What can Glastonbury teach you about offsite design?
As avid followers will know, I headed off to the best festival in the world recently on a selfless research trip for all things WorkTripp.
So, what did I learn?
Well, apart from having an absolutely WILD time, I learnt the following:
The best events take meticulous preparation by organisers and take time and effort for all those who attend, but BOY is it worth it?
The Glasto site build takes 6 weeks. The acts are preparing for months. The acts booked over a year in advance.
200,000 people have to organise travel, childcare, food, drink, tents, routes in.
All of this effort is the BUY-IN to the surreal experience of finally being there and being in each others’ presence. That takes commitment and is rewarded with gratitude for one another!
WORKTRIPP LESSON:
Offsites also take a lot of organising, but all that hard-work creates incredible momentum and motivation!
2. It takes a village. Don’t centralise your efforts and go bland. Cater for all.
There are 100 stages at Glastonbury. If one organiser curated them all. 1) They would die 2) The experience would be uniform and boring.
By delegating curation of each stage, Glastonbury has an amazing breadth of ideas and inspiration on offer, including a variety of music, food, circus, comedy etc.
The acts on offer represent different parts of society; there are spaces to chill out, to work on wellbeing or feast on incredible food. You aren’t being TOLD what to do, you get to explore.
WORKTRIPP LESSON: Work with partners to help balance the load. Avoid a centralised opinion of what good looks like, and offer “choose your own adventure” elements to avoid a bland experience that doesn’t connect with your audience.
3. There is a unique quality to LIVE events, LIVE music, and LIVE conversations. Human imperfection is perfect.
Whilst lots of the music was influenced by our internet-times, there is something VERY different in listening to music live vs. listening to a recording of the same song.
Three dimensional experiences lodge in the mind. The sound is different, the environment is different, the people around you are different and there is a joy in the two and fro between the act on stage and the audience, creating something unique and non-repeatable in that moment.
WORKTRIPP LESSON:
Yes, work hard on preparation, but let the unscripted moments come and go with them.
4. Glastonbury wouldn’t be the same if it was in a concrete, event space.
I’ve been to a festival in a concrete, event space (former Olympic park) and everything about it was non-human-centred and HARD.
With over 200,000 people present at Glastonbury, I didn’t see one fight. Yes, people are in a good mood, but the natural environment and the open skies add to the open atmosphere.
WORKTRIPP LESSON: Consider where you gather your people. What does it say about how you value them? Purely efficient or nurturing their wellbeing also?
5. One is not enough. Who’s booking Glasto tickets next year?
WORKTRIPP LESSON: Always go to Glastonbury. And make sure your offsites aren’t just a one-off, but part of the seasons of your working year. Give your team something to look forward to and to be inspired by.
WorkTripp helps scaling companies and teams book high-impact offsites with ease and impact, saving hours of precious time.
Our mission is to right the balance from the pure hyper-efficiency and task-driven aspects of our new world of work towards sustainable working design, blending the best of offsites and online. This post was written by Co-Founder, Sophie.
If you’re passionate about human connection and upskilling chat to us about your 20% discount on project planning & offsite design fees for the next 3 months and to receive an offsite checklist & sample programme
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