Ideas, notes and views · Sjoerd Postema
Odd ideas that turn out to be strangely doable.
I've been producing events for more than two decades, from rigging to launch. This is my notebook: ideas I'd like to see made, notes on what makes events work, and the occasional opinion. Every idea here passes one test: could it actually be produced? Borrow anything.
Browse by kind of idea
Offsites & incentivesTrips and retreats people still talk about in March.
Brand experiencesActivations, pop-ups and partner spaces at big conferences. No booths.
Around big conferencesSmall formats that beat the stand, the panel and the open bar.
Product launchesReveal moments built for the people who matter, and the cameras.
EventsConferences, galas and kick-offs, produced end to end.
Strange one-offsInstallations, artistic projects and the idea everyone else said no to.
Games, experiments & designLive audience games, AI matchmaking and design built for one occasion.
Three to start with
All 35 ideas →
Finland
Frozen-lake boardroom
The leadership meeting moves onto lake ice. Heated tent, long table, lunch fished from a hole three metres away.
8–30 people · Jan–Mar · €€
Lapland
The chef arrives by snowmobile
Dinner in the middle of nowhere. The chef pulls up with the menu on a sled and cooks it over fire.
20–120 people · Dec–Mar · €€€
Finland
The night train north
The event starts at Helsinki station. Sleep on the way, wake up in Lapland, start on arrival.
30–200 people · All year · €€
€ under €150 · €€ €150–400 · €€€ over €400, per person per day, excluding flights. Games and design are priced per project.
Every idea
35 ideas, in Finland, abroad and online. Borrow any of them, combine two, or use one to explain what you actually want.
Offsites & incentives
Finland
Frozen-lake boardroom
The leadership meeting moves onto lake ice. Heated tent, long table, lunch fished from a hole three metres away.
8–30 people · Jan–Mar · €€
Lapland
The chef arrives by snowmobile
Dinner in the middle of nowhere. The chef pulls up with the menu on a sled and cooks it over fire.
20–120 people · Dec–Mar · €€€
Lapland
Kaamos retreat
Polar night, when the sun doesn't rise. Candlelight sessions, storytelling and sauna, with cultural content from Sámi-owned providers only.
10–40 people · Dec–Jan · €€
Lapland
A night in the snow
After the gala, the team sleeps in a snow hotel or heated wilderness tents. Breakfast by a fire.
10–60 people · Dec–Mar · €€€
Lapland
Midnight-sun offsite
Strategy sessions where it never gets dark. A hike at 23:00, the debrief at 01:00 in full daylight.
15–60 people · Jun–Jul · €€
Finnish archipelago
Island takeover
The whole company on one archipelago island. Boats in, no other guests, sauna on the rocks.
20–80 people · Jun–Aug · €€€
Lapland
Ruska week
Autumn colours on the fells, the first aurora nights, and none of the winter crowds.
15–60 people · Mid-Sep · €€
Finland
The silent day
A phone-free day in a national park, built for leadership teams who need to actually think.
10–40 people · May–Oct · €
Helsinki
Three saunas, one evening
A guided sauna crawl along the waterfront, sea dips between rounds, dinner at the last stop.
10–60 people · All year · €
Helsinki
Design Helsinki in a day
Studio visits with working designers and architects, ending with dinner in a designer's workshop.
10–40 people · All year · €€
Brand experiences
Abroad
The conference sauna
A wood-fired sauna as your partner space at a major international conference. Nobody walks past a sauna.
Any size · Conference dates · €€
Abroad
The dinner nobody can get into
The side event around a big conference that guests talk about more than the conference itself.
20–80 people · Around major conferences · €€€
Lapland
Build your own ice bar
Teams build an ice bar with professional ice sculptors, then open it for the evening party.
30–150 people · Jan–Mar · €€€
Lapland
Aurora on call
Dinner runs until the aurora alert fires. Then everyone walks out to a spot that's already lit and waiting.
20–100 people · Sep–Mar · €€
Around big conferences
Abroad
The morning run
An easy 5 km at seven, breakfast at the finish. The executives who skip every party turn up for this.
15–60 people · Conference week · €
Abroad
The breakfast before the doors open
Twelve customers, one question about your product's future, done by half past nine.
8–15 people · Conference week · €
Abroad
The roundtable with no slides
Fifteen seats, one sharp host, one question worth arguing about. No deck, no recording.
10–20 people · Conference week · €€
Abroad
The quiet base
A suite near the venue set up for 30-minute meetings, booked by your sales team all week.
1:1 meetings · Conference week · €€
Abroad
The walking meeting map
Walking routes from the venue with a coffee stop halfway. People use it for days.
Any size · Conference week · €
Abroad
After-hours access
A museum or landmark opened for you after closing. The invitation does the selling.
50–150 people · Conference week · €€€
Abroad
The useful station
Fix one thing every attendee struggles with, and put your name on it.
Hundreds a day · Conference week · €€
Abroad
The party with one idea
Not another open bar: one idea, done properly, with a capped guest list.
80–300 people · Conference week · €€€
Product launches
Lapland
Reveal in the polar night
A launch held in near-total darkness, where the product is the only light.
50–300 people · Dec–Jan · €€€
Finnish lakes
The steamer launch
Launch day on a chartered historic steamship: press and partners on deck, a lakeside sauna stop.
30–150 people · Jun–Aug · €€
Events
Finland
The night train north
The event starts at Helsinki station. Sleep on the way, wake up in Lapland, start on arrival.
30–200 people · All year · €€
Helsinki
Industrial gala
The gala in a space that wasn't built for it: a power plant, a factory hall, a former cable works.
100–600 people · All year · €€€
Lapland
Kick-off on skis
Sessions in the morning, slopes in the afternoon, the gala at a fell-top restaurant.
30–200 people · Feb–Apr · €€
Anywhere
The longest table
The whole company at one table, outdoors, however long it needs to be.
50–500 people · Jun–Aug · €€
Strange one-offs
Finland
Silent concert on the sea ice
A live concert on the frozen sea, heard through headphones, with the shoreline lights on the horizon.
30–150 people · Feb–Mar · €€€
Anywhere
A forest that talks back
A sound and light installation along a forest path, built around your story or your product.
20–300 people · May–Oct · €€
Finland
The ice hole
Sauna, the hole in the ice, sauna again. The cheapest idea here, and the one nobody forgets.
Any size · Dec–Apr · €
Games, experiments & design
Any event
Your audience, as a battle royale
A live voting game for a whole audience. Anonymous, no talking, fifteen minutes, one winner.
50–5,000 players · Any time · Project price
Any event
Agents that introduce people
Every guest gets an AI agent that finds who they should meet before the doors open.
50–1,000 guests · Any time · Project price
Online
A game only your brand could make
A small browser game built around your product, campaign or story. Satire welcome, if you can take it.
Any audience · 6–10 weeks · Project price
Anywhere
An identity for one night
A complete visual identity for a single event, from signage to merch, designed to be retired the morning after.
Any size · 4–8 weeks · Project price
About
I'm Sjoerd Postema, a creative producer based in Helsinki. I've worked my way through the whole production stack: sound, lighting, festival production, a decade running my own agency, and large international tech conferences across Europe.
Strangely Doable is where I write things down. Ideas I'd love to see made, notes on what makes events work and what doesn't, and the odd opinion the industry would rather not hear. Nothing here is sponsored.
Ideas are free to borrow. If you'd rather not produce one yourself, that's what I do at Sorry, No Polar Bears, a Helsinki studio I co-run.
Say hello
Got a question about one of these ideas, a strange one of your own, or a reaction to something I wrote? I read everything and answer most of it.