In summary
Kris, from the organisers of the St. Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival 2019 got in touch asking could we come back to host free creative sessions for guests at it again this year (we also did sessions over the weekend last year). The theme this year was 'boats', last year was 'the imports of the dock' e.g. tea, marble, indigo. We agreed to host a series of 1.5 hour creative sessions - a boat illustration class of Gloriana, the Queen's Rowbarge, which would be at the Festival for the weekend, a lino printing class inspired by boats and a flag making workshop, inspired by International Maritime Signal Flags (I had to Google that too!).
In between these we would also have drop in sessions where you would paint a watercolour sea scene and be able to stamp images onto it. The sessions were to be for 'adults', in this case those aged 14 years and above. Last year we hosted classes for adults and children, but this year we decided to have it for adults only. Half the spaces were pre-bookable online in advance (via an Eventbrite link we set up), to drive footfall to the event, but the other spaces could be booked at the M.Y.O tent in person over the weekend. The drop in sessions were exactly that, drop ins for 30 minutes.
Why host creative sessions at an event?
It's a really nice thing to do as a group or solo, to break up the day and make something inspired by the event, making it much more memorable. The 100s of guests that got creative with us over the weekend now have a keepsake from it, that they are proud of! Sessions could be quick 30 minutes ones or up to 3 hours, whatever you like.
Events generally have a few places to have food, drinks, maybe some talks and walks, but not tonnes for adults to get stuck into. That's where creative stations can come into play!
How did it work?
After agreeing the activities, we set up an Eventbrite page so guests could pre-book and it could be used on St. Katharine Docks and M.Y.O's channels, arranged the team to host, got in all the required materials and equipment, printed off boat themed inspiration, promoted to our audience, set up and ran the sessions over the weekend, including managing sign ups pre-event and on the days themselves.
Guests made some incredible things and the event was a lot more memorable as a result. Thanks for having us Kris and St. Katharine Docks, hope to be there again next year!
Would you like to bring some creativity to an event you are organising?
Drop an e-mail to Hello@MYO.Place and let's chat! We've brought some creativity to whiskey tastings with Diageo owned Roe & Co, helped cocktail makers at the Beefeater Gin World Cocktail to design t-shirts, helped all the support staff The Brit School get creative, hosted influencers at a River Island pre-Christmas event and tonnes more.