ow do you make a great cup of coffee? According to Seattle-based barista-to-the-world Starbucks Corp., ingredients such as teamwork and corporate responsibility are just as important to a cup of java as coffee beans and steamed milk. So when the company brought its 10,000-plus store managers, district managers, and field leadership to New Orleans for the Starbucks Mega Leadership Show, it dripped each and every one through a complete coffee experience intended to communicate that coffee-infused key message.

At the heart of Starbucks’ event strategy were four 100,000-square-foot galleries — dubbed Our Coffee, Our Customer, Our Partner, and Our Store — constructed inside the Morial Convention Center. The Our Coffee gallery, for example, offered a plantation-to-cup tour where attendees could see and touch live coffee plants, handle the shipping crates that harvested beans are packed in, sort the beans for roasting, and taste the brew. The Our Customer gallery was a testimonial-laden space meant to inform attendees of customers’ opinions. There, consumer feedback was displayed on 20-foot banners, and attendees held paper coffee cups with built-in speakers to their ears to hear recorded comments from Starbucks regulars.

Each gallery included a 500-seat theater where key messages relating to that gallery’s theme were emphasized. Hanging from the ceiling of each gallery was a collection of 30 plasma screens offering a 360-degree viewing experience where custom audio tracks narrated the images on the monitors, further emphasizing the respective theme of each space.

In addition to the galleries, attendees participated in educational sessions and worked six-hour volunteer shifts for nonprofits committed to rebuilding New Orleans. The final-day session at the New Orleans Arena featured a presentation by U2 singer Bono, who talked about Starbucks’ new partnership with (RED), his nonprofit AIDS-in-Africa charity.

After four percolating days, attendees left New Orleans with a warm feeling about Starbucks and its desire to serve much more than just an everyday cup of joe.e