Creators in Session

In 2024, brand partnerships are everywhere - you’ll see them in your favourite films, on your social media feeds and of course at our experiences.  

In a constantly changing economic environment, brand partnership revenue has even now become the primary source of income for some experience creators. This support however, doesn’t come easily - and what brands request in return, can often in fact leave experience creators feeling shortchanged. 

This tactics session focuses on unlocking the power of storytelling in your content strategy. A follow up from our episode with Rise Festival on marketing your experience 365 days a year, here we go deeper on how you can use social-first storytelling as a tool to nurture your community, build trust around your brand and grow your business. 

Our guest, Dulcie Horn has spent the last 10 plus years mastering this skill and is now working to super-charge the content strategies for world-leading experiences such as Glastonbury, Boomtown and Southport Weekender with her own content agency Chuffed Digital. As Dulcie says to her clients, “If you bring people together in real life, we can help you keep that party going in the digital space, 365 days a year.” 

Included in this masterclass: 

• How to define your content pillars and build them into your sales funnel

• What you can do you to uplift your community through your storytelling

• Why chasing likes doesn’t add value 

• The keys to putting together an elite team for content capture at your experience

This masterclass, recorded live earlier this year at The British Library as part of the AVA London conference, is all about the art of event curation.

Experience creators have an almost endless range of choices they can make to influence these reactions, whether that be through the talent they book or the way they design the stage, how they cultivate and protect their community, down to how security is trained and briefed to manage the crowd. With ‘exceptional’ experiences these choices are meticulously curated and intentional.

Easol’s Co-Founder Lisa Simpson hosted a group of five leading festival and music industry creators, to explore what it takes to curate truly exceptional experiences. Together, they covered a lot of ground - from how to take risks with your musical programming, through to the role of visual arts at your experience, marketing to Gen Z, and much more. 

On this masterclass we’re joined by;

• Filippo Palermo, Co-Founder at Australia’s Untitled Group, which produces some of the Southern Hemisphere’s most exciting festivals and events brands, from Beyond The Valley to Pitch Music & Arts

• Derek Debru, Co-Founder at Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Festival, a platform for East Africa’s electronic music community

• Pau Cristoful, International Booking Agent at Primavera Sound, NITSA and Mutek in Barcelona, and one of the most passionate music-lovers you could ever hope to meet 

• Nathanael Williams, Co-Owner of London venues Colour Factory, Moko and Jumbi, three spaces that exist to serve their vibrant local communities each in different ways

• Sarah McBriar, the founder of AVA Festival, an event that has been a rite of passage for a generation of festival goers in Northern Ireland over the last decade

In this masterclass, our Co-Founder Lisa Simpson spoke with a legend of the EDM scene , James Estopinal, better known as Disco Donnie. His events company of the same name is an EDM institution worldwide, responsible for selling millions of tickets across tens of thousands of experiences, including major festivals like Ubbi Dubbi and Texas Eclipse. Donnie has played a pivotal role in the spread of electronic music culture in North America, taking it from its rough and ready rave era of the 90’s to the multi-billion dollar industry it is today. 

There have been ups and some clear downs along the way, but throughout his incredible career Donnie has always kept his passion and empathy at the forefront of everything he does. A natural storyteller, this session was a blast to record.  

Included in this masterclass: 

• Early days promoting raves in New Orleans 

• Scaling Electric Daisy Carnival into a global EDM phenomenon

• Regaining his independence as a promoter and buying his business back

• Building out distinct brands for his many different festivals and club shows

In this masterclass, we spoke with experience creator’, Heather Story. From her early career days managing amphitheatres through to key roles behind the scenes at iconic American festival Bonnaroo and wellness pioneers Wanderlust, Heather is an expert in the careful balance of art and science that is event production.

Now managing the high-tech operation behind Netflix’s live Squid Game experience in Los Angeles, Heather’s career is a lesson in what it means to consistently pursue excellence. A leader and inspiration to her friends and peers, it was a pleasure to hear her philosophy and playbook for creating and executing world-class experiences.

Included in this masterclass: 

• The key considerations behind producing a high-quality experiences and events   

• How to build and manage a killer production team 

• What you can do to find hidden revenue streams in your experience

• The importance of play in high-stress situations

Our first ever ‘Tactics’ episode comes courtesy of Jamie Thomson and Lizzi Pepper, Festival Director and Head Of Operations at Rise Festival. The music and snowsports festival started in 2014 by Easol’s Co-Founders Ben and Lisa Simpson with their partner Will Habergham, attracts thousands to the French resort of Les Deux Alpes every December. 

Marketing the event comes laden with challenges, from the time of year it takes place through to the hurdle of convincing many first time-skiers to book a ski holiday, but the resourceful team at Rise have converted these difficulties into an asset. Here they share their tactics for bucking seasonality, and marketing your festival 365 days a year.  

Included in this masterclass:

• How Rise Festival hacked their sales cycle

• How you can plan to capture killer content at your event 

• Why using marketing personas isn’t always the best strategy 

• How you can turn your fans into your biggest asset

In this masterclass, recorded during Amsterdam Dance Event, our Co-Founder Lisa Simpson spoke with Envision Co-Founder and CEO Josh Wendel. Envision, which takes place “where the jungle meets the sea” in the tropical paradise of Costa Rica, is a 7 day immersive-experience that thrives on the cutting-edge of festival production, curation, design and at the heart of it all - sustainability.

For Creators In Session he spoke on the unique challenges his festival faces, what he hopes his attendees take away from their experience at Envision, and why there is truly no competition for creating sustainable solutions.

Included in this masterclass: