Introducing London Plays Itself
What if the way we gathered could make us more connected – not just with each other, but with the communities and ecosystems around us? This is the question at the heart of London Plays Itself, a new initiative that we are incubating at Bramble.
The case for place
It must have been this time of year in 2016 when I first heard a colleague refer to a “destination management company”.
I had just become director of The Performance Theatre, a community of global leaders with a shared belief in a more sustainable and inclusive mode of growth. Each year, we brought this community together in a different country for our two-day flagship gathering. The first I led would be in a city I was fascinated by but knew only superficially. Fortunately, my team told me, we would work with a destination management company, or “DMC”, who would be able to recommend venues, caterers, and other providers, drawing on the local expertise and networks that my team and I lacked.
Place had always informed the gathering’s theme and programme. Moving location every year was intended to weave inspiration, perspectives, and new community members in from different geographies.
But something was troubling me. It was true that such gatherings of the great and good were almost always held in privileged and protected spaces. Hotel ballrooms and ski resorts didn’t seem like conducive settings for envisioning a radically better future, let alone genuine interrogation of the status quo. And yet unless we found a different way to bring people together in our host cities, we would be in a bubble no matter where we went.
In the preceding weeks, the community for which I was about to assume responsibility had held its annual gathering in London. There was a sense of upheaval in the air. Anti-globalist sentiments were entering mainstream politics around the world. The UK itself was on the eve of a referendum that would determine its future membership in the European Union. At our event, CEOs, seasoned policymakers, artists and activists expressed concern over the growing polarisation and violence they were witnessing in the UK and elsewhere. Still, many found it hard to believe that the British population would really, when it came down to it, vote to “Leave”. And yet, days later, 17 million did.
I know I was not the only person that year wrestling with the disconnect between the conversation “in the room” and the realities outside. It seemed to be a pervasive problem, with root causes that ranged from the psychological (confirmation bias!) to the technological (filter bubbles!). But there was also, I worried, a structural issue with the way we convene people “in the room” in the first place.
It was against this backdrop that the idea of a “destination management company” felt particularly jarring. Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing but respect for the creative, hardworking professionals I’ve met at DMCs. But the term itself has the kind of buoyant, euphemistic hubris you’d expect to be paired with a Governor-General and a gin and tonic.
We know that our predilection for top-down, reductionist planning can have terrible unintended consequences. One of my favourite cautionary tales can be found in James C. Scott’s Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. In techno-optimist 18th century Prussia, state foresters had a clever idea: reduce undergrowth and plant high-value trees in orderly rows, ready for efficient measurement and harvesting. But without the biodiversity that comes with the disorderliness of a natural forest, these standardised versions were more vulnerable to disease and even “Waldsterben” (forest death) – a loss not only for local communities and ecosystems, but for the commercial interests of the forest managers.
The hospitality and events industry has its own way of making places easier to consume. Hotel chains promise convenience, reliability, security and corporate discounts. Tourism and economic development boards promote the “best” of what a city has to offer – the most iconic landmarks and photogenic neighbourhoods, the up-and-coming chefs and musicians. But what might we miss when we reduce a city to a tourist map? And what might we lose?
This comparison might feel like a stretch, but cities, like forests, are complex, emergent, shared spaces, and we attempt to “manage” them at our peril. There is always a risk that in trying to make something fundamentally wild “legible” to a particular audience, we will flatten and distort it. And when we flatten and distort the world, we might convince ourselves that, for example, we’re living in a time of progress and prosperity for all…and then be caught off-guard when a majority of our fellow citizens turn out to be having a different experience entirely.
Making “in real life” mean something
Eight eventful years later, the seed that began to germinate in 2016 has continued to grow. My colleagues and I are more convinced than ever that the way we gather helps shape the narratives we hold about a place and its people. The COVID pandemic drove home how vital our webs of local relationships are to our communities’ resilience and recovery. And when lockdown lifted, it felt more important than ever to reconsider how and why we bring people together. Gatherings in real life, we believe, should happen in real life.
We are launching London Plays Itself in Bramble’s home city with three aims:
Inspire a more intentional approach to bringing people together
Many people reading this may not see themselves as people who hold “events”. I get it. London’s £46 billion hospitality industry is certainly dominated by the kind of events that sell out stadiums and fill up conference centres. But even if you don’t hold gatherings for hundreds or thousands of people, you almost certainly bring people together. Maybe you are running a workshop or holding a celebration. Or maybe you and your team just want to do something social at the office or outside of work. At some point you consider some basic questions: where should this happen? Should we have some drinks or food? Before you know it, you are participating in the hospitality economy.
So consider this: as long as you are spending some money on a gathering for your colleagues, customers, or friends, would you, in principle, want to spend it with suppliers who are:
Pioneering sustainable and inclusive products, services and business models,
Reinvesting their profits in local communities, and
Excited to share a perspective on London that will expand your horizons?
If, like us, you answered ‘yes’, London Plays Itself is here to help. We will work with our network of host organisations in London to design great experiences that invest in the communities and places where they happen.
Help a more place-based, purposeful events ecosystem to emerge
Every week, we meet more amazing social enterprises, charities, and individuals in London who are already offering venues, catering and other events services to support their mission. They are providing training and other support to help underserved populations find both meaningful work and a sense of belonging, from migrants and adults with learning disabilities to ex-offenders and people experiencing homelessness. They are raising awareness around critical issues in London, from housing and mental health to climate change and biodiversity. They are creating platforms for artists and entrepreneurs who have their own visions for a sustainable, just and joyful London.
What have we learned from speaking with these organisations? (Note: we refer them to hosts rather than vendors to honour the larger role we think they are playing in London.) More often than not, they are looking for similar things:
Ways to reach broader audiences; for example, a community-centred organisation might be eager to engage professionals who live in their neighbourhood, or an organisation focused on climate and the environment might be interested in engaging both sides of the political spectrum
More meaningful interactions with and offerings for decision-makers in the business and policy worlds, not only to generate revenue but because they believe those sectors are crucial to bring about the change they seek
Practical solutions to operational challenges, like the cost of storage or where to find space to serve more trainees
Our team can add value in some of these areas directly. But we suspect that the biggest contribution we can make is to help these pioneering organisations to find each other. In May, when we brought together a small group of hosts for the first time, it took little time before they began to offer each other advice and generate ideas that we never could.
Explore a regenerative model for delivering events
From the outset, we know that London Plays Itself’s own model will be critical to get right. We could hold an event that brings attention and resources to a community that needs it, with food, drinks, flowers, music, creative assets, and even furniture produced locally and in line with regenerative principles. But unless as producers we, too, work in a regenerative way, the event itself will still fall short of its potential.
What might such a model entail? We are still learning, but can share these principles as a starting point:
Empower our hosts. Very often, venues, caterers, and other service providers are given little power in the way an event comes together. We think it’s important that they feel the events they take part in represent them well, give them a direct voice wherever possible, and advance their wider goals, while also compensating them fairly.
Prime clients and participants. Participants will get the most out of their experience if they know not only what to expect, but what is expected of them. We will seek clients and participants who are ready to be curious and respectful, and give them any information they might need to be good guests in an unfamiliar environment.
Share our model. We hope our approach will inspire others to think of their own ways to change the ways their city gathers. We will seek ways to support and journey alongside sister initiatives rather than pursuing every opportunity for expansion ourselves.
We are just at the start of our journey. If you want to help us change the way London gathers, register your interest on our website and follow us on Instagram, where we’ll be sharing profiles of our hosts, information about upcoming events, and inspiration for your next gathering.