AMA Atlanta: September Signature Luncheon: AMA presents Improv for Marketing by The Second City Works

Improv fundamentals for creative thinking and adaptive storytelling

Improvisation is the art of creating scenes based on audience suggestions. The performers at Second City take the material they’ve improvised onstage and craft it into scripted scenes using storytelling techniques. Many of the tools that are successful onstage have applications offstage—specifically in the business world, in terms of both creative thinking and storytelling. This highly interactive session will introduce participants to the foundations of improvisation and teach them how they can improve both creative thinking and telling stories.

You’ll learn how to:
• Listen and respond like an improv actor to establish a framework of collaboration
• Foster creative thinking and greater collaboration
• Use the “Yes, and …” technique to start from a place of abundance when crafting stories
• Make stories more engaging through the mindset of audience focus

Meet the Second City Works
From the world-famous Second City Theater, which gave us such famous comedic actors as Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Carell and Steven Colbert, comes a team with a proven and innovative training methodology that builds skills while being interactive, engaging, and thought provoking.

Walk-in registrations will be available the morning of the event at Maggiano’s Buckhead.

Speakers:

Kristy West, Account Director at Second City Works

Kristy West is an Account Director at Second City Works, the innovative business solutions arm of the world-famous Second City comedy theater.

Prior to joining Second City Work, she spent 14 years working in sales and business development in the Atlanta market while simultaneously studying, performing, and teaching improvisation. Over time, her improv training began to spill over into her professional life, helping develop critical communication skills and propelling her career to new heights. In 2009, Kristy merged her passion for improv with her extensive sales experience and began consulting, coaching companies like Home Depot, Mailchimp, Bank of America, WorldPay, and Cox Automotive on how to apply the principles of improvisation to build more cohesive teams and creative, collaborative work environments.

Kristy joined Second City Works in March of 2017, bringing her years of experience to the premier practitioners of improv and its vast benefits to the workplace. She is based in Atlanta, where she runs the southeast operations.

Steve Kakos, Vice President at Second City Works

Steve is a Vice President for Second City Works, where he guides leading businesses in capturing unique consumer insights in order to develop creative concepts, campaigns and innovations through Second City’s wholly-original Brandstage process. Steve has over 20 years of experience delivering innovative marketing, learning and consulting services to a variety of Fortune 1000 clients. Prior to joining Second City, Steve led business development efforts for closerlook, a leading independent agency focused on helping clients get closer to their customers.

Steve co-founded salesdivine, an insight-based marketing consultancy that leveraged proprietary insights from C-level decision makers to help sales and marketing organizations become more consumer-centric. Steve began his career with PeopleSolutions, where he played a key role in helping the firm achieve Inc. 500 recognition as one of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. His client list includes Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s. Google, IBM, The Hartford and EY. Steve has served as author/contributor in Forbes, Computerworld, Training Magazine, The Dallas Business Journal, The Fort-Worth Star Telegram to name a few. He is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas.

Agenda:

11:00am – 12:00pm New Member Orientation (optional)

11:00am – 12:00pm Networking/Registration

12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch and Presentation

Follow AMA Atlanta on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn andInstagram.

@AMAAtlanta

#AMAATL

Parking:

Maggiano’s has a parking garage which is complimentary. It is located in the back of the restaurant. When you enter you will get a ticket and we will provide a voucher to you. Valet parking is also available for lunch at $2 per car. Finally, there is also parking lot that is adjacent to Maggiano’s which offers paid public parking at $7(not owned by Maggiano’s).

Cancellation Policy: Due to pre-registration costs and guarantees, refunds or credits are not extended for this event. However, registrations are transferable. On the day of the event, the substitute attendee must present a copy of the registration receipt or e-mail verification to be admitted to the event.