Back in April I went to Rotterdam to paint a 15 m2 mural live at the EIT Health conference. The event was a great opportunity to combine the thoughts and reflections of participants with live art creation.

Designing the mural before the event

Before the conference, the EIT Health team reached out to me with a well-defined idea. They wanted to create a large scale visual that showcases the commitment of the participants to important areas within the EIT Health community. For each area, we came up with a visual that was then printed on the canvas. This way, the canvas has arrived at the event venue with already some content on it, making it easier for participants to understand the activity and get into the groove.

An interactive, collaborative art piece

During the two days of the conference, people were invited to share their reflections and commitments related to the themes of the event. They wrote them down on post-it notes and most of the time, we had a small discussion about it and talked about where it could go on the mural. The brakes in between the sessions were a great opportunity for this kind of interaction, and then during the sessions, I got to work on visualising what I just heard. What I love about this process is that the resulting image is a collaborative effort, and people get a chance to get into an active mindset instead of only taking in the presentations. They also get to show themselves and see the things that are important to their colleagues. 

Why does such an interactive activity matter?

The question is, can you have an event without including an interactive collaborative mural painting? Sure you can. The only things you need to have an event is an audience, speakers and a venue. People will probably show up because they showed up in the past, right? But if you offer only the bare basics, how will your event stand out? How is it going to be an event people remember, a time that sticks with them? In today’s event climate, there is a large selection of activities organisers can choose from to surprise, amaze and delight their participants. Visual harvesting is such an activity, especially the interactive version. And yes, so is mural painting.

If you would like to have a similar activity at your next event, feel free to reach out here.