PIE Factory: Why this. Why now.

Tomorrow after an extended period of reflection and a lot of hard work behind the scenes, I launch PIE Factory, the evolution of Ecobooth and a company that I hope will help transform the future of live experience into one that supports and showcases the change the world so desperately needs, Positive Impact Experiences (PIE). Here’s why.

Good people doing good.

Ecobooth was brilliant and at the point Covid struck we had the world at our feet. In just 17 months of trading, from a small warehouse on an industrial estate in North London, we were one of the fastest-growing and most respected sustainable event companies in a thousand-billion-dollar global industry. The first B Corp of its kind working with everyone from the United Nations to Google, we took literally hundreds of tonnes of plastic waste and used it to make events that got people talking about the things that matter. We showcased a better way of doing things, it made money and it felt good – the circular economy in action!

But, for me, this wasn’t the best bit about Ecobooth or the most rewarding. By far and away the best bit about Ecobooth was the people I met, the community of people who had had enough of the old and wanted to chart a new. From marketing and communication to procurement and HR, from the office manager all the way up to the CEO, every day we were meeting a growing army of people committed to using business as a force for good to fix the mess we have made.

And then came Covid. For all the personal sadness Covid has brought us, one of the saddest stories of all has to be the lens it has placed on our society. Greed and privilege have created a world where the rich are getting richer and at the ongoing expense of rising poverty and inequality and it looks like Covid is only going to make this worse, especially for the majority of young people who will be paying back this debt for the rest of their lives.  

However, just as the business for good movement tackles fixing the world through business, we are also witnessing a simultaneous consumer awakening on the ground. There is now a widespread realisation of the direct link between big business and big problems and a demand to see past all the talk and the bullshit to find brands that are genuinely committed to creating a better future. The data is there for all to see, as individuals, the vast majority of us now seek fairness and purpose when we chose a brand or product over all else, even cost.

And so, as the world begins to return from Covid, we find ourselves in a desperate time but also one with a lot of reasons to be positive thanks to a genuine opportunity to drive the change we need. If good people in big business are indeed our best way out of this, it’s critical we provide them with the tools they need to give it their best shot and in terms of my world, events and live experience, this means a genuine platform to showcase the things that matter.…  

 The power of live

 So how the hell are events and live experiences going to play a meaningful role in all this?

Well, as far as I’m concerned, in their current approach they are not and that’s why I’m doing this.

 First up, I believe events and live experiences are the most powerful form of communication on the planet. A group of people, be it twenty or twenty thousand, coming together, in person, to enjoy something they share a mutual affection for opens the door to an unparalleled scale and quality of important, meaningful conversations, and the knock-on effect from this can be a game-changer.

Now the exciting bit, that growing movement of good people doing good that I just talked about, the people that know we need big business to drive big change and want them to deliver it now? I believe live experience provides the perfect platform for companies to do this, the perfect platform to showcase that you are listening and are genuinely committed, the perfect platform to demonstrate your meaningful actions at scale and in person.

And why is this platform so important? Because live experiences, from festivals to trade shows, summits to retail, pop-ups to product launches, touch billions of people every year and these are the very same people that sit in our boardrooms today and will sit in our boardrooms tomorrow, the people who can drive the change the world needs.

But there is a problem, in terms of understanding and actioning a sustainable future for planet Earth, the event and live experience industry are miles behind the trailblazing brands that need them and that means we risk wasting this wonderful opportunity.

At Ecobooth we were the first company in the world to get the behind-the-scenes bit right, the production; materials, carbon footprint, labour, etc and on inhouse projects this worked a treat. However, on the larger projects due to being a start-up, we let other companies and agencies lead on the creative, marketing, and management and it didn’t work. It didn’t work because they didn’t care enough, and this meant they didn’t get it and it all became watered down and ineffective.

I’ve watched the events industry shape ‘Sustainability’ into their latest industry buzzword and a commercial opportunity during the lockdown and nothing I have heard has suggested anything other than an industry trying to find a quick fix to protect their profits and try and hold on to their clients.

Sustainability is not a competition, it’s a critical model that we all need to understand and adopt so that our grandchildren can inherit the same planet we did and enjoy the same things, and I for one see the crucial role live events and experiences can play in providing a platform for the brands that genuinely want to help achieve this.

Enter PIE Factory... 

PIE Factory

Tomorrow I launch PIE factory, the evolution of Ecobooth, and a move that makes the most sense to me for the reasons I have just discussed.

PIE Factory is two things, it’s the first company in the world to work exclusively on event and experiential projects that help create a better planet (and absolutely nothing else) and a community that engages educates and inspires today's and tomorrow’s boardrooms to use business as a force for good.

As we move into experiential, I am excited to welcome an expanded senior management team across creative services and project delivery to innovate and invent in collaboration with our sustainability and impact teams. There’s plenty of other new things on that side too, including a materials library with over 120 products, new production people, strategists, and some wonderful brand ambassadors.

On the community side, today we open the Community Gardens, over 2000 sq ft of free space dedicated to supporting young people who are interested in designing a sustainable future, kitted out with desk space, machines, tools, and materials.

Our community space also offers Wasted, a theatre space for workshops and conversations that help inspire meaningful actions.

And finally, for the grown-ups, we launch the Rebellious Leader network. A platform for people trying to fix the system from within. More coming on this very soon.

The Factory opens later this week, it’s Covid secure and ready to welcome visitors

We have created this incredible world, but we have done so with a strategy of innovation without consideration and now we are paying the price. The time is now, it is our generational calling to re-wire this world so that we can have a future and I hope PIE Factory can play a small part in helping this happen.

Thanks for listening.

 Nick