Rocking “The Experience” and Outer Space With Erick Weiss
We have more than 30 exceptional speakers lined up to give you a day of inspiration, insights, and some surprises at Street Fight LIVE 2025. In advance, please get to know some of those outstanding thought leaders. One of our sessions will focus on the experience and how MULO (multi-location) businesses within all industries are creating memorable moments for consumers. Erick Weiss, President and Founder of Honeysweet Creative, has been creating breakthrough gatherings throughout his career and will share some of his own experiences with you. Here’s a sneak preview:
What’s your background in creating “experiences?”
“I’ve been in the event industry since 1990 and experiences are what we do. I cut my teeth in the movie premiere industry back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s when studios were outdoing each other with bigger more impactful full-on 360 degree experiential after parties. The audience emerged from the first Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie to a parking lot completely transformed into a high tech visual and experiential feast. We did the first live webcast of a movie premiere that year and got so many hits the Paramount servers crashed!
But truly these parties were the building blocks of the modern experiential event. Importantly they gave the industry leaders and artists a fun safe space to hang out and enjoy each other and develop new relationships while creating a media worthy spectacle.”
Why is human interaction so important for multi-location businesses these days?
“Without getting too “woo-woo mystical spiritual” about it, there is a lot of science out there about the energy of in-person, person-to-person interaction. We give off actual kinetic and electrical and atomic energy. It’s why crowds love being at a sporting event, a concert, a play. The group gasp in a horror film, the infectious laughter at a comedy club, the lively energy of back yard barbecue – these experiences all magnify our humanity and our human dependence and connection with one another. One’s willingness to trust a person is tested and verified by situational observations that we don’t even necessarily know we are making in person.
These behaviors are easily duped and manipulated by our media devices. It’s why deep fakes are so dangerous. I honestly believe one should never make any important decisions that involve another person without having met them in person in real time and NOT online. This is also why nothing beats awesome customer service. You can put all your money into the most amazing 360 degree LED, live, experience, but if your staff on every level isn’t fully bought into the experience you want your audience to leave with in their hearts and memories, you will fail to make a mark. A great example of this is The Sphere in Vegas, if you haven’t been, check it out… from the minute you get out of your Uber that staff is welcoming you and guiding you into the future.”
We understand your next big event will be “out of this world.” You’re creating a massive event for the space industry. Why? Why did you choose this project?
“Honestly, it was a human and earthly experience that brought me to this next frontier of my career. I was at an industry convention in Houston, TX, with 5000 folks from the event industry. It was very well done with lots of super fun interactive engagements and lots of education. My idea grew out of a panel discussion that touched on the epic growth we are going to see in the space economy over the next decade. I got to spend a few minutes talking to the panelists and after that I realized that we have to create a business environment that will inspire the next six generations of people to reach for the stars quite literally!
This is not just about building rockets, it’s about design, it’s about clothing, it’s about food, it’s about medicine, it’s about AI and robotics, it’s about ethics, law and property rights, it’s about policy, it’s about habitat, it’s about agriculture, it’s about weather, it’s about mining and welding and manufacturing, in short it’s about industrializing space and I truly believe it can save the world as we know it and drive the economy like no business ever has.”
Back to planet earth. What event have you attended that has been your most memorable?
“When I worked with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) to produce the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships I think we created a truly remarkable experience for all of upstate NY. We really re-introduced the community (and in fact the world) to the indigenous people who live there. The week-long festivities brought out the community like nothing I have ever seen (outside of maybe a state fair). And people really became immersed in the incredibly beautiful culture of our native American friends. Very recently, the city of Syracuse ceded back thousands of acres of land that rightfully belonged to the Mohawks.
I was at Tokyo SEA a little more than a year ago and I would say that that experience was a cut above any Disney experience I had before. It was so well done, so clean, the service staff down to the street sweepers was just extraordinary and the visitors were all in their bliss. Just awesome experience of humanity. And this summer I drove across the country with my family and we stayed at several Hilton’s HOME2 SUITES properties. Honestly just great (and I’m a Four Seasons kind of guy). But they were consistently clean, efficient, the rooms were fine, the staff accommodating and friendly and the breakfast well done. They opened in 2009 and just celebrated their 700th property which is amazingly fast. They create a consistent, nice, friendly experience.”
What do you do when not working?
“I love playing music with friends, hiking, boating, skiing, and I am very active with Rotary LA5, where we meet weekly and raise funds for academic and vocational scholarships, helping out foster youth programs in greater LA, and funding international projects like building water wells in Myanmar and S.E. Asia.”
We invite you to join us and meet Honeysweet Creative’s Erick Weiss (as well as leaders from companies like TikTok, Assembly and Fat Brands) at Street Fight LIVE 2025 , September 30th in Los Angeles.
