Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emma; Micherre Troxler; Fox. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Emma; Micherre, thanks for sitting with us today to chat about topics that are relevant to so many. One of those topics is communication skills, because we live in an age where our ability to communicate effectively can be like a superpower. Can you share how you developed your ability to communicate well?
Emma: We decided to start this endeavor pretty organically – we threw our first event without thinking that it would turn into a business, but it allowed us to discover how much we enjoy working together. Micherre: Right. The communication came before the creation for us. We’ve been friends for a few years and, when we decided to put our first event on for a birthday, it was the way we were able to co-create with such trust and seamless synchronicity that sparked something for us both. (Laugh) At least I think so.
Emma: (Laugh) No that’s definitely right. It was really exciting to discover that we aligned so well both on creative vision and execution, while also having clear complimentary strengths.
Micherre: But we definitely wouldn’t still be going if we hadn’t figured some of the tougher moments out. There were definitely tears, the stakes get high. (Pause) People warn you against working with friends. I think that’s definitely the rule. But in this exception I think it was being able to trust the other person with generous interpretations of behavior – that got us on the same page each time as we figured out how to speak the same ‘crisis’ language.
Emma: which is a totally different language
Micherre: yeah, definitely
Emma: We’ve learned so much about each other in the past year, because we’ve seen the other in a different light and different contexts. We’re both pretty direct people, and comfortable with conflict in a way that many people aren’t. We’ve scheduled arguments that have been necessary to have but when we don’t have time because of an upcoming event to really get into it. Being able to simultaneously hold respect and love for each other along with disagreement and frustration is really important to maintaining a friendship and business relationship.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Emma: The short version is we throw the best parties in New York City. Micherre: The long version
Emma: stay with us (laugh)
Micherre: The long version is that we got sick of instagram/social media-forward events. You know, parties where the only attractions are whatever EDM DJ the planners could find and a basic photo booth set up.
Emma: and a bunch of alcohol to make you forget it’s not actually fun
Micherre: Guests can’t talk, can’t connect, and can’t grow.
Emma: Our parties are still parties – there’s dancing, drinking, aesthetic photo setups, other “activity comfort foods” – but they are at their core emergent events. Emergent events are actually engaging to guests;
Micherre: they’re intellectually and creatively stimulating
Emma: They offer opportunities to form new connection
Micherre: or deepen old ones.
Emma: Or deepen old ones. Our events encourage curiosity, exploration, participation.
Micherre: Emergent is different from immersive. Basically, building an emergent event means taking the hands off of the wheel when the curtain goes up and the first guest walks in.
Emma: In an immersive experience, the show runner builds you a world that’s premeditated for you. The whole space brings you to a different time or place and whatever activities or interactions you have there – with the staff or the space – are guaranteed to fall within strict parameters.
Micherre: Right, think ‘Ice Cream Museum’. Instead, our events are a dialogue built on what guests contribute. We set the stage with guidelines and tools, but then we walk away and close our eyes and let guests play around – with the space, the actors, the props – and create their own stories.
Emma: The actors aren’t scripted; they have a backstory and have to engage dynamically with guests throughout the night. You can’t imagine how many times we’ve had an activation or a scene we’ve built used in incredibly creative ways that hadn’t crossed our minds.
Micherre: It culminates in some powerful experiences.
Emma: Right. We try to make the value proposition all of the moments you didn’t have time to take photos of… and then we send you home with one or two beautiful photo op pictures to tether those other moments to.
Micherre: For me I really love watching someone’s body language relax when they arrive and realize they’re in for a special experience. I think we naturally tense when getting to an unknown
Emma: Our parties are beautiful, the guests are expected to dress well and on theme, and everyone feels very cool when they attend, because they feel like they’re getting one of those only-in-new-york nights.
Micherre: We usually like to keep as much of the fun a secret as possible to make people a little uncomfortable about whether they’re going to have a good time beforehand
Upcoming events include:
The Last Supper: A play on the biblical Last Supper; only 13 guests will be invited, one of whom will “play” Jesus, and the rest will be disciples. Ultimately, people will have to “accuse” someone of betraying Jesus by the end of the night, a la murder mystery.
Alternative Met Gala: The Met Gala happens every year as a fundraiser for the Met. We are working with a local nonprofit to have a fundraiser for supporting art in underserved communities. Upon the announcement of the met gala theme in November, we will determine an alternative theme to share with guests.
Annual Saturnalia: Our annual holiday party, aligning with the ancient Roman tradition of Saturnalia.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1) Turbulent Curiosity
Emma: Micherre and I are both what I would consider renaissance women – we know a little about a lot (and a lot about a little to be fair), and we’re not afraid to figure things out on the way. This comes from this type of creativity that we share that isn’t bound by the confines of one medium, which is what draws me to events and parties. Depending on the theme, the medium changes, what we research and learn each time changes. It’s like writing a script – you become an expert on relevant topics for a short period of time, until the project is over and you’re ready to move on to the next interesting thing you see.
Micherre: That’s a big part of it, yeah. We’re both drawn to shiny projects and problems so getting to do something that is demanding in unique ways each time keeps our attention. If we did it once, we’re not likely to do it again. Or, at the very least, the context will likely change drastically. The hung neon sign we used to lure people to a blackjack table hidden behind water tanks and pipes in a boiler room might show up under plexiglass at the bottom of a clawfoot bathtub. That tub probably housed a model submerged in a white dress the last time we used it. So on. It makes inventory management a real pain (laughs).
2) “Just do it” mentality
Emma: I think the biggest blocker people face is mentally getting in their own way – thinking of all the reasons something can’t be done, or not having the resources you need to make it exactly perfect, or fear of getting started. But the end product is never exactly what you’d thought it would be in the first place, so you just have to go for it with whatever you have. Micherre especially, and myself to a lesser extent, has this “just do it” mentality that lets us problem solve and create regardless of resources, which is reflective of a certain level of blind confidence that I think is essential for chasing wild dreams. Wanna build a life-size disco horse statue for a Renaissance themed party that you have no budget for? Go dumpster dive for some cardboard and google horse dimensions, it’s not like it’s hard.
Micherre: Definitely. We both spend very little time worrying about whether or not something we’re doing will fail. We obviously try to set ourselves up for success but sometimes we just say ‘oh, that’s a breathtakingly cool idea. Let’s take all of the energy we would have put into figuring out how low our chances of doing it are and put it into getting started.’ Sometimes it doesn’t wind up being what we expected it to be, usually because of those things we would have noticed if we did the prep work (laugh), but the fun and excitement of the unadulterated idea in our heads makes us take it on when otherwise we might not have. And the results are always really special. Some people would say these crazy projects take more time than they’re worth to the consumer but we think those are the details you don’t get anywhere else and, basically, if it were easy everyone would do it. We chase the impossible. It’s fun.
3) Confidence in our guests
Emma: With all our events, it’s important to us to put trust in the guests to be full participants and to be into whatever weird circumstances we throw them into. This can be nerve wracking before the event but so far it’s paid off – we were both tired of “immersive events” that really just mean you show up, get drunk, and take some cool photos for instagram. So instead, we want to expect our guests to be capable and creative themselves, to want to have interesting conversations and meet interesting people, to learn new things about themselves, to be unafraid of showing up fully.
Micherre: I like to say – Emma hates this – I like to say that we have to carry a bit of contempt for the stereotypical guest.
Emma: It sounds bad.
Micherre: (laughs) I like that it’s an edgy soundbite because it makes it easier to remember. In reality it’s a little hyperbolic. I just mean that we can’t let the fear of people not liking something stop us from following our gut when creating. Events are a place people *universally* are afraid of dissatisfying, discomforting, or boring their audience. It’s a real frontier for taking chances because of that. We’ve never actually had a detail fall flat before.
Emma: we’ve had examples of something landing for many people and not resonating with others
Micherre: but nothing has ever been a total bust. Despite that, we keep a lot of the details of our planning process secret even from close friends because we like to push the envelope and inevitably we get pushback and worry from outsiders about reception. We’ve even lost a few clients halfway through the planning process – people who had been to our events and loved them, mind you – because they admitted that they were scared to take the risk.
Emma: which is always a funny experience because we already tone it down a bit for clients unless they say otherwise.
Micherre: it sounds really intense to put it in these terms, but the truth is the band of newness and discomfort we operate in is actually really slim. I think people are so used to the ‘photobooth, dj, alcohol’ model that blindfolding someone to walk them barefoot through an indoor hallway that has live grass as a surprise sensory moment is conceptually terrifying – even if it’s indisputably not inherently unlikable. So people are spooked when they hear about it beforehand and, sometimes, when they’re the ones who get the credit/blame. But they absolutely adore it once they get there.
Emma: I’ll give an example – during our Saturnalia party last year, one of the activations was a “philosopher’s corner” for which we hired actors whose whole job was to start philosophical debates between guests. We worked with the actors beforehand to figure out prompts but wanted it to come across as pretty organic, which fully depended on guests getting into it, having their own opinions, and being unafraid of educating and being educated. At a party that also included a dance floor, poker, movie room, cuddle puddle, tarot reading, and more – the philosopher’s corner was packed all night. It really solidified in me this belief that people want to challenge themselves even when they’re out for a fun night.
How would you describe your ideal client?
Micherre: The people who get the most out of our work are those that surround themselves with exciting people and spaces and would like to give back to their communities but don’t have the time or specialized knowledge to make it happen. We’re not event planners, we’re event designers. The primary difference is that, while our work involves anything from monogrammed pretzels to bespoke table runners, the elevated details are the bare minimum for us; our real skillset is in creating fantastical experiences – moments – that people carry with them forever. They associate those experiences with the host. Anything from a flash-makeover with no mirrors around as you enter to an outdoor fountain we’ve made food safe to allow us to make a Washington Square themed birthday cumulate in an 8 foot wine fountain. If a high end art gallery wants to treat their community to an event in their space, we don’t just set up a wine table and throw cheese and crackers on it. We design a trivia night that incorporates elements from the current art installations, hire actors to play famous artists or act out art-related movie scenes, set up a scavenger hunt related to the gallery, and more – to really create an experience for people that they will remember forever. Emma: and also the wine table.
Micherre: and also the wine table, yeah.
Contact Info:
- Website: invitationonlycreative.com
- Instagram: ioc_ny
