Making People Feel Special Is What Fri Forjindam Does Best

Fri Forjindam knew New York wasn’t for her after experiencing her first blizzard. After her master's, the Columbia University theater graduate moved to sunny Los Angeles and continued to pursue her acting dreams. To pay the bills, she landed a gig as an executive assistant at Thinkwell Group, the global design and production agency behind experiences such as the Warner Bros. Studio Tour and Ski Dubai. Being in those meetings gave her a glimpse of a wider world of entertaining audiences, and she never looked back. Today, as co-owner and chief development officer of experience design company Mycotoo, Forjindam has helped craft theme parks like Prince’s Paisley Park as well as immersive activations such as SXSWestworld and Stranger Things: The Experience. What she’s learned along the way is how to make people feel welcome—and that it’s all in the details. Embody your mission Forjindam's unofficial title is “vibe curator,” the person who oversees the “emotional resonance” of an activation to ensure it’s inclusive, welcoming and safe. “We tend to default, especially in the entertainment industry, to revenue, size, branding, all those things,” Forjindam explained. “But the vibe, the feeling, is so critical to whether something's going to work or not, and it does require curation, a holistic interdisciplinary amalgamation of story, design, execution, operation, strategy, business, space, culture, timing, audience. All these touch points are just as critical to what makes for a successful shared experience.” Put finance and creative at the same table When crafting an activation, theme park or anything else, Mycotoo’s creative team is charged with writing a story and crafting an experience where attendees have ways of shaping and interacting with the plot. But unlike most places, that work doesn’t happen in a vacuum at Mycotoo. “Our teams are structured with a creative lead and a producerial lead, always,” said Forjindam. “In every moment in history where there was a game-changing innovation or product that was introduced, there was a storyteller in the room. The ability to convey passion to execute vision in a physical way, in a digital space, that is storytelling,” she explained. But if feasibility, logistics and budget aren’t factored in, “you either will never get open or it's going to be short-lived.” Sweat the details Mycotoo was founded 2011 inside a Glendale, California garage. Forjindam’s younger child was an infant at the time, so naturally, he hung out with the team. “The sofa was his crib; if you moved my Skype ever so gently, you would have seen bottles.” Meaning, she knows what's it like to do what you have to do when it comes to taking care of kids, but that caregivers deserve a space to do so privately and safely. So in 2022 when Mycotoo opened Dig It in California, a STEM-based interactive playground with a construction theme, one of the pillars of the experience was to make parents feel like it’s their “home away from home,” Forjindam said. To that end, Dig It has changing tables in the men’s restroom as well, and a private, well-lit nursing area that’s cleaned after every use. “Our highest reviews online for Dig It is the cleanliness and just the appreciation of [these] things,” Forjindam said. Work History Fri Forjindam helped co-found Mycotoo in 2011 alongside Hollywood writer and producer David Wally and Tokyo DisneySea veteran Cliff Warner. Together, they’ve created immersive experiential activations from the Blade Runner 2049 Experience at San Diego Comic-Con to the entire Motiongate theme park in Dubai. Previously, Forjindam worked in production management with Go West Creative Group and marketing at Burbank, Calif., agency Scenario Digital.