagram on a whiteboard? Everyone pulls out a marker at one point or another — and nobody minds if your artistic abilities are limited to stick figures.

If all these unique ways of collaborating and working weren’t enough already, they’re just going to get better when we move to our new HQ, which has been custom built to capitalize on these ways we keep our work styles varied and productive.

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Our partners are the strong hand that holds us together. Without each part, we would not be the strong unit we are, and yet they all stand alone, each contributing to the team with their considerable wisdom, passion, and immense background knowledge.

In other words, they all know their shit. They’re all cool dudes. And recently, they all came together for a photo shoot.

Today, we’re showing you the pictures and giving you a little insight into the six incredible men behind the curtain.

NAME: Agent Bret Starr
OCCUPATION: Founder, Partner, and President

Bret spends his time in the “lab,” developing and perfecting marketing methodologies and perspectives for the agency. Prior to founding The Starr Conspiracy, he worked for a decade as a marketer for several software companies, including a talent management software company and a time and attendance software company.

He is the also the definition of an explorer. Not happy unless he is pushing boundaries and traversing new territory, Bret has spent his career working to forge a new path in enterprise software marketing. But before he discovered his passion for business, he explored his love of the outdoors. He once even lived in a tent in the Grand Tetons and worked as a roofer for six months. Today, you can find him hanging out on the golf course or spending time with his wife and their little girl, Bonnie.

NAME: Agent Mark Mitchell
OCCUPATION: Partner, Business Development Director

Mark brings nearly a decade of agency experience and a track record of sales success to his role as leader of the firm’s business development initiatives. Since 2003, Mark has been involved in every aspect of The Starr Conspiracy, from operations to client management.

Mark’s not a superstitious guy — except when it comes to new business deals. Don’t high-five him. No, really. Just don’t. Don’t talk about the deal, don’t think about the deal when he’s in the room. In other words, don’t jinx the deal is Mark’s motto. Got it. Oh, and rumor has it he loves bananas.

NAME: Agent Dan McCarron
OCCUPATION: Partner, Finance and Operations

Dan heads the firm’s operations and is an online marketing expert who has spent 15 years in account management. Transplanted from Brooklyn, he has more than a decade of experience in the recording industry, working with acts such as Nelly, Jack Johnson, Bob Schneider, and Afroman.

As our official keeper of the books, Dan is no stranger to working with formulas to get the desired outcome. In fact, though his background is in the music industry and marketing, he was a chemistry and biology major in college. We are glad Dan is finally able to bring his marketing and biology know-how to the table, making sure The Starr Conspiracy grows organically.

NAME: Agent Steve Smith
OCCUPATION: Partner, Director of Content

Steve heads the firm’s content development, thought leadership, and public relations activities. Since 2001, he has specialized exclusively in human resources and human capital-focused communications consulting. Before that, he worked as an editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for several years. Steve has earned numerous awards for corporate business writing and for the blogs Caravan of Dreams, and West and Clear.

An expert writer, Steve is a true wordsmith who oversees every bit of writing that leaves The Starr Conspiracy. He has an ear for just the right words, and he also has an ear for music — he owns six record players!

NAME: Agent Kevin Mangum
OCCUPATION: Partner, Director of Account Services

Kevin heads the team’s account management and planning based on nearly a decade of success working with dozens of U.S.-based and international clients. His primary area of expertise is comprehensive corporate re-brands.

Kevin has also been a top sales producer in the agency world, having achieved the prestigious million-dollar-man award. Put simply, Kevin was  born to be a leader and entrepreneur. As the head of account services, he guides his team to success. But these entrepreneurial skills had unusual beginnings — as a high school student, Kevin raised and sold quarter horses all around the country, and to this day keeps about 15 horses.

NAME: Agent Paul Roberts
OCCUPATION: Chief Executive Officer

Paul is the CEO of The Starr Conspiracy, having served as President and CEO of 4 Thought LLC, a digital marketing strategic services company. Paul has also been General Manager for DDB Advertising’s digital services division, Tribal DDB Worldwide. With 21 offices in 14 countries, Tribal DDB is one of the largest interactive agencies in the world. In 2005, Tribal DDB was named Adweek’s Interactive Agency of the Year.

But it isn’t just Paul’s job title that says he means business. He takes his love of movies to a pretty impressive level, as his movie memorabilia collection attests. He even has one of Harrison Ford’s hats from the Indiana Jones movies.

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This week, The Starr Conspiracy attended the inaugural InfluenceHR. TSC was the underwriter of the new show put on by George LaRocque and TSC founder Bret Starr delivered a keynote on The Honeycomb — a new, expansive model for B2B marketing.

The conference was a truly unique experience — opening an honest dialogue among senior marketers at HR technology and services companies about what really works and what really doesn’t when marketing to the HR buyer.

You can read the official wrap-up and join in on the conversation here.

Events Wrap-up

It was an event-filled week here at The Starr Conspiracy with InfluenceHR and ERE’s Recruiting Innovation Summit. Oh, and there was also Dumpster Day. Wait for it.

Here’s what we covered this week:

• The Starr Conspiracy Changes the Destiny of B2B Marketing
• A Sneak Peek At What’s Next At ERE’s Recruiting Innovation Summit
• Photos and Tweets From InfluenceHR and #RIS13
• HCM and Marketing Conferences You Shouldn’t Miss Out On
• Oh, and there was Dumpster Day — we’re preparing for our big move and we found some … interesting things … while we were de-cluttering

Follow The Starr Conspiracy on Twitter and have a great weekend! 

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As you have seen this week, event season is upon us. Starting now, people will be hitting up hotels and booths all over as we head to HR Tech in the fall.

So you don’t miss out on all the happenings, here’s a list of the events in HCM and marketing that you shouldn’t miss out on:

ASTD International Conference & Exposition — Taking place May 19-22 right here in Dallas, ASTD’s conference is bringing more than 380 exhibitors and more than 8,000 attendees for four days focusing on the design and delivery, management, and strategy of learning and development.

Social Media Strategies Summit — Taking place June 12-13, the SMSSummit will be bringing top marketers from brands such as SAP, Citi, American Airlines, Sony, Hubspot, and IBM to NYC. Attendees will also have an opportunity to sit in on a dedicated B2B marketing track. Additional Summits will be taking place in Dallas, Aug. 27-28; Boston, Sept. 17-19; and London, Oct. 23-24.

SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition — With a focus on bolder, stronger, and better, SHRM’s conference will be lighting up Chicago June 16-19. Keynotes from speakers such as Hillary Clinton, Fareed Zakaria, Blake Mycoskie, Daniel Pink, and Mark Kelly with Gabby Giffords will get attendees thinking about how to impact their own world, even if in a small way. 

Content Marketing World — The largest content marketing event on the planet, Content Marketing World will bring big brands together in Cleveland Sept. 9-11. Produced by the Content Marketing Institute, attendees will leave with actionable content marketing plans and insights from brands like Capital One, HP, Salesforce, and Rackspace.

HR Technology Conference & Exposition — HR Tech is going back to Vegas! Everyone in HR should head to Las Vegas Oct. 7-9 to check out the sponsors and speakers who are showcasing what’s new and innovative in HR Tech. Don’t forget, we usually know where all the parties are (including our own), so stay tuned.

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The Starr Conspiracy has been out and about in San Francisco this week, thanks to InfluenceHR and ERE’s Recruiting Innovation Summit. Our agents didn’t just make appearances — they were also headliners.

Bret Starr unveiled the Honeycomb, an expansive B2B marketing model, during his keynote at InfluenceHR. Lance Haun participated on the panel “Your Brand Message Sucks: How to Pitch Your ‘Amazing’ Product to Journalists.” Lance then went to the Recruiting Innovation Summit, where he helped put together a set of 18 20-minute Innovation Sessions. The unique format of these sessions requires speakers to get down to business in a short amount of time.

If you couldn’t attend either event, the Twitter feeds have been quite entertaining. #InfluenceHR has had everything from persona development to obsessions being discussed. And people have been using #RIS13 to share top recruiting ideas — everything from crowdsourcing strategy to understanding where your best candidates are.

Check out some tweets from the events:

We’re going to see #hr become a business-integrated function, rather than a talent management function via @josh_bersin #influencehr

— Stacey McBride (@Stacey_McBride) May 13, 2013

If you’re reading this, you’re getting a targeted impression. #hashtagsrock #InfluenceHR

— Talent Generation (@talemetry) May 13, 2013

Are you leveraging persona and archetype targeting in your selling? @susanlamotte thinks you should. #influencehr

— Mark Stelzner (@stelzner) May 13, 2013

Tell people the truth. The ‘brand’ is what results when the truth is filtered through the customer’s perspectives. @bretstarr #InfluenceHR

— Steve Boese (@SteveBoese) May 13, 2013

Let your freak flag fly! We are obsessed with culture. We want to attract our archetype! #InfluenceHR @starrconspiracy

— The Good Jobs (@thegoodjobs) May 13, 2013

@sonar6 The secret to succeeding in the marketplace is keeping things really simple #influencehr

— Mary Ellen Slayter (@MESlayter) May 13, 2013

“It’s common knowledge that the best candidate is already in your applicant tracking system.” #RIS13

— ToddRaphael (@ToddRaphael) May 14, 2013

There’s no such thing as a good candidate with a bad resume. They either have the experience & skills or they don’t. #RIS13

— Matt Charney (@mattcharney) May 14, 2013

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Before I joined The Starr Conspiracy, I worked at ERE Media, where one of my jobs was organizing the Recruiting Innovation Summit. I was honored when ERE asked me to be the chairperson for the event, which starts this morning and goes through the end of the day tomorrow.

I’m biased, but what ERE has put together at the Recruiting Innovation Summit is pretty special. There will be two keynotes and three panel sessions that will explore the future of recruiting. Those are going to be great.

But what I’m really interested in are what I call “innovation sessions,” because they’re unlike any other conference sessions you’ve seen in HR. RIS will have 18 of these 20-minute sessions, which will cover several aspects of recruiting. Four practitioners, six recruiting suppliers, and eight startups will all talk about things that, in many cases, are too new to be proven. Some of these ideas will first see the light of day at the conference.

The process for getting 18 really great presentations is an overwhelming one. I ended up talking with or seeing materials from well over 100 companies doing some really exciting things in recruiting. The question people always ask after I talk about the summit is: What is bubbling up from talent acquisition? While I can’t give away all of the fun things we’ll see, I will share what I found really interesting:

1. Predicting recruiting demand — Companies are getting more insight into what their staffing demands will be months from today. They’re combining business forecasting with employment market data in really fascinating ways.
2. Improving assessments — The pre-hire assessment business lived off pen-and-paper assessments for so long that when things moved to the digital age, they just put pen-and-paper ideas on the Web. That’s changing thanks to some innovative thinkers.
3. Re-engineering recruiting — There are some companies that want to rethink how businesses are doing recruiting. I’m a skeptic on big, transformational changes, but these are really interesting ideas that I’m looking forward to hearing more about.

You can follow all the action using the Twitter hashtag #RIS13.

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Today is the day! After months of telling you about the secrets that will be unveiled at InfluenceHR, the marketing conference’s debut is finally here.

Our agency couldn’t let an opportunity to throw out conference norms pass us by, and we have a team of agents in San Francisco today to prove it. On top of that, founder, president, and partner Bret Starr is presenting the keynote session, “Inside the Honeycomb: An Expansive Model for B2B Marketing,” which will dive into what could be the perfect model for B2B marketing.

After more than a decade of research and field-testing, Bret is ready to publicly unveil the Honeycomb model. It’s a new, expansive philosophy of marketing that eschews the obsolete dogmas of post-bubble B2B marketing strategies.

In his presentation, Bret will introduce the concept of “Drive” as the single unifying element of all business and marketing strategies. He’ll demonstrate how Drive must be the starting point for all message, brand, and promotion strategies. Finally, Bret will make the case that all prospect, customer, and employee communication initiatives draw their power from a company’s Drive.

The days of the monolithic brand strategy are over, as are the days of demand-generation-dominated promotion strategies.

Speakers and participants will be tweeting throughout the day, so if you want to get a peek at some of the secrets being unveiled, follow the conversation on Twitter at #InfluenceHR.

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