Deepening culture by connecting baristas to coffee growers

We brought 3 inflatable Portals and connected their attendees to the communities producing the coffee they used everyday. We created conversations with coffee farmers in Kigali, Rwanda and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, as well as connected live to refugee communities in Rwanda, Iraq, Greece and the US.

Share stories and insights across the supply chain, deepening one company culture; and give HQ team a deeper sense of meaning in their work. Starbucks brought its employees in Seattle into the portal to meet with coffee-growers around the world. Participants shared stories, traded tips, discussed market trends, and of course, drank coffee together.

Three inflatable Portals operating in parallel connected over 900 Starbucks Store Managers to communities which were close to the heart of their own initiatives. Starbucks store employees from across the US and Canada for the first time met their coffee farmers in Kigali and San Pedro Sula and shared meaningful conversations over coffee. They also connected with people living in refugee communities in Nakivale, Erbil, Lesbos and Richmond which drove home the significance of their commitment to hire 10,000 refugees by 2022, and veterans and families living in Colorado Springs to share stories of Starbucks Military Commitment.

In addition, by meeting with the coffee farmers who produced the products they used every day, over 1,000 managers and store employees were able to develop a deeper sense of the meaning of their work. Creating conversations across Starbucks’ supply chain helped reinforce the concept of a singular company culture.